Season's Greetings from Vil
Let's start the new year with what should be reasonably basic but is nevertheless an area in which many new partnerships have misunderstandings. This hand from Wednesday 18th January illustrates the point:
Board 19 Dealer S EW Vul
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Q963
K975
653
Q5What should South's opening bid be? The learners' manual says that an opening bid of 2D is WEAK. One South at my home club of Lower Hutt obviously thought it was strong, opened, and played in 2D. If 2D is weak and South cannot open 2D, is South good enough to open 2C, which is showing a very strong hand and pretty well forcing to game?
A quick look at the losers says that South has five losers so a 2C opening is debatable. The most sensible answer USUALLY is to open such 20 point hands just at the ONE level, so South should open 1D. One South played in 1D because Partner did not have the courtesy to respond - despite having SEVEN high card points when the same learners' manual says you should respond if you have at least SIX points. That is fairly basic. Two NS pairs were in 5D, a result of poor communication, because they failed to find their SPADE fit. I suspect that Souths at these tables would have opened 2C, making the finding of a spade fit much more difficult.
The proper bidding sequence should start with 1D from South and 1H from North. Now South can show the full value of their hand with a JUMP SHIFT to 2S - which is now FORCING TO GAME. North is delighted to be able to show the spade support with a jump to 4S. But only two pairs were in 4S. Easy stuff. One was in an untenable 3NT contract. South should never even THINK about bidding No Trumps with a small singleton unless there is good evidence that PARTNER can provide a stopper in that suit. Lesson learnt, I hope.
Bidding is about communication and communication is necessary to find the BEST fit in a suit and only then opt for No Trumps if there is NO fit in either major. If there is a fit in a MINOR, though, 3NT might be better because nine tricks are easier that eleven. In this deal, there is a SPADE fit (eight cards constitute a fit) which should make game in spades the automatic choice, whereas the NINE card DIAMOND fit makes the diamond suit a fantastic SIDE suit if spades are trumps.
Play in 4S should be easy, with twelve tricks readily available. After drawing all opponents' trumps, just play one TOP diamond and you will see the queen fall immediately. Do NOT take a first round finesse in diamonds because that is against the odds.
Don’t forget that if you have any questions or problems, you can send them to me at villyn@xtra.co.nz and I will either answer them direct or in an email aimed at all readers if the topic could help others. With best wishes for better bridge and better results,
Vil Gravis
