Monday January 7th, 2013

Right-click here for hands.

Board 5: After three passes, West opens 1D and East responds 1S. (Advanced treatment: a better response would be 2S, promising a good passed hand with five spades and a fit for diamonds. All jumps by passed hands should be based on a good fit for partner's suit; if partner has opened light in third or fourth seat, the fit will compensate.)

West jumps to 2NT, showing a hand too strong to have opened 1NT originally (18-19, or perhaps 17 with a six-card suit.) Here most players have few clear agreements; East should show diamond support, but 4D bypasses game in notrump and might partner passs 3D? While it is possible to employ an artificial structure here (Wolff signoff is popular among experts) the simplest agreement is that everything except game bids are forcing. Another way to say that is "the only part-score we play after this bidding is 2NT." Responder needs very little to force to game; 7 hcp is plenty, even 6 may be enough. The only reason 2NT is not treated as forcing is that responder may have bid on a shapely 4 or 5 count, such as AJxxx xx xxx xxx. That has always been considered adequate for a one-level suit bid; only 1NT actually promises six points in high cards.

Why play everything forcing? Responder will far more often want to explore for slam or the best game than to find a better part-score than 2NT. Today's hand is an excellent example: responder bids 3D, natural and forcing; opener shows delayed support for spades; and responder raises to 4S. West may be tempted to continue with his wealth of controls, but partner has shown an unblanced hand and the AKJ of clubs may be somewhat wasted.

Slam can in fact be made by guessing the diamond suit, playing for the drop; but that's only a 52% shot and additional luck is required to avoid two spade losers. These two hands will produce slam less than 40% of the time.

Top scores went to 3NT making 6; the only pair to reach slam failed to make.  I assume 1D-1S-2NT-3NT was a common auction, but with fairly minor changes in the East/West hands you'd much rather be in spades.

Board 9: North opens 1H. As South I'd like to jump to 2S, planning to bid notrump next; that seems an excellent description but in America a five card suit is usually required for a strong jump shift. Over the undescriptive 1S response, North is on the fence between rebidding 2H or 3H. The good cards in partner's suit probably tilted most players toward the more aggressive rebid; ten pairs reached slam. South has a problem, though; if he bids 4NT at this and partner shows only one Ace, there might be two fast losers in diamonds. South would like to start cue-bidding with 4C, but is that actually a cue-bid? I'd say yes: over North's jump rebid, it's highly unlikely the partnership would want to play in a third suit. But even experts sometime get crossed up on such "implied cue-bids" so I think for most pairs 4NT is the practical move. North shows two Aces or (playing RKCB) two Key cards plus the Queen of trumps, and South bids 5NT to confirm all the Aces (or all Key cards plus the Queen.) North shows one side King but I don't think either partner can count a sure 13 tricks. On a key card auction South can count 12 tricks at notrump, but there may be more chances for an overtrick at 6H. On today's hand, North can pull trumps, pitch his diamond loser on a club, and try a spade finesse for the thirteenth trick; at notrump, West would knowck out the Ace of diamonds and declarer would not want to risk the slam finessing for an overtrick.

Board 11: South opens 1C, North bids 1H, and East blasts to 4S. South has too much to sell out; I would double based on sheer strenght. While 4S might ocassionally make, it will more often be down two tricks. North, however, pulls to 5C on his high offense, low defense 0535 hand. Trusting that partner wouldn't risk the five level with two spade losers, South raises to slam. Should East sacrifice? I wouldn't -- the preempt already forced North and South to do some guessing. And bidding six spades just might chase them in to seven clubs!

Thirteen tricks are made easily in clubs. Against five or more spades, perfect defense would be for South to cash the Ace of hearts, Ace of diamonds, low diamond, and ruff out East's King of hearts; East must later concede another heart and scores only his eight trumps. In practice the defense may try to cash a club and lose the ruff; five declarers managed nine tricks and two scored ten at spade contracts.

Board 14: East opens 1D, West bids a spade, and East "reverses" to 2H. In the modern style this is forcing; West, however, has doubts about game, since his King of spades may be wastepaper (partner having shown nine or more cards in the red suits.) With most of my partners I play some form of lebensohol here; but the basic rule ought to be that opener promises a rebid. This allows responder room to bid naturally, exploring for the best strain and level without being forced to jump for fear of being dropped.

If all non-game bids are forcing, then it is logical that suit bids at the three level show more than a minimum responding hand. A good eight points is enough. Lacking that, responder must bid at the two level, either rebidding his own suit with five or more or, all else failing, bidding 2NT. And that's the lebensohl gadget: opener assumes that shows weakness and bids 3C with a typical minimum reverse; responder can then pass or correct to 3D or 3H.

On today's hand West bids 2S to slow the bidding down; East, however, has a prime 19 count and bids 3NT to insist on game. West then retreats to 4H to end the bidding. I suspect most pairs simply bid 1D-1S; 2H-3H; 4H which was good enough for today.

I don't know what South should lead. I would want to lead trumps to protect those diamond winners; but a singleton trump lead against a 4-4 fit often works badly. A diamond lead will likely blow a trick, a spade lead may set dummy's suit up, and underleading the club into East's announced strong hand does not seem promising. I'd probably try the trump.

As East I'd win and return a spade, hoping the Ace is onside and in any case preparing for a cross-ruff or to set up the suit. North wins and leads another trump; now declarer can score the two trump leads, his remaining four trumps, and three minor suit quick tricks -- one trick short! Better to hope for a good split in one of the long suits. Succesful declarers probably set up the spades, carefully avoiding any ruffs in dummy, but it seems a guess whether to try spades or diamonds.

Board 15: South opens 1D and North can show immediate slam interest with a strong jump to 2H. Oh, wait, in North America you aren't supposed to have a side suit when you jump shift. OK, 1D-1H; 2D-3C; 3H-? The bidding so far screams for a spade lead, so it would be highly unsound to bid 4NT at this point with no spade control. 4D should be a clear slam try, though perhaps unclear about which red suit you intend to make trumps. South can bid 4NT with greater confidence, as North should have a club control. Playing simple Blackwood, North shows one Ace and South raises to 6D; North, however, is likely to "correct" to 6H with his good trumps. Well, that would often be best but on today's hand the hearts break badly while the diamonds split 2-2.

Most pairs stopped at a reasonable 4H; several E/W pairs got active and played 4S or more. The defense can collect the obvious five winners; two pairs found the club ruff. If East or West does bid 4S, they should sell out to 5D or 5H; bidding 5S has multiple ways to lose: doubled for -800; they bid a slam and make; 5D was scoring worse than 4H; 5H was going down.

Board 20: West opens 1D. North should pass; an overcall should be based on a good hand or a good suit; it should aim to buy the contract, direct a lead, obstruct the opponents, or set up a possible sacrifice. This hand has nothing to recommend a bid. East responds 1H and West jumps to 2NT. 3D sould be forcing (see discussion for board 5) but East should be thinking slam in diamonds and a jump to 4D makes that clear. West uses 4NT and finsishes at 6D. Thirteen tricks come in when after declarer plays the top two trumps, the KQ of hearts and then the marked finesse when South shows out.

If North overcalls 1H, East bids 2H to show at least a limit raise in diamonds and West should drive to slam.