Vineyard Bridge 4/17
April 21, 2008 – 4:01 pmDan on Vineyard Bridge 4/17/08
Three ways to bid this slam (and why you should)
You are sitting North, holding ♠KJ962 ♥9432 ♦— ♣AKJT. Your partner deals and opens 1♠. The next player passes. What do you bid?
You are pretty sure that your partner can make 4♠, and perhaps you should just bid that. With your 12 HCP, it seems unlikely that partner has enough points to make 33, theoretically needed for slam. But your fifth spade, the solid club suit, and the void make this hand much stronger than 12 HCP. It probably has a playing strength (in spades) equal to about 18 or 19 HCP. You should at least investigate slam.
The wrong way
At the Thursday night duplicate game at the Howes House on 4/17, my opponent in the North seat at Table 3 thought long and hard at her first turn and then bid 4NT (Blackwood, asking for aces). When her partner replied 5♥ (two aces), North was stumped. If one ace were in hearts, 6♠ was a good bet, but if neither of South’s aces were in hearts, the opponents might take two or even three quick heart tricks. After another long think, she signed off at 5♠.
West North East South
1♠
Pass 4NT* Pass 5♥**
Pass 5♠ all Pass
*Blackwood (or RKC), asking for aces
** = Two aces (RKC doesn’t change anything on this hand)
As you can see from the whole deal below, 6♠ was cold. The only possible loser is the ♥A, and when Nancy led a diamond, South made all 13 tricks. North later said that she planned to bid 6♠ if her partner had three aces, but chickened out when she showed only two. This was a very poor result for our opponents, and therefore a very good result for Nancy and me.
♠ KJ962
♥ 9432
♦ —
♣ AKJT
♠ Q3 N ♠ 7
♥ AJT6 ♥ 876
♦ K9742 W E ♦ QJ63
♣ 72 ♣ 96543
S
♠ AT854
♥ KQ
♦ AT85
♣ Q8
This hand illustrates a principle of duplicate bridge (or any kind of bridge). Don’t use Blackwood when you have a void. You will often be in exactly the same quandary as our opponent North. You will be much better off by establishing a fit and then cue-bidding aces (see “the easy, old-fashioned way” below).
An “expert” way — Jacoby 2NT
At Table 1,. Bill Blakesley and Barbara Besse bid 6♠, but their bidding was only a bit more revealing.
West North East South .
1♠
Pass 2NT* Pass 3NT**
Pass 6♠ all pass
*Jacoby 2NT (alerted), guaranteeing a strong fit in spades, showing interest in slam, and asking for a singleton or void.
** (alerted), no singleton or void, but a strong hand.
Barbara (North) had hoped that Bill would show a shortage in hearts, and when he didn’t, she was not much better off than the North at our table. Barbara did have one more tiny scrap of information. On the strength of Bill’s “strong hand,” she took a flier on 6♠. If Bill had the ♥K, the opening lead would come up to him, and he might have time to dump hearts on the clubs. (Barbara also could have started a series of cue-bids — see below — at the four level.)
Another “expert” way—a splinter bid
I think this is the way Nancy and I would have bid the hand. A splinter bid is a triple jump in a new suit that shows strong support for partner’s suit and a singleton or void in the new suit. Here, 4♦ would show strong support for spades and a singleton or void in diamonds. South, with three quick losers in hearts and clubs, will just rebid 4♠, but North should persist, and after two cue bids, South has enough information to bid the slam.
West North East South .
1♠
Pass 4♦* Pass 4♠
Pass 5♣** Pass 5♦**
Pass 5♠*** Pass 6♠
all pass
* splinter (alerted)
** cue bids, showing aces
*** nothing more to show (i.e. no ♥A)
The easy, old-fashioned way
However, you don’t have to use fancy bids like splinters or Jacoby 2NT to get to 6♠. It just takes common sense, old-fashioned methods, and a trust in your partner. North should just bid 2♣. South, even with 15 HCP, will probably rebid only 2♦. North now must make a strong bid, 3♠ (forcing). If South then bids only 4♠, North should carry on with 5♣ (since spades have been agreed upon, 5♣ is a cue bid, showing the ♣A). South should reciprocate with 5♦, showing the ♦A. North is out of things to show. He could bid 6♣ to show the ♣K, but should subside with 5♠, because he doesn’t know about the hearts. South, however, DOES know about the hearts and, on the strength of North’s earlier strong bids, should bid 6♠. It’s a partnership game.
West North East South .
1♠
Pass 2♣ Pass 2♦
Pass 3♠ Pass 4♠
Pass 5♣* Pass 5♦**
Pass 5♠*** Pass 6♠
all pass
* I have the ♣A ** I have the ♦A *** I don’t have any more aces
And when the game is in IMPs . . .
The game on Thursday night was scored in IMPs (International Matchpoints). IMPs, the scoring used for Swiss Teams and Knockouts at ACBL tournaments, rewards the differential between scores. In the regular matchpoints used in most pairs events, a vulnerable game bid and made is only 1 matchpoint better than the next highest score, no matter how low that score is. But in IMPs, the difference between a vulnerable game and a part-score is 10 or 11 IMPs, a swing that could mean the whole match. So a second lesson from the hand described above is: If scoring is in IMPs, bid all close games and slams.
By settling for a game when a slam was available, our opponent North on the hand above handed us 11 IMPs, a reward we didn’t really earn. If North-South had been vulnerable, she stood to lose 13 IMPs. But even more than just the math, in an IMP game you can be pretty sure the opponents will bid the risky slams too. If your side goes down at slam and misses a sure game, they probably will too. So there’s less risk in aggressive bidding than there seems to be.
Results: Thursday, April 17. Three tables in play. 1. Dan and Nancy Cabot; 2. Bill Blakesley and Barbara Besse.
Dan Cabot is a contributing editor at The Times.
2 Responses to “Vineyard Bridge 4/17”
I kind of guessed this was the hand you would pick to write about but as you know it depends on the communication of the partnership. Sometimes it isn’t all that easy to know how your partner will interpret your bid.
By Sue Collinson on Apr 22, 2008
Nice column. But the focus on the void may be only part of the story. Seagram & Lee say not to use Blackwood with an unprotected side suit (one without first or second round control). Because South cue bid the Diamond Ace, the old fashion way never showed the void. It was the heart situation that needed to be covered.
By Dale Collinson on Apr 22, 2008