Are YOU a Caveman?
At the risk of being called a bore and being obsessed with slams, let me once more state that bidding slams should be EASIER than games or part scores because there is less complexity in most slams. Making slams is also often easier because you can lose only one trick if in a small slam, or no tricks at all in a grand slam and more often than not there are twelve or thirteen top tricks. Counting up to twelve or thirteen should not be a difficult matter for the more advanced players. All that considered, I am astounded that only one pair across the whole of X-Clubs bid to 7S, and only one to 7NT. The pair who bid 7NT were also top of the field in X-Clubs with 67.46%. Well done Sheryl Luo and Tim Pan!
Board 4 from Thursday 7/02/2019
Dealer W All Vul
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93
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7632
KQJ83Bidding the grand slam should not be difficult. We Neanderthals of the bridge world would bid the EW hands thus: 1S from West, 2C from East and 4S from West, saying: if you can respond 2C, partner, I can bid and make 4S. That suggests a self sufficient spade suit. A very simple 4NT from East, Blackwood but RKCB works the same way. West’s response is followed by 5NT from East: “all our aces are accounted for, partner. I am now asking for kings AND looking for a grand slam”. That is what a 5NT bid means after 4NT. West has seven spade tricks (given anything but disastrous 5-1 or 6-0 breaks, so bids 7S. East can now count to a very easy thirteen top tricks and bids 7NT. Agricultural? Crude? Maybe, but very effective, there should be no real need for science, just common sense and kindergarten maths should add to 7NT.
There are of course other ways to bid the EW hands. Playing “Evil Acol”, we would open the West hand 3NT, showing any normal four level opening bid, i.e. either an eight card major suit or a ‘gambling 3NT’ with seven or eight top tricks in a minor. After 4NT from East then 5NT, same end result. And should East happen to have a spade VOID, we would be delighted to play in 7S.
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There will be a new series “Evil at the Bridge Table” coming up soon. For information about registering for it, email me: villyn@xtra.co.nz
