Hand of the Week, Vol. 2 No. 1

Hand of the week celebrates its first birthday today. Our first hand was published on the listserv on 04 January 2008.

With the cold weather, there hasn't been any new bridge in Fairbanks this past week, so we feature another hand from 15 December. With both sides vulnerable you deal yourself:

K Q 7 4
A 6 5
A J 7
A T 6

If you play a 15-17 notrump, this hand is just barely too strong to open 1NT, so you open 1 planning to rebid 2NT. But the auction doesn't continue that way. Instead, it goes 3 - 3 - 4 back to you.

Did you settle for just bidding 4? If so, you aren't being very imaginative. Your partner ought to have 10HCP or so for his 3 bid. And -- this is the key part -- your opponents bid and raised hearts, even though you have three of them. You know your partner has a singleton or void in hearts. His ten points have to be in the other three suits. You almost certainly have a slam.

Perhaps an expert partnership would have ways to decide scientifically between six and seven. But with a pickup partner, keep it simple, and just rebid 6. The full hand:

Dealer North Both vul	K Q 7 4 A 6 5 A J 7 A T 6
J 5 2 T 9 8 K 8 6 3 9 7 5		3 K Q T 9 8 7 4 Q 5 4 J 3
	A J 6 5 2 — T 9 2 K Q 8 4 2

East and South have nice sound 3 and 3 calls. West faces an interesting decision. If he trusts his partner to have a proper preempt -- at most one trick on defence, and possibly none -- he knows there is at least a 50-50 chance that N-S have a slam, and he ought to do his best to make their lives difficult. My preference is for West to bid 5 immediately rather than 4, depriving N-S of any chance to use science before they commit themselves to slam. (Theoretically a 7 sacrifice over 6 shows a profit, too, but there is a risk of pushing N-S into bidding and making 7.)

The play is simple, pulling trump, ruffing two hearts, and discarding the losing diamonds on long clubs, making seven as the cards lie. That line produces only 12 tricks if clubs are 4-1. An alternative line, that declarer might consider if East had more spades, is to expect a 4-1 club break, and play a club to the K and then finesse the T.

Back to HOTW index
Back to Articles index
Back to TaigaBridge home