Better Bridge in Barry County January 23 2014

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

 

 

	North ♠  Q 10 6  ♥  10 8 6 ♦  Q 5 3 2   ♣  K 9 4
West ♠  K 9 7 3 ♥  9 4 3 2 ♦  10 4 ♣  J 6 3		East ♠  A J 8 5 ♥  A Q J 5 ♦  J 8 7 ♣  8 2
	South ♠  4 2 ♥  K 7   ♦  A K 9 6 ♣  A Q 10 7 5

 

 

Dealer: Vulnerable: Lead:

North Neither 4♠

 

North Pass Pass	East 1♦	South Pass	West Pass

Would you rather defend a bridge hand, or would you rather play a bridge hand? Today’s South had to make that decision on the third bid of today’s hand. A pass from North, a minor suit opening of 1♦ from East, and it was South’s time for a decision. What would you have done with 16 high-card points and a respectable five-card club suit? Would you have bid one no-trump? Two clubs? Double? Or Pass?

South chose to pass this hand. Was it a wise decision, or did the North/South pair miss a game? Let’s take a look. With all passing, South was on lead. The only safe lead appeared to be the top of the doubleton: 4♠. The 9♠ came from the dummy, the Q♠ from North, and East won their first trick with the A♠. A spade was led from the East hand to the K♠ on the board. A small heart was then led from the dummy to the A♥ in the East hand. That was it. East had taken all of the tricks that East/West would take. North/South took the next ten tricks in a row setting East/West four tricks for a minus 200 points.

While a score of 200 is nothing to sneeze about on the North/South side of the ledger, still they might have done better by being proactive instead of sitting back with a solid bank of points, especially in the South hand. What could and what should South have done in this situation?

South’s hand is too strong to sit back and wait for his partner North. North had already announced through his pass bid that he did not have opening count. East opened 1♦ with 13 high-card points, and as it appeared in the post mortem, it was a Convenient Minor opening with three diamonds but two four-card majors. East was waiting for West to respond. Although West had two four-card majors, she had only four high-card points, so she passed. North with seven high-card points had nowhere to go either, and North passed.

The North/South hands had 23 high-card points while the East/West hands had17 high-card points. As a bidder, it is unusual to try for a game with fewer than the 25 or 26 high-card points recommended for a game in no trump or in one of the majors. Yet, this time, as we have seen, the North/South team took ten tricks. Should the North/South team have bid a game in No Trump, making not just three no trump but an overtrick for a plus score of 430?

The answer is yes if you are an aggressive bridge player. With South having East on his right, it would seem that he would know where all of the points would be. An overcall of 2♣ would certainly be justified; a 1 no trump overcall would be a reasonable bid as well. Getting to 3NT might be a difficult challenge, however, and, as it turned out, only one North/South pair dared to go for the gold bidding and making the 3NT bid and pulling in the top score of 430.

Who was the second place winner on this hand? Yes, you guessed it. It was the North/South pair who passed the 1♦ bid and set the East/West pair four tricks down for a 200 score for North/South. Playing it safe on this hand worked out for North/South this time, but the game of bridge is not a game of playing it safe. Allowing any pair to play in a one-level contract seems to be a questionable practice. Going a step further, even allowing a pair to bid to the two-level and play it there is something that seems not quite right. The point is that bridge players are bidders. It is important to bid your hand to the best of your ability and see what happens. In this case, South made a lucky decision, and it turned out well. Making a game, however, would have been more satisfying to most bridge players. Make sure that you bid when you know that bidding is the right thing to do. It will work out as the right thing to do most often.

As an afterthought: how did the one North/South team reach the 3NT contract? Here is the sequence: North: Pass; East: 1♦; South: 2♣; West: Pass;

                 North: Pass; East: Dbl; South: Pass; West: 2♥;

                 North: Pass; East: Pass; South: 2NT; West: Pass

                 North: 3NT; East: Pass; South: Pass; West: Pass

 

Gerald Stein

January 13, 2014

Number of Words: 913

 

Bridge Notes: Your New Year’s Resolution? Learn to play bridge this year? Teach someone how to play bridge this year? Teach a grandchild the fun of knowing how to play bridge? There is good news as a one-day seminar “Learn Bridge in a Day?” is set for March 1, 2014 at the Hastings Community Education and Recreation Center. Sign up today.