| Board 5 | ||
North opens 1NT (15-17.) At this vulnerability East may overcall 2H, either natural or Cappelletti, or 2C (DON’T, clubs and a higher suit.) While it is generally advisable to pass over a notrump bid with 5332 shape (good lead, poor playing strength) 5-4 shape is a bit better offensively and somewhat worse defensively.
Over 2H South can cue-bid 3H (Stayman) to check on a spade fit. If you play lebensohl “fast denies”, South bids 2NT (a relay to 3C) and then 3H, showing four spades, a heart stopper and game values. In any case North bids 3NT; should South try for slam? The combined assets total 31-33 hcp, and so there cannot be three Aces missing. As Marty Bergen has been preaching, slam will have better chances if there is a suit fit, such as diamonds. South should raise 3NT to 4NT, a quantitative raise. This is a bit murky since no jump to 4C as Gerber is available, but if South had a suit and wanted to ask for Aces he could’ve bid a forcing 3C or 3D over 2H or bid 4C or 4D over 3NT. Generally, notrump over notrump should be natural, not Ace-asking.
North has a minimum but excellent controls. The choice is between pass or 5D (natural, not Ace-replying!) which South will raise to slam. But all paths to slam are frought with ambiguity: Does North’s 5D suggest five? What would 4D by South over 3NT suggest? With 4-5 shape and slam interest, should South bid 3D first rather than use the Stayman cue-bid? Gettting to minor suit slams aftr a notrump opening is difficult.
At 6D declarer can pull trumps and lead twice toward South’s clubs. The heart overcall makes it clear you won’t be able to ruff two hearts in the South hand. At notrump North wins the King of hearts, cashes two diamonds in hand, and leads toward the clubs. East should duck and now declarer has to guess who has the Ace – if West has it, leading toward the clubs again could be costly. But East probably needs the Ace for his overcall and North can cash two more diamonds and lead toward the clubs again for eleven tricks, or twelve if the defense makes a discarding mistake. (East must keep hearts and West must keep spades.)
| Board 19 | ||
West opens 1NT; East can show his 5-5 game-forcing hand by transferring to spades and rebidding 3H. This doesn’t mean you forgot you were playing transfers! With a 5-4 hand responder should begin with Stayman, so showing both majors promises 5-5 and a new suit at the three level after a transfer is always game-forcing. Some players use a gadget bid such as 3S for these hands but I’ve yet to see any advantage to such a method.
Most of West’s values are in the minors but as quick tricks they will cover two of East’s three losers there; North bids 3S over 3H, confirming spade support and leaving some bidding room for East to cue-bid. East has five and a half losers with some plus values; 15 hcp can easily cover five of those (think 3 points per trick) so East should make a try for slam. Visualising, slam would be a near laydown opposite AKxx Ax Kxx xxxx, which is only 14 hcp. Some partnerships might agree that responder would show his singleton next but I think it would be more common (and easier to remember) for East to cue-bid 4D. West figures at least 16 hcp in the minors covering only three losers, so West retreats to 4S. This suggests no Ace of hearts to East, and pass seems prudent. The defense should collect the Ace of hearts and the King of spades.
| Board 31 | ||
West opens 1H and East responds 1S. West is a bit light for a forcing-to-game jump shift (3C); East may not have much for his 1S response. A 2C rebid has a very wide range one of the weaknesses of standard methods) but here West can reasonably treat his hand as balanced and show his values by jumping to 2NT. With 13 hcp and a six-card suit opposite West’s 17-19, East thinks there may be a slam. The usual agreement after opener jumps in notrump is that everything is forcing, i.e., 2NT is the only part-score we can stop at. Some experts use a 3C gadget (Wolff sign-off) for weak hands but I think most of the time you will do well to go on to game when responder is not very weak and balanced. So, 3S by responder is forcing with possible slam interest; if you agree to play “New Minor Forcing” over the 2NT rebid, 3S clearly shows six. (This requires discussion, don’t assume NMF applies over anything but a 1NT rebid unless you’ve specifically agreed otherwise.) West has a good source of tricks and good controls so he can cue-bid 4D over 3S. (Could that be natural? No – a player does not rebid notrump and then trot out a new suit at the four level.) East is not sure whether hearts are under control but it is better to assume they are than stop at this point, so East bids 4NT and West replies 5H (two Aces) or 5C (0 or 3 key cards) or 5D (1430 style.) The 4D cue ruled out zero so East can check on the Queen with 5D. For 1430 bidders, would 5H be the Queen ask or to play in West’s suit? It’s always seemed dangerous to me to try and use five of a bid suit artificially, but I think it’s reasonable to assume East would’ve supported hearts earlier (3H over 2NT) so 5H should be artificial. When West denies the Queen (next step, or 5 of the agreed suit, depending on style) East stops at 5S – a slam missing a Key Card and the Queen is a poor bet. Blackwood bidders should go on to slam with three Aces – having all the Aces doesn’t really improve your chances. What matters is where partner’s points are; Blackwood is for staying out of a hopeless slam, missing two Aces.
As it happens 6H would be a better spot (you can set up the spades with a ruff) but that’s hard to discover in the bidding.
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