Sunday, July 15th 2012

Right-click here for hands.

Board 1: East opens 1D. An enterprising South should jump to 2H; only a five card suit, but 4 certain tricks and little defense argues for the preempt. I expect most overcalled 1H or passed. If West were a bit stronger I'd suggest a 2C response, planning to then bid and rebid the spades. Clubs is the better suit and the hand has good slam potential; but with only 11 hcp I'd start with 1S in case the hand is a misfit. North players with only a rudimentary grasp of the Law of Total tricks may think a 4H jump is indicated; this isn't always correct with minimal (5332) shape. What North must do is decide how high he wants to compete and bid it immediately -- 3H, 4H or 5H now, then shut up. Kit Woolsey says to bid to the point you aren't sure what the opponents should do, making them take the last guess. You have an Ace and possible defense in both spades and diamonds; partner's overcall may produce two tricks as well, and it isn't clear the enemy have a spade fit or game anywhere. 4H looks right to me.

East surely bids 4S -- the four-card support and singleton heart argue strongly for bidding rather than defending. If 4S is down 4H may be making. South likely passes. West has a far better hand than he's shown; 6 losers, and while opener may have stretched to bid 4S, he is likely to have something extra. You must be careful not ot punish partner for stretching to a game, especially over competition, but I thnk West is good enough to try for slam. The problem is two quick losers in hearts. West can bid 5S asking partner to bid slam if he controls the enemy suit; or he can try 4NT RKCB and trust that East has a singleton heart, which seems consistent with both his and the enemy bidding so far. East replies 5S (two key cards + the Queen of spades) and West takes the plunge to 6S. Every declarer took the obvious 12 tricks so bidding slam would've been a cold top.

Board 2: A wild hand. East starts by deciding how many clubs to open. Despite only 11 hcp, no Ace and a stiff Jack, the playing strength plus two quick tricks qualify this hand for 1C, but 3C is not clearly wrong. 4C would be misguided, blasting past a possible 3NT game. Over 1C, in the old days South would start with a cue-bid; now that Michaels has become near universal, South must double first and cue-bid the next round. If the enemy would keep quiet, this would gain a round of bidding room; but West preempts with 3C. (Side note: preemptive raises over a takeout double have been standard for 70+ years; there's no place on the card to mark anything else!)

North has only 7 hcp but nine cards in the majors and a club void -- he clearly must bid something. The choices include 3H, which may be too little, and 4C (forcing to game) which may be too much but at least insures partner picks the right suit. I think I'd try 3H and assume the bidding won't stop there.

East is startled by West's preemptive raise; with at least a 12 card fit, how high should he compete? It seems unlikely E/W can take more than one trick on defense against whichever major suit N/S land in; whether they can take all the tricks is unclear. Once again, East should bid as high as he dares now and then sell out. Seven clubs forces them to guess, but against timid slam bidders you might try 5C.

Seven clubs to South! Does Noth have 5 hearts? Does North have 3 or more spades? Can North cover five losers? Bidding either grand looks too dicey, so I think South must take the sure plus score with a double. If East had bid only 5C, South could try 5S and North should raise. Over 6C South may reasonably gamble 6H. Three pairs reached 6S, plus one E/W at 7C doubled which may have been bid after N/S reached slam.