Better Bridge in Barry County May 24 2012

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

	North ♠ A5 ♥ KQ7 ♦ A94 ♣ KQ1062
West ♠ QJ9762 ♥ 109 ♦ J108 ♣ 94		East ♠ K84 ♥ 84 ♦ K7632 ♣ J73
	South ♠ 103 ♥ AJ6532 ♦ Q5 ♣ A85

Dealer: Vulnerable: Lead:

South Both Q♠

North 2♣ 4NT 6 ♥	East Pass Pass Pass	South 1♥ 2 ♥ 5 ♥ Pass	West Pass Pass Pass Pass

Today’s column features a hand that came up recently in a nearby duplicate bridge tournament where the same hand was played 11 times at 11 different tables. Of the 11 contracts bid and played, only four reached the small slam contract. The seven other pairs reached game in hearts, but they missed the slam opportunity. What happened to those teams? Why did they not reach the slam hand?

South opened the bidding with a solid six-card heart suit, and another ace in the club suit. North has the big hand on this deal, and he is the captain of the team. He will place the contract, right or wrong, at what he feels is the appropriate level. That is how the game of bridge is played: partnership agreements mean everything.

North has two options on his first bid: he can go slowly, bidding two clubs informing his partner that he has at least ten points and a good five-card club suit. He plans to bid again as this is a forcing bid, and he is an un-passed hand. He expects his partner to continue the bidding. His second option on his first bid is to make a strong jump shift bid of three clubs, informing his partner that he has 17-19 points, and he is thinking of a slam hand.

The first option gives South a chance to rebid his hearts, informing North that he has six hearts and a minimum hand. Not much more than an opening hand is his message to his partner. The second option opens his eyes a bit as he knows that the partnership could be looking at a slam opportunity. However, he is not the Captain of the team, but only the opener. It is up to the Captain to place the contract.

North’s second bid uses the Blackwood Convention to ask for aces in his partner’s hand. He is, indeed, taking the captaincy role to heart. South duly responds with five hearts, informing his partner that he has two aces, the two that North does not have. It now comes down to the final decision for North: to go or not to go to six hearts. Four of the eleven teams found the right bid by plunking down the six hearts card from their bidding boxes, and South played the hand at six hearts.

The results were in shortly when South took all thirteen tricks on the opening lead of the Queen of spades. Taking the ace of spades, drawing two rounds of trump, and running all the clubs, discarding the diamond and spade losers, and cashing the ace of diamonds makes seven hearts all day long. In fact, on this hand, not only is seven hearts a good contract, but North-South can make seven no trump and seven clubs with the same cards. Ironically, they could only make one spade and two diamonds if those suits were trump.

The final thought about this hand is this: when in doubt, bid it! Seven teams played it safe at four hearts and made seven. Four teams bid the slam and took the top boards, taking all thirteen tricks and claiming the best hand of the afternoon. Bridge is not a game for the faint-hearted. It is a competition, and those who linger on the sidelines are lost to those who bid and take their chances. Go ahead and bid! You may go down, but at least you will have given it a good shot!

Gerald Stein

Number of words: 661

May 22, 2012