The Auction South deals and chooses to open the bidding 1♥ . South has 14 high-card points . Could South choose to add a point for the five-card heart suit and consider this worth a 15-17 notrump opening ? Certainly . However , I ’ ve shown what I feel would be the mainstream action of opening 1♥ instead .
The Opening Lead Leading or underleading aces against a suit contract is to be avoided . That leaves West with the choice of a trump lead – usually a safe lead – or the doubleton club . Since East showed some length in clubs with the responsive double , the ♣10 , top of the doubleton , seems like a reasonable shot .
The Play So much for that reasonable shot ! The lead of the ♣10 proves very helpful to declarer . Because of the club spots , South now has three club winners . East presumably wins the ♣A at trick one . What does East do at trick two ?
THE REAL DEAL
BY LARRY COHEN
|
Dlr : South Vul : Both |
♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ |
J 8 3 K 7 5 2 4 3 Q J 8 4 |
A Partscore Battle |
♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ |
A 10 7 6 5 4 3 A Q J 2 10 6 |
2♥
W
N
S
3♥
E
|
♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ |
Q 9 Q 10 8 7 6 5 A 7 5 3 2 |
Larry Cohen is a best-selling author , 25-time National Champion , and a member of the ACBL Hall of Fame . One of Larry ’ s favorite teaching methods is to analyze random deals . He feels that any time you deal out a deck of cards , there are numerous lessons that can be learned . |
1♠ 3♦ Pass |
♠ ♥ ♦ ♣
K 4 2 A J 9 8 6 K 10 9 K 9
1♥ Pass Pass
|
Dbl |
Pass |
This deal comes from Jill Wallace who teaches at the Reno Bridge Academy and helped organize the meeting of the American Bridge Teachers ’ Association at the recent Toronto Summer North American Bridge Championships .
The Auction South deals and chooses to open the bidding 1♥ . South has 14 high-card points . Could South choose to add a point for the five-card heart suit and consider this worth a 15-17 notrump opening ? Certainly . However , I ’ ve shown what I feel would be the mainstream action of opening 1♥ instead .
Since South didn ’ t open 1NT , West now has a normal overcall of 1♠ . North , as responder , should raise hearts with four-card support and 7 high-card points plus 1 dummy point for the doubleton diamond . Should North raise to 3♥ ?
In the old-fashioned style , that would show an invitational raise of approximately 10-12 points in support . North is way short of that . In the popular modern style , many partnerships play the jump raise in competition as weak . Responder can cuebid the opponent ’ s suit with an invitational or stronger raise . A typical example of a weak jump raise in competition would be : ♠3 ♥Q 10 5 2 ♦Q 8 6 5 4 ♣8 4 2 . Only 4 high-card points plus 3 dummy points for the singleton spade . I feel this particular hand for North is a bit too balanced for such an action . So , I ’ ve shown North as being content to raise to only 2♥ .
East has some scattered cards and would like to compete for the partscore . A third trump would be required to raise to 2♠ . Instead , East can double as shown . This double is not for penalties . There are not many penalty doubles at low levels when the opponents have found a fit . This double is called a responsive double since it is in response to partner ’ s overcall . It tends to show at least four cards in each of the unbid suits .
South has nothing special to say , so passes . West is delighted to choose diamonds , knowing East has at least four-card support based on the responsive double . This gets East-West to a nice partscore , likely to make .
However , you can see that North , in spite of a minimum in high-card points , is shown as competing to 3♥ . Why ?
In competitive auctions such as this , your side should compete to the three level when there are known to be nine total trumps . North expects either 3♥ will make , scoring + 140 , or go down one trick , for -100 , when 3♦ was making and would have given East-West a score of 110 . This is an important consideration in matchpoint scoring . North is following the corollary to the Law of Total Tricks which suggests competing to the level corresponding to the number of combined trumps .
Will 3♥ make ?
The Opening Lead Leading or underleading aces against a suit contract is to be avoided . That leaves West with the choice of a trump lead – usually a safe lead – or the doubleton club . Since East showed some length in clubs with the responsive double , the ♣10 , top of the doubleton , seems like a reasonable shot .
The Play So much for that reasonable shot ! The lead of the ♣10 proves very helpful to declarer . Because of the club spots , South now has three club winners . East presumably wins the ♣A at trick one . What does East do at trick two ?
West bid spades but returning the ♠Q is not a good idea . West won ’ t have the ♠A-K since West would have led the ♠A from that holding on opening lead . So , with declarer marked with either the ♠K or ♠A , East knows returning the ♠Q at trick two would set up dummy ’ s ♠J as a trick for declarer . East might as well return a club , in case West ’ s opening lead was a singleton .
12 Audrey Grant ’ s Better Bridge | July-August 2024