Friday, August 5th 2011

Right-click here for hands.

Board 13: North opens 1C. East, vulnerable with only a King, may nevertheless trot out a Michaels cue-bid on his 6-6 shape. Assuming a pass, South counts 4 losers (a spade, a diamond and two clubs) and can expect to make slam or grand slam unless two key cards are missing. Clubs are probably the best trump suit, planning to pitch any spade losers North has on the long diamonds, but as it is possible North has only 3 clubs South needs more information before setting trumps. Playing strong jump shifts, South starts with 2D, planning to support clubs next. Most American experts require a five-card suit for a jump shift, so North would certainly raise with Axx support; I prefer fewer restrictions, so South might have only KQxx for his jump; North's natural rebid would be 2NT but lacking a spade stopper he may prefer to raise. Another common restriction is no side suit, which would allow opener to cue-bid 2H, certainly a more economical bid than 3D. Again, I don't make that restriction, so I would probably rebid 2NT to describe the shape and strength. South now shows his club supprt with 3C, and North continues with 3D or 3H. South at any rate should drive the bidding to 6C or 6D.

Playing weak jump shifts, South must begin with a nebulous 1D response. This is supposed to "save bidding room" but does so at the expense of keeping North clueless about South's slam ambitions. North may rebid 1NT (my choice) or rebid the clubs or raise diamonds or even try 1H to avoid bidding notrump without a spade stopper. (My attitude is that I don't worry much about stopping a suit no one bothered to overcall.) Over 1NT, South can force with 2S; this need not be a real suit since North skipped over it. Such a reverse by responder is best played as forcing to game. North now shows delayed diamond support (3D.) South may consider 4C, but that bid could easily be taken as showing a control rather than support; simplest is probably 4NT followed by 6C or 6D. If partner would understand 4H over 3D as showing a void (some would play it as Exclusion Key Card Blackwood) that's another option. I think the potential for a bidding mishap is quite high if South never makes a clarifying jump, which exposes the fallacy that not jumping immediately saves bidding room. 6C, 6D and 6NT all make easily.

Board 25: My partner and I had this auction: 1S-2H; 3C-3H; 4H-4NT; 5C (1 or 4 key cards)-5D (do you have the Queen of trumps?). At this point North doubled, perhaps to suggest a sacrifice. Playing next step = no, second step = yes, it is unclear what the best ageement shold be over the double. East bid 6H, which certainly implied the Queen, and failing a diamond lead I was able to make 6. The key bid in our auction was East's 3C, implying extra values; with a minimum, East should rebid something at the 2 level, using 2S as a catch-all for minimum hands unsuitable for 2NT. Most E/W pairs languished in 4H, likely because no bid by East sugests extra values -- this is my chief objection to "Two Over One Game Force" with no study of the follow-up bidding.