#4 - Hugh's 'Hand of the Week' - Tuesday 21 June 2022

12 members convened to discuss another interesting session of bridge. We discussed:-

1. The difficulty of bidding to slam when distributional, and no obvious fit. With a fit the partnership can more easily assess the relative strengths of their hands, but without it things are inevitably harder…see #23.
   
   
2. We discussed the “responder’s reverse”…see #20 (not a classical example – West opens 1H, East bids 2D, West rebids 2H [some might bid 3H], and East’s 2S [or 3S] is a “reverse”, forcing to game.
   
   
3. Not trumping in the “long hand” is an important principle of declarer play. With a 5-3 fit, for example, in the vast majority of cases one seeks to ruff in the “short hand”, the one with 3 trumps…the fifth trump in the long hand is almost always going to be a winner anyway.
   
   
4. “Reading partner’s hand” in the bidding is an important skill. See #2…East opens with 2H, a “Tartan 2”. South passes…what should West do? (S)he knows partner is weak, so game is not an option. (S)he knows partner has 5 hearts and 4 or 5 of a minor…which is it likely to be?....clubs, yes? There is no better place to play, so PASS. 2H going 1 or 2 light is a good result.
   
   
5. We discussed the optimal declarer play in 2 specific situations….
   
   (a) xxx opposite AQ10 (if entries allow, and no information from the bidding, lead to the 10, and later to the Q); 
   
   (b) xxx opposite AJ9 (lead to the 9, finessing for the 10, and hoping for split honours).
   
   

"HAND OF THE WEEK" - Board #7

South opens 1D, West overcalls 2C (a good overcall, though light in points…at the 2-level one expects 10-15 points, especially vulnerable…but 2 short majors encourages W to take up bidding space).

North passes (too weak to mention his/her nice spade suit), and East makes it more difficult by bidding 3C.

What should South do? With shortage in clubs, and the ability to support the other 3 suits, and a generally strong hand, a re-entry double says all that.

Whether North now bids 3S or 4S is a moot point, but S would raise to 4S with his/ her 3-loser hand anyway. 4S makes 5, but it is hard to get there with interference, and without the re-entry double. 

To review the hand records for the session on Tuesday 21 June 2022 ... click here