Friday 2 November 2007

Wendy S. was very pleased to have made 4 Spades with an overtrick on board 3. Although everyone bid to 4 spades, 5 pairs made only 9 tricks and 2 pairs made 10 tricks. So should credit be given to declarer or to the defence?

Here is the hand:

To make 10 tricks, East needs to ruff a club and also set up a Heart and a Diamond trick in dummy. But if defenders attack trumps, then dummy's K of Spades entry is knocked out before these tricks can be set up.

But let's suppose South leads the Ace of Hearts. If South continues with a Heart, then declarer can make 2 Heart tricks in dummy. If South switches to a Diamond and North then returns a Diamond or a Heart then dummy will make 2 tricks in that suit. Much the same happens if South opens with a Diamond and North returns the suit. Either way, this produces 11 tricks for declarer.

So sorry Wendy, I put this down to the defence - unless you have another explanation...

Wendy replies: In fact, I had a club lead to the K and A. I then led King D taken by the Ace and had another Club return, which I ruffed in dummy. By this time the Diamond Q was set up, on which I threw the singleton Heart. I played King of Spades, ruffed a Heart in hand, drew the rest of the trumps, played through Clubs and lost one to the 10, ruffed the return and played the last Club. 2 losers...

But, says John: If North returns a trump instead of a club, then the contract will go one down. The safer way of playing the contract is to ruff a Club at trick 2 before the defence have a chance to remove dummy's K of trumps which is required as an entry.

Tuesday 30 October 2007

On Hand 21 NS have an obvious game in Spades, but EW may compete in Hearts. Two NS pairs made 13 tricks, five made 12 tricks and one was held to 11 tricks (at the tenth table EW made a good sacrifice in 5 Hearts).

Philip Thomas wondered whether the slam was biddable, but there is also the question as to whether the slam should make. I retrieved the board to find out (the hands appear to have been rotated in the board but I believe I have shown them correctly below).

Here is the hand (North is dealer, N/S Vulnerable):

If E/W don't compete, then N/S will surely bid to 4 S. Assuming E/W compete fiercely, a likely bidding sequence is:

The Ace of Clubs appears to be a certain loser whatever the lead, but if West holds off with the Ace, declarer can discard the second Club on the fifth Diamond and make all 13 tricks. But surely if slam has been bid, West will play the Ace at the first opportunity.

To make the small slam therefore, declarer needs to drop or finesse both the Q of trumps and the Q of Diamonds. With only 22 HCP's, 2 Aces missing and needing to successfully guess 2 missing Queens, surely the slam should not be bid.

Friday 5 October 2007

On Board 14, East is recorded as making 2H plus 7 (!). He must have been sorely disappointed to have only received 260 points.

Friday 28 September 2007

At three 'friendly' tables, Board 7 was played in Hearts by E/W making 8, 9 and 10 tricks. But at the fourth table the contract was 4H redoubled -which made for an outright top. Redoubling is generally recognised to be a sign of greed or insanity - here it was probably both!

Friday 21 September 2007

On Board 5 E/W can make game in either Hearts or No Trumps. But one line shows 4S by W making 12 tricks, for a score of 490. It is inconceivable that this hand was played in Spades by E/W and in any event the score would then be 480. 4S is presumably a mispelling of 3NT!

Monday 21st May 2007

On Board 23, West opens 1NT - announced as 13-15 points.

As North you hold 19 points, with a singleton spade, 3 hearts, 4 diamonds and 5 clubs. How do you best describe your hand?

Depending on your conventions, you might be able to bid 2NT to show both minors. South holds 5 hearts and 4 small spades so how will the bidding continue?

Otherwise you may simply double and then bid 3 Clubs over partner's 2 Hearts in the hope of finding a NT fit. But with just 6 points and nothing more to say, South will pass.

Either way, you have not shown your full strength and the bidding is likely to pass out short of game.

In fact N-S can make 4 Hearts, but 3NT will fail because of the spade losers.

Monday 14th May 2007

• S - 2
• H - 2
• D - A Q 6 3
• C - A K 7 6 5 3 2

If North opened with a Strong 2, did you realise that this is not a legal bid? A Strong 2 bid must meet the 'extended Rule of 25' meaning that the sum of its high card points (HCPs) and the length of the longest two suits must be at least 25. A hand which has the equivalent playing tricks but which does not meet the Rule of 25 may only be opened if it has a minimum of 14 HCPs. This hand, with a 24 count and 13 HCPs, must be opened with 1 club.

So next week, when you hold:

• S - 2
• H - 2
• D - Void
• C - A K J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

what are you going to open?