Friday, December 16th 2011

Right-click here for hands.

Board 6: East opens 1D or 1C. The argument for 1D is that, if needed, you can rebid 2C without reversing. Often this won't be a problem; you expect partner to respond 1H and you will rebid 1S. But if partner responds 1NT, you won't be comfortable passing with that stiff heart; or perhaps South overcalls 1S and partner responds with a negative double or a forcing 2H bid. Robbed of your 1S rebid, you'll be happy to have opened 1D and be able to rebid in clubs.

Some Souths with very low standards for overclls may, in fact, bid 1S, but I suspect most passed -- neither the suit nor the hand offers any compelling reason to bid. West has an obvious strong jump shift (2H.) Opener tends to make the same rebid over a jump shift as over a simple response, merely one level higher, but should avoid bidding poor suits in a slam hunt. (Many authorities declare that jump shifter cannot have a second suit, but I do not subscribe to that theory for 2 level jumps.) 3C is better than 2S, showing where your values are. West rebids his powerful suit and East, trusting the suit is self-sufficient, shows a minimum by way of 4H. If responder doesn't like his suit that much, he should not jump and rebid it.

West continues with 4NT and East replies 5H, showing two Aces (Blackwood) or one Ace plus the King of hearts (RKCB). Blackwood bidders continue with 5NT, confirming all the Aces, and sign off in 6H over opener's negative 6C. RKCB bidder know one key card is missing; 7D is still possible, but would require a singleton heart and sufficient trumps to ruff out the King; a 4-4 fit would be too risky, requiring good luck in both suits to make 7. Best is to settle for 6H. The heart finesses is on but can't be repeated, so South scores one trick.

For those not playing strong jump shifts, West responds 1H, East rebids 1S, and now West must manufacture a forcing bid. 4NT is possible if that's simple Blackwood; many RKCB partnerships would interpret 4NT as asking about key cards for spades. In such a case West must bid 2C, Fourth Suit Artificial, then rebid his hearts -- that should be game-forcing, but will partner see it that way? The principle is that a direct 3H would've been invitational; you don't need two different ways to invite, so 2C followed by 3H is forcing. Over 2C, East shows his club values with 2NT or 3C, and West continues with 3H. Now East is apt to try 3NT, and if West bids 4NT, that sounds like a quantitative slam try, not Blackwood. What a mess! Strong jumps don't solve every slam problem, but they help by making it 100% clear the partnership is committed to at least game and by focusing attention on features useful for slam.

Board 13: North opens a sound if minimum 1H (Goren 13-count, or Rule of 20, this is a nice hand.) In olden times North would not have a rebid over 2C or 2D, but in the modern style most treat 2H as a "default" bid, not promising extra length, and the 2/1 bidder promises sufficient values for 2NT or the three level. South responds 1S and North startles him by rasing his 7 card suit! Suddenly South has visions of slam -- but the opening bid was opposite his void, and North limited his hand with the simple raise. Let's try visualizing -- South has A10xxxxx -- AQ10x 10x; slam would be cold opposite, say,
Kxxx xxxxx Kx Ax, and there's even room for some wasted values in hearts. Blackwood, however, won't tell you if partner has the clubs under control or any help in diamonds. I suggest a 3D "game try"; if opener retreats to 3S, settle for the safe 4S level. If, instead, opener bids game, South can focus attention on clubs with 5S. Five of an agreed suit can have several meanings, such as asking about suit quality, but when there is exactly one unbid suit (or the opponents have overcalled in a suit) the standard interpretation is "do you have the last suit controlled?" North, of course, would pass 5S, but here, of course, the bidding should stop at four.

West leads the Queen of clubs and East signals encouragement, then overtakes the second trick to switch to a diamond. Declarer can finesse for an overtrick, or see if the fifth heart will set up, with a possible squeeze as plan B. Ace of diamonds, trump to dummy, ruff a low heart, trump to dummy, ruff another heart, trump to dummy, cash the top hearts and pitch away three diamonds. But with 8 hearts out, the suit will split 4-4 only about 32% of the time, and the lack of an late entry to dummy rules out a squeeze, so the diamond finesse at 50% looks like a better line unless you are convinced East's switch reduces the odds he has the King.