Truscott - Can't Beat It!
Board 24 from Wednesday 30th Aug. Dealer W Nil Vul
| ||||||||||
|
| |||||||||
|
J9
AJ
QT65
AKT54I had another illuminating session in “Wednesday Grade” at The Hutt yesterday. This is how the bidding went at our table: West opened 1H, North DOUBLED, I bid 2H and South bid 2S. West now bid 3H which was passed out and then allowed to make!
Now, this is how the bidding should have gone IF South had believed that North had what she should have had for the takeout double of 1H, and that is FOUR spades not just any old opening bid: South should have bid to at least THREE spades, despite the paucity of points. A ten card spade fit and a combined point count of at least 17 should mean that 3S will make. But the theory of “Total Tricks” is not something for discussion this week. Rather, I will repeat the discussion I had with West after the hand, because it coincided with teatime.
I had made myself a cup of tea and had found it to be tasteless and insipid. After adding another teabag it was even worse, bitter as well. I complained to the Director that the the teabags were poisoned. She went to check things out and immediately announced to all and sundry that I had discovered that someone had loaded the tea bag container with GREEN TEA bags. The room roared with laughter while I quietly looked for the nearest bucket! But I digress.
I asked West is he had ever played TRUSCOTT and he of course had not. Truscott, I explained, went as follows: after an opponent's double of an opening bid, a single raise would be weaker than normal, i.e. virtually no points at all but support for the opened suit; a double raise would be equivalent to a normal raise to two, i.e. 6-9 HCP, and to make allowance for a normal double raise with 10-11 HCP, the bid would be 2NT. The rationale was simple enough: with a fit in the suit, you could afford to bid 'one more' and it would also hamper opponents' bidding. That used to occur only after a double, but these days a lot of more expert players will do it even without the double. I don't subscribe to that because I don't like to preempt my own partnership. Often you might jump raise to the three level and find that partner would have been allowed to play in two and make two. But be as it may, the reader may care to think about this and discuss with partner. TRUSCOTT is a great tool, and very useful in any competition, in any grade. My partner last night took it all in and will now be playing TRUSCOTT.
