Barry County Bridge
By Gerald Stein, ACBL Bridge Instructor
North
S: 7 4 3
H: A 8 6 2
D: A Q J 7 2
C: 8
West East
S: A Q J 10 9 S: K 6 2
H: J H: 4 3
D: D: 9 8 6
C: A J 10 6 4 3 2 C: K Q 9 7 5
South
S: 8 5
H: K Q 10 9 7 5
D: K 10 5 4 3
C:
With both sides vulnerable and North the dealer, two very different results happened recently at two bridge tables. What happened and why? What would have been your contract on today’s hand?
The bidding at Table One went as follows:
West North East South
Pass Pass Pass
1S Pass 2S Pass
4S Pass Pass Pass
While the East-West team arrived at a nice 4 Spade Contract, and they make it easily with two overtricks with a poor lead, did you notice what they failed to mention in their bidding? What about those wonderful Clubs in the West hand? Shouldn’t West have mentioned them to East who also has a wonderful Club hand as well as support for partner’s opening spade bid? Did they miss a small slam in spades as well as in clubs?
As it turns out, trump for East-West in both spades and clubs can make 12 tricks if the lead is wrong. Six spades goes down one trick if the lead from North is the singleton 8 of Clubs, a good lead for sure. With no Clubs, South is sure to pounce on the Club lead with a small spade trump, and if she returns a Heart to the Ace that North has, the North-South team sets the Spade small slam one trick. With an East-West 6 Clubs small slam, they lose one heart trick to the Ace of Hearts held by North, and the East-West team easily makes the small slam. What happened, then, to the East-West team to miss the Club slam? Interestingly enough, there is no interference from the North-South team.
What happens to the bidding when the North-South team becomes competitive and throws in some “get-in-your-face” bidding? How does that change the outcome of the hand?
Let’s look at Table Two as an extreme contrast. The same cards are held by four other players in another spot. Notice the difference in bidding and the results.
West North East South
Pass Pass 2H
3H Pass 3NT Pass
Pass Pass
What just happened here? This is as close to a disaster in bridge as you would never want. What was South’s bid and how did it disrupt the easy road to a 4 Spade game as bid at the first table? The North-South team, in partnership agreement, plays weak two-bids, and in third seat, South has no problem throwing in a disruptive weak two-heart bid, a preemptive bid. South is promising between 5 and 11 high-card-points, at least six hearts headed by three of the top five honors, and she hopes to create some havoc with the East-West partnership’s bidding.
In this hand, South did exactly that. West uses a cue bid of three hearts to let his partner know that he has a good hand, and he asks East to bid. East complies by bidding 3 No Trump, a most awful contract in the entire bridge world for this hand. South passes smoothly; West huddles for a bit and then finally passes; North passes smoothly, and it is all over for the East-West team. It is time for the North-South team to run all of the heart tricks, and all of the diamond tricks to set the East-West team seven tricks, vulnerable, for down 700 points.
The question comes up immediately then: why did West allow such a travesty to happen? He has at least two places to go with 7 nice Clubs and 5 strong spades. With a void in Diamonds and a singleton in Hearts, the last place on earth in this bridge hand seems to be 3 NT. Bidding Spades or Clubs would have sent the East-West team on its way to a makeable game in Spades or possibly a Small Slam in Clubs.
By the way, did you notice that the North-South team can make 4 Hearts or 5 Diamonds if they bid on? Happy Bridge in 2012.
(Gerald Stein, an Accredited Bridge Teacher for the American Contract Bridge League, teaches bridge classes at local schools and bridge clubs.)
Gerald Stein
January 18, 2012
763 words
No comments:
Post a Comment