Sunday May 8th, 2011

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Competition Corner -- Both minors over notrump
Board 14: East opens 1NT (15-17) and South is 5-5 in the minors with 13 hcp. What to bid? Regardless of other gadgets, most players would recognize 2NT as unusual for the minors. Actually, the stndard meaning of the "notrump cue-bid" is that it might be weak with both minors, or any strong two-suiter that looks more suitable for playing a game contract than trying to defeat 1NT. An example might be KQJ10x xx AKJ10xx -- . Four spades or five diamonds could be cold, but if opener has the Ace of spades he may have enough club or heart tricks to make one notrump. The 2NT bidder shows his freak two-suiter by bidding 2NT and then 3S over partner's minor suit reply.

Anyway, is 2NT the best approach on this hand? The suits are rather empty for my taste, while the overall defense is fairly high. 5-5 hands can play for a lot of tricks if the suits are strong or partner has four card support for one of them; with only three card support they tend to play about as expected by high card strength, and when ther is a misfit as on this hand they often play poorly. Personally I chose a simple 2D overcall and then passed West's 2H bid -- I would've competed to 3C had West bid my singleton, spades, instead. Showing both minors often helps the other side when they declare in a major since they have such a good roadmap of the hand. However, I won't claim 2D is clearly better than 2NT.

Over 2NT, West could double with a better hand (almost any 8+ hcp), which invites opener to double either minor with four trumps and/or good defense. A bid of 3H or 4S would suggest a six card suit and perhaps 5 or 6 points -- with 7+ West might leap to game. Here West suspects a major suit fit but is not strong enough to act; North likely bids 3C (smoothly, no squirming please!) Passing or bidding a major would be simply guessing, and on today's hand makes a bad situation worse. East can double for penalty -- it would not be reasonable for a limited hand to force partner to bid at the three level, while as you can see East can easily have a hand that expects to defeat 3C on its own. If North or South tries running to 3D, West should double. Against a diamond contract E/W must lead trumps at some point to prevent club ruffs by North.

Better Bidding -- after 1H-2D
Board 27: West really doesn't have an opening bid but I stretched with both majors and all those nines (OK, that's pretty lame.) North overcalls 2C and East bids 2D. Whether you normally play standard or 2/1 Game Force, the 2D bid in competition is the same, about 10+ hcp and 5+ diamonds. The 2/1 style caters to slam exploration at the expense of accurate part-score bidding; once the enemy speaks up, it's vital to fight for the part-score, and slam is less likely. 2D is forcing, however, and crowds West for a bid. He has some support for diamonds, but how much strength does 3D show? If West can bid that with 12 (or a shapely 11), what does he do with 14 or 17? The usual solution is to make the same bid reardless of strength, but use body language, sighs, groans or other means to distinguish weak from strong. Well, that's unethical and illegal, of course, and in my experience not very efficient anyway -- partner doesn't always read you correctly.

As in lebensohl situations, what is needed are two different paths to 3 of a suit. The vast majority of experts treat a 2H rebid here not as promising extra length, but simply as the default bid in a forcing situation. Bids of 3C or 3D can then promise extra strength -- about 14+ -- while 2H followed by one of those bids shows a weaker hand. Over 2H, East could rebid 3D but that is apt to be passed. Instead, East cue-bids 3C to create a force; West bids 3D. West would presumably bid 3NT with a club stopper, so East can hope for club ruffs and take as shot at 5D, or choose a cautious but reasonable pass. All suits split well and 12 tricks can be made by setting up dummy's 5th heart.

Strong 4441
Board 19: West has 23 hcp, but awkward 4441 shape with a singleton King of clubs. I think the reasonable choices are 2C followed by 2NT, treating the hand as balanced, or a heavy 1D bid. If partner is too weak to respond to 1D, how likely are you to have a game? One or the other of the opponents will usually have five clubs, and a weak partner may not provide you with a club stop and a ninth trick at notrump. On the other hand you may make game in either major opposite five small trumps. Choose your poison; I opened 1D and raised partner's 1NT to 3NT, figuring partner was far more likely to have 6 or 7 points than the 10 needed for slam. There was some chance partner had 4 diamonds but 3NT looked like the practical bid. After 2C-something-2NT, responder might well guess to bid 6C or 6NT, but 3NT was the popular contract.

Three finesses = poor slam chances
Board 16: not much slam action today. This should be a routine 1H-2H-4H hand, and when declarer wins three finesses to land 12 tricks, dummy should remark "well played" not "should we have bid it?" On a really bad day everything is wrong, 4H goes down, and it would still be the correct bid.