Sunday, August 28th 2011

Right-click here for hands.

First, a hand from the Bridge Bulletin (September 2011) Bidding Box:
#2: Both East players opened 2NT with KJ AK97 A4 AJ874, both Wests transferred holding
Q10975 J54 82 KQ6 and rebid 3NT, both Easts naturally passing. There's some chance They won't find a diamond lead, so 3NT is not competely hopeless, but it is clearly bad. I don't like straining to open 2NT with such an off-shape hand: east can open 1C and has an easy 1H rebid over 1D or 2H over anything else. However, most pairs lack good agreements over opener's reverse so 2NT may be the practical opening.

A good way to organize your bidding after opener's reverse is to use lebensohl: any 3 level bid by responder shows enough for game (opener will have 17+, so 8 hcp is enough.) Weaker responding hands bid something at the two level, with 2NT used as a request for opener to bid 3C. Responder generally plans to pass 3C or correct to 3 of another suit.

Responder can rebid his major with any 5 card suit, weak or strong; the reverse promises the values for 2NT and so oepner will not pass 2S. However, here it will work better for responder to simply support clubs:
1C-1S; 2H-3C, establishing the fit and game force. But with a minor suit fit, we want to try to play 3nT or perhaps a 7 card major fit before committing to the five level with only 8 trumps.

Opener has a diamond stopper but Ax is shaky -- you can't hold up twice, and so if partner has xx or xxx you'll need 9 fast tricks to make 3NT. Better is for opener to try and get responder to bid 3NT, using the 4th suit forcing gadget: 3D. Responder has no help there, however; having shown club support respondeer can show his toelrance for hearts, 3H. A 4-3 fit might play well since responder can ruff the third round of diamonds in the short trump hand. Opener's hearts may be OK for game, but he can show his good spade doubleton with 3S. This must be a doubleton since with 3 card support he would've bid 3S a round earlier. Now responder can raise with his good spade spots and the best contract is reached:
1C-1S;2H-3C;3D-3H;3S-4S . A delicate auction; 4H and 5C are also reasonable spots, and chances are you'd have a lot of company if you reached 3NT.

The given Bridge Bulletin auction is silly: after 1C-1S; 2H-2S, opener rebids 3C which is NOT FORCING. Not a sensible call with 20 hcp. Again, opener could bid 3D as an artificial force:
1C-1S; 2H-2S; 3D-4C; 4S or 5C, pass.

Back to our club hands:
Board 1: North opens 1S on a powerful 5-5 hand, just a bit light for 2C with this shape. South has 8 hcp (ignoring the stiff Jack), 3 card support, a singleton, and a good club suit. The hand rates to be worth 10 or 11 points in support, just on the edge between a simple raise and a game-invitational sequence.Visualizing opener with something like AKQxx xxx xx Kxx, game is not quite a laydown, you'll need a normal trump split and no over-ruff on the third round of diamonds. Playing standard where 2C is not forcing to game, it would be reasonable to bid 2C and then support spades. 2/1 game force bidders would have to bid 1NT and then 3S, which does not describe the hand very well, so I think I'd settle for 2S, eager to accept any invitation.

Over 2S, North coudl bid game, but it wouldn't be hard for partner to cover 3 losers and make slam. North bids 3H, which at this point sounds like a game try. South accepts by leaping to 4S, and now North can reasonably proceed with 4NT, bidding 6S after South repleis with one Ace or Key Card. (North could check on Kings, but South's hand is limited and grand slam would be a stretch.)

The auction does not help East find a lead -- anyting could blow a trick. Guessing that anything partner has in trumps is a dead duck anyway, East tries a low spade. There aren't enough trumps in dummy to ruff out the hearts, so declarer might try an set up hearts with a finesse and some ruffs, or might concede a heart and take a club finesse to try and pitch his losing diamond. I think a reasonable line would be to win the trump, lead a low heart to the Jack, win the trump return, and try to pitch two diamonds on the AQ of hearts. If the player with 3 trumps has at least 3 hearts declarer can then ruff his diamond loser with dummy's last trump. Unfortunately East has the 9 of sapdes and only two hearts so that line fails, as does the club finesse. 6S is makeable double-dummy but I don't see a winning line that I would take at the table.

Board 24: West opens 2C, planning a notrump rebid with his 24 hcp. East should respond 2S, natural and slam-positive. Bidding 2D "waiting" on a hand like this is a great way to miss good slams. ("Steps" bidders, of course, respond 2NT artificially to show 10-12 hcp.) West rebids 2NT as planned, and East rebids the strong spades.. West can count 12 tricks  opposite AQxxxx and so leaps to 4NT; East replies with 1 Ace or Key Card (5D, or 5C playing "1430" style.) Key card bidders can bid the next suit (5H or 5D) to ask about the Queen of trumps, and East replies "yes" with either the second step method (5NT over 5H) or 6C to show that King along with the trump Queen. The King of clubs is enough for West to bid 6NT, otherwise the pair should land in 6S. Five pairs reached 6S or 6NT.

South on lead may cash his Ace for an average board. If North is on lead, perhaps South was able to double 5D for a lead. Declarer wraps up 13 tricks on any other lead.

Board 30: South opens 1H; North intends to support eharts but his hand is not suitable for any immediate raise: 4H shows fewer points and more shape, Jacoby 2NT promises 4 trumps. With only 3 card support spades may be better, and in any case bidding them will help opener judge slam prospects. Over 1S opener might jump to 2NT to show his 18 hcp, treating the singleton King in partner's suit as equivalent to a doubleton; otherwise opener must bid a hefty 2C. This might be passed but responder will typically take a preference back to hearts on a doubleton, giving opener another bid. Since Q109 might not stop diamonds even once, I think I'd settle for 2C, although the strong hearts may justify a game-forcing 3C jump.

Over 2C, responder could simply bid 4H, but 2C may conceal a powerful hand. Responder can create a game force with 3D, the fourth suit, planning to support hearts the next round. Opener rebids 2NT, responder 3H, and opener is worth 4NT since responder has shown opening bid values. The 3 Ace reply delights opener, but 5NT reveals no King and opener signs off at 6H.

West should not want to help set up dummy's spades or declarer's clubs, nor underlead a King versus a slam; perhaps a trump lead won't cost a trick. Declarer counts 2 spades, 5 hearts, 1 diamond and 2 clubs for 10 tricks; if clubs split 4-3, declarer can ruff one club low and another high before pulling trumps. Another possibility is to ruff out the Queen of spades, but this requires finding Qx or Qxx and declarer would still need another trick. Can declarer combine his chances? Win the trump in hand, cash the King of spades, cash the two high clubs, ruff a club low. If this get over-ruffed East may not have a third trump to return and may have to help declarer with a spade or diamond lead. Today the clubs behave and declarer retunrs to hand with a spade ruff, ruffs the 4th club high, ruff another spade (all his trumps in hand are high), pulls trumps and claims his diamond and spade Aces from dummy.