Thursday, January 19th 2011

Right-click here for hands.

Board 12: North has a simple 1C opener, with an easy rebid in spades; but apparently 5 players chose to open 1NT. This should have little appeal: the hand has no tenaces to benefit from being lead into, it ahs a weak doubleton, and it rates to play significantly better in a trump contract. I'll open 1NT on 4-5 hands when the doubletons are strong and I have tenaces to protect; but 4 spades and 5 clubs is one of the easiest shapes to bid without distorting your hand.

South responds 1H and North rebids 1S as planned -- no need to do anything special with 16 at this point, partner won't pass 1S with 8+ hcp. South's hand is clearly worth forcing to game, and 4H is the obvious choice. A few old-style bidders play all jump rebids by responder as game forcing, and a forcing 3H leaves some wiggle room to discuss slam -- opener can have quite a good hand, as here. A more popular modern style is to treat 3H as invitational and use the fourth suit (2D) artificially to establish a game force. Opener rebids 2NT (3NT if 2D were merely forcing one round) and South can now rebid 3H. This shows the advantage of playing the fourth suit as a game force: neither player had to leap and eat up all the bidding room below game.

North should not be bothered by the two small hearts: partner has announced a six-card suit and a 6-2 fit makes for a sound trump suit. Roman Key Card Blackwood (RKCB) can sort out the suit quality. North is worth a cue-bid with his excellent controls; 4D is unambiguosly a cue-bid, but this may be the last chacne to show a spade control. It pays to cue-bid the cheapest control -- if anyone skips a suit, that identifies a problem. Might 3S be natural? No, North would've rebid 2S over 2D with a 5-5 or 5-6 hand, so 3S should be a control bid. South cooperates with 4C. Does this show any extras? Perhaps not, so North should simply bid 4D rather than launch into RKCB. If partner has the right hand, he'll ask.

South counts no more than 5 1/2 losers and North's slam moves suggest better than 4 cover cards, so South can reasonably employ 4NT to check on Aces or key cards. Playing simple Blackwood, North shows two Aces and South should bet on the slam -- don't stay out of a slam for lack of only one Ace. Playing RKCB, North's 5H bid shows two key cards without the Queen of trumps. Here South knows an Ace is missing and trump suit will require a finesse (50%) or drop (52%). That's not good enough odds, so South passes 5H.

In the actual play, South cashes one high trump and, lacking any better information, cashes the second, finishing with eleven tricks. For those not in slam, however, taking the finesse is a reasonable shot at a top board, expecting some pairs to reach the slam and play for the drop.

Where North opened 1NT, South has a borderline hand for a slam try. A simple approach is to transfer to hearts; if partner happens to super-accept (leaping to 3H over your 2D) you proceeed toward slam, otherwise you simply raise hearts to game.

Board 16: North opens 2NT (20-21) and South has 11 with 5-4 shape and scattered honors. This is a tricky hand to evaluate; there really aren't enough points for 6NT (31-32, plus a bit for the long suit) and the soft honors in hearts and clubs suggests 6S or 6D may also be too much. A simple raise to 3NT would be reasonable; or bid 3C, Stayman, and get excited if partner bids spades. If you play Texas transfers, you could bid Jacoby (3H) followed by 4NT as a slam invitation with five spades -- you would use Texas if you wanted to set spades as trumps before asking for Key cards. On that sequence I think I'd pass 4NT with North's flat, soft minimum. Note that North is sure to have a Queen or Jack opposite whatever doubleton(s) South has. With a "sharper" hand, say Kxx AQJx Kx AKxx, North should correct to spades. All in all, I think South's spades are too poor (for slam purposes) to mention -- note how much better the suit would be with Jack or even Ten added.

3NT or 4NT proves to be a big winner as five pairs could not resist the allure of slam. I see a lot of these 31 point slams and while they sometimes make I think the odds are poor. North can actually make 12 tricks at notrump since East cannot lead a club and West cannot ruff a diamond. To succeed, however, North must guess the spades correctly: low to the Queen, then low back to hand and duck to catch the Ace. This play is known as an "obligatory finesse" in the literature: the duck cannot lose but may gain a trick. I've used it twice in recent weeks, but here I'd as likely try a low spade toward the King on the first round of the suit and be forced to surrender two spade tricks.

Board 23: East opens 1NT and West has an awkward hand: 7 hcp isn't enough to invite game at notrump even with the good diamond suit, but six losers might give you a play for slam in either red suit! The obvious approach of transferring to hearts and then bidding 3D risks getting too high when partner does not fit hearts. I judged that more tricks would likely be available in hearts than notrump, even opposite a doubleton; the good Q109xx suit is sturdy in its own right, and partner is overwhelmingly likely to have three trumps and/or the Jack, King or Ace. Although 2D followed by 3H promises a six card suit, that's the best treatment here.

East has a clear raise to 4H. Don't even consider another bid -- you have an excellent 17 count, and partner's sequence does not ask your opinion about what should be trumps. Four hearts makes easily with a simple trump finesse and the lucky 3-3 split limiting the defense to the AK of trumps and possibly a ruff if South stumbles onto a diamond lead.