Better Bridge in Barry County October 3 2015

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

 

 

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

 

 

Dealer: Vulnerable: Lead:

East Both 4♠

 

North   1♠ 4NT 6♥	East Pass Pass Pass Pass	South 1♥ 3♥ 5♠ Pass	West Pass Pass Pass Pass

In a recent club game in Kalamazoo, today’s North/South pair reached a solid 6♥ contract after South opened 1♥. While this hand was played twelve different times, only two teams reached the small slam in hearts. One daring pair reached a small slam elsewhere. Can you guess where they ended up?

The question of the day is this: how is it that of twelve attempts, only two pairs reached the 6♥ contract? The other team who made a small slam made it, of course, in 6NT. What was the road map for three pairs to reach the small slam status? Let’s take a look.

With six strong hearts and five strong clubs, it was South’s turn to shine. The old bridge adage of “Six-Five Come Alive!” aptly fits South’s hand. With 17 total points, South was prepared from his first bid to reach game at the very minimum. Aspirations of slam danced merrily in his head.

North, with a strong hand as well with 18 total points, bid her spades without a jump bid, choosing instead to bid up the line and taking a slow-but-sure approach to see what South would do. With North’s hand as undetermined and an un-passed hand, South was forced to bid again, and South promptly jumped in hearts, his suit of choice. There was no need to mention the clubs. He wanted North to know he had good hearts and a strong hand as well.

Now North came alive, using the Roman Key Card convention to ask for key cards. “How many of the five key cards do you hold?” was her message to South. Many bridge players now have given up the regular Blackwood Convention in favor of the Roman Key Card convention where the four aces and the king of trump constitute the five key cards. The advantages seem to be extra information, including whether there is a concern about the missing trump cards.

In this case, South had two key cards: the K♥, the agreed-upon trump suit, and the A♣. But there is more to Roman Key Card convention than that. South has two ways to show how strong his hand is by his response to the question of key cards from North. The two choices are as follows: a bid of 5♥ would have shown two key cards without the Queen of trump. The other choice was 5♠, the showing of two key cards and the Queen of trump. South bid 5♠ showing two key cards and the Q♥. North as Captain of the Hand placed the contract at 6♥.

The lead from West was the 4♠, and North tabled her cards, much to the delight of partner South. With a “Thank you, Partner,” South began to make his plan. Twelve tricks were needed, and it was easy to figure out that the A♥ was going to be a definite loser. The club suit would take care of the rest of the losers once the trumps were drawn.

South won the first trick with the A♠, promptly led a small heart from the board, and played an honor card from his hand. When West ducked the first time, South persisted with another honor card, and West took her A♥. A spade return or a club return would not hurt South nor a diamond return as South never had any plan to take a finesse. There was no need to jeopardize the contract with a finesse when the clubs were so strong. It was just a matter of unblocking the K♣ and returning to the South hand.

South drew East’s last small trump and claimed with the good clubs taking the rest of the tricks. The only loser was the A♥ as South had realized immediately. North and South claimed a fine score of 1430 for making 6♥ vulnerable. Only one other North/South pair made that contract as well.

What about that daring pair who reached 6NT? While it makes twelve tricks as well with the loss of the A♥, it seems that this is a dangerous bid with two singletons in the South hand and one singleton in the North hand. Still it is hard to argue with success as that extra ten points for bidding 6NT and making 1440 vaulted them into first place and top board on that hand. So three of the twelve times the hand was played only resulted in three slam bids when all of those points were there for the taking.

Where did most of the other nine pairs play? Most opted to play in 3NT usually making six for 690, far below the points for small slam. Others chose 4♥ making six as well for a score of 680. The takeaways today seem to be quite evident. Counting the points in both hands is crucial to reaching slam level. Remember that usually 33 points are needed for a small slam while 37 will usually be enough for a grand slam. Using Roman Key Card convention adds additional information for the bidders in a slam situation. Consider upgrading your Blackwood Convention to Roman Key Card. As always, enjoy playing and bidding the big hands when they show up. You will remember them a lot longer than those part score bids of 1NT or 2♥. Enjoy playing bridge in Barry County.

 

Gerald Stein

September 27, 2015

Number of words: 999