5 November 30th, 2018 Dealer North, N-S Vul

The opponents are silent throughout. You hold:  A Q 10 5  A Q  2 . K J 10 9 8 7

Not a bad hand, and you have an obvious 1. opening bid. Partner responds with 1.

The Spade fit has improved this hand from good to very good. You will want to raise Spades one way or another and the choices are: - 2: That shows a minimum opening hand, something in the 12-14 range. Not nearly enough for this hand! - 3: This bid shows extras, 15-17 or thereabouts, and 4-card support. As we failed to open a 15-17 1NT originally, the jump raise to 3 usually comes with a singleton. So, is 3 our choice? Actually, no! We may have the right point count for a 3 bid but the hand is too good, made so by that source of tricks in the Club suit. But change that .J to, say, the J, and this would be a 3 bid. - 4: Shows about 18-19 and, although we are a couple of points shy, we’d say that we have the values for 4. Partner could have as little as Kxxxx and out, and 4 would still have a play.

Now for some more exotic options. We’ve hopefully agreed that our hand is worth game, and 4 is the quick way to get there. Here are three other possibilities: - 4: 4-card Spade support, Diamond shortness, game values. A splinter in other words. Well, this hand meets those criteria, it’s an option. - 3: This is a jump . A simple reverse of 2 is natural and shows a good hand, so jumping to 3 is used by some as a splinter. We hesitate to get over-scientific here, but if it’s science you want then you could play 3 as a weaker (not game-forcing) version of the 4 splinter … or play 3 as a singleton and 4 as a . - 4.: Some partnerships play 1minor 1Major, 4minor as agreeing the major and showing a solid , something like:  Axxx,  Kx,  x, . AKQJxx. As generally played, the suit really does need to be solid, so the hand at the top of the page does not qualify.

Anyway, some of the above might come under the category of Too Much Information. Below is a simple auction to a fairly easy slam.

♠ J 6 4 ♥ 9 5 4 3 South West North East ♦ Q 10 8 7 Pass 1. ♣ 5 4 Pass 1 Pass 4 ♠ K 9 8 7 2 North ♠ A Q 10 5 Pass 5. Pass 5

♥ J 8 West East ♥ A Q Pass 6 All Pass ♦ K 9 5 3 ♦ 2 ♣ A Q South ♣ K J 10 9 8 7 After East’s 4, West might well have blasted into 6, ♠ 3 reasoning that too much science will only serve to help ♥ K 10 7 6 2 the opponents … or he might have tried Roman Key ♦ A J 6 4 Card (generally frowned upon when you have a two- ♣ 6 3 2 loser suit such as Hearts). Instead, our pair showed off their cue-bidding technique. 12 top tricks.

Brian Gunnell © 2018

Board 14 November 30th, 2018 Dealer East, None Vul

♠ Q 8 5 4 2 Would you open the West hand in 3rd seat? Many (perhaps ♥ K Q most) would. Let’s just say that it’s a matter of personal ♦ J 6 choice, but let’s also remember that opening bad hands ♣ A Q 9 2 with bad suits is not always a winning strategy. If West ♠ A 7 3 North ♠ K 9 does choose to open with 1, nobody should be surprised

♥ 10 9 8 7 6 West East ♥ J 3 if, on lead against a Spade contract, East blows a trick by ♦ A Q 9 2 ♦ 10 8 5 3 leading, for example, the K from Kx. Anyway, we made ♣ 10 South ♣ K 8 7 6 3 our West pass, mainly because the auction is more ♠ J 10 6 interesting if he does. ♥ A 5 4 2 ♦ K 7 4 South West North East ♣ J 5 4 Pass Pass Pass 1 Pass 2 Pass Pass ??

Should East be seriously thinking about bidding here? We think so. E-W are not vulnerable, and N-S have stopped at 2, so West must have something. Letting N-S play in their cozy 2 probably won’t win many matchpoints, so we suggest that East takes the plunge. She cannot make a , she needs Hearts for that. What does 2NT show here? The minors? Actually, as the opponents are bidding Spades, 2NT can be used for any two-suiter. Anyway, East bids 2NT, West cannot stand Clubs so bids 3. N-S have no good reason to bid 3, and 3 is the final contract.

Can West justify East’s bold balance by making 3? Yes, but it’s not easy, in fact it’s fiendishly difficult! Here goes: Win A, Club to Ace, win K, .K, Club , lose a Heart, Spade ruff, Club ruff, lose a Heart, win Diamond with the Queen, Heart ruffed by North’s Jack. If you followed all that then well done! If you didn’t, then no problem, the end-position is shown below (with North on lead). It’s not often that a two-card ending is worthy of discussion, but here we have a true rarity. N-S are about to become victims of a Smother Play.  Q 8  10  --  A  10 8  K 7 You would think that South’s K7 is sure to score the setting trick, what with Declarer’s A now being singleton. Not so! North leads a Spade, Dummy ruffs with the Ten, and South’s goose is cooked … she can underruff and Declarer discards his Heart … or she can overruff and the 8 scores the last trick. Most players go an entire lifetime without executing a Smother Play. I’m still waiting.

Here’s another scenario, somewhat less exotic, but perhaps more instructive. We are still using the diagram at the top of the page: South West North East Pass Pass 1? 1 Dbl 2 All Pass This time West does make a dubious light opening in third seat, and North becomes Declarer in 2. The winning defense is a Diamond lead followed by a Club switch. Later, a Club ruff will be the setting trick. That’s +50 for E-W. But on this auction, East will lead Partner’s Heart suit, losing a . That’s -110 for E-W. West’s decision to open a bad suit with a bad hand turns out to be costly.

Brian Gunnell © 2018