AUDREY GRANT'S BETTER BRIDGE MAGAZINE May / June 2020 | Page 6

MASTER SOLVERS' CLUB
A FEATURE FROM THE BRIDGE WORLD
This hand is taken from The Bridge World, a journal for
expert players, founded in 1929. There has never been a
set of unanimous responses to the Master Solvers' Club
bidding problem.
North and South are vulnerable. As South, you are the
dealer and open the bidding 1♣. West overcalls 3♥. North,
partner, makes a negative double, and East passes. What
call would you make with this hand?
West’s preemptive 3♥ overcall has taken
up a lot of bidding room. North has
enough values to compete at the three
level or higher but can have a wide
range of distributions. Ideally, North
has four spades for the negative double,
but North was put under pressure by
the 3♥ bid and might not have the
perfect hand.
South has 14 high-card points and
four-card spade support, so the
partnership likely has an eight-card
major-suit fit. If South decides to bid
spades, does South have enough to take
the partnership to game by jumping to
4♠, or should South bid only 3♠ and
leave any further decision to North?
If South isn’t going to bid spades, South
has two heart stoppers and could bid
3NT, going for the nine-trick game in
notrump rather than the ten-trick game
in spades. But will South be able to find
enough tricks?
South has good defense against hearts,
so another choice is to pass and convert
the double into a penalty double. There
is likely enough combined strength to
defeat 3♥ doubled a couple of tricks,
which will be an excellent result if
North-South can’t make a game. But
North and South are vulnerable. Will
the penalty be enough if North-South
can make game?
Let’s see the panel’s opinions, starting
with the 3♠ bidders.
BRIAN GLUBOK: 3♠. This hand
is flawed – poor spade spots, too
few clubs, too many hearts, and the
♥Q is probably not worth much in a
spade contract.
NIK DEMIREV: 3♠. The hand has
extras but poor spade spots. The
4 Audrey Grant’s Better Bridge | May-June 2020
overruffing positions are wrong, and
the finesses will tend not to work.
JEFF RUBENS: 3♠. The heart
situation and weak spades look bad
for offense. Pass is possible, but there
is a risk West has secondary diamonds
and North is weak there.
One panelist is unwilling to stop in
partscore if there is an eight-card spade
fit.
CARL HUDECEK: 4♠. I’d like to
have the ♠10, but it also might be
useful in dummy for ruffing hearts.
I expect this hand to play one or
two tricks better in spades than in
notrump.
The rest of the panel is worried partner
may not have four spades and, even if
partner does, it may be better to play in
notrump.
ROZANNE AND BILL POLLACK:
3NT. A bit heavy for 3♠, and clearly
light for 4♠. 3NT is the most likely
game. Not pass, as we are vulnerable,
and partner’s strength is unlimited.
HOWARD WEINSTEIN: 3NT.
South has a reasonable, balanced
hand with a double heart stopper.
Partner may well lack four spades
and will be endplayed in the bidding
if I bid 3♠ since partner is unlikely to
have a heart stopper. Even if North
has four spades, it is not clear we
want to play in spades.
PHILLIP ALDER: 3NT. Partner
doesn’t guarantee four spades. What
is partner supposed to do with:
♠A J 3 ♥6 3 ♦K Q 9 5 ♣K 10 7 3
Given the vulnerability, I prefer 3NT
to pass.
Vul: N-S
Dlr: South
3♥
♠
♥
♦
♣
w
K 5 4 2
A Q 7 4
3 2
A J 2
1♣
Dbl
LARRY ROBBINS: 3NT. If East had
bid 3♥, 4♠ would make more sense.
Here, when we try to ruff heart losers
in dummy, we may be overruffed. 3♠
would be a bit conservative.
Finally, there are those who are
uncertain North-South can make game
and are willing to settle for whatever
penalty they can get from 3♥ doubled.
GEOFF HAMPSON: Pass. I expect
to get a decent plus, and game is not
certain.
DANIEL KORBEL: Pass. I have no
idea whether we can make 4♠, but
3♥ will definitely fail.
BART BRAMLEY: Pass. We should
defeat this at least a couple of tricks,
and there is no sure game our way.
Weak spade spots could doom
4♠, and no trick source could be a
problem in 3NT. Take the cash.
BETTER BRIDGE CONCLUSION:
3NT. We have 14 high-card points and
partner should have at least 11 or 12
to be willing to compete at this level,
so there should be enough combined
strength to make a vulnerable game.
Even if there is an eight-card spade
fit, the ♥Q is likely to be worthless
in a spade contract but will have lots
of value in a notrump contract. Since
we have a balanced hand, nine tricks
may be easier than ten.
BRIDGE WORLD SUMMARY
3NT = 13
3♠ = 7
PASS = 6
4♠ = 1
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dealer
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Pass