Vil Gravis on 18WED
Wednesday Review 15
I don't want to particularly dwell on the topic of opening bids with fewer than the recommemded 12 HIGH CARD POINTS, nor on the bidding of slams, but sometimes the two go hand in hand. By opening with good shape, you not only get onto the competitive stage but also, when partner has a really good hand, you can get to good games or even slams much more easily.
Here is another example. The bidding can be very simple, all you have to know is how to ask for aces and then bid the correct slam. Admittedly, this slam is only a 50% proposition because it relies on a finesse, but nevertheless I believe it should be bid in most circles. That is because North should open the bidding, and when you have 20 high card points opposite an opening bid, that equals SMALL SLAM at least.
The simple way to bid to the CORRECT small slam is for North to open 1S and South to immediately ask for aces, with 4C. There are more sophisticated ways to do these things but for a Wednesday, this is the simplest. When North replies 4S to show two aces, South can happily bid 6NT. Whether or not North is known to have five or more spades. That is because South knows that every suit is well covered, with at least TWO stoppers in each suit, and the spade suit will provide the greatest number of tricks, whether
spades are trumps or not. Let's take a look:
Board 16 Dealer W EW Vul
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T962
5
AJ86
AQT4In 6NT all declarer needs to know is how to finesse. Say West leads a club. Declarer wins in hand and takes the spade finesse, leading either the queen or ten and repeating the finesse if necessary. When the finesse works, it is not just good enough to cash up all the tricks because five spade tricks plus four diamond and two club tricks don't add up to twelve, and a heart trick is needed for the twelfth. Easily done: just lead the king (or towards the KQ) and set the heart up before taking all the other top tricks.
How some people managed to make only eleven tricks is beyond me, they must have simply cashed up all the tricks before establishing the heart trick. Not such good idea. And another not so good idea, which is normally the BEST idea: I note that three Norths who were in 6S were defeated when East led the ace of hearts followed by another. NORMALLY it is better to play with a trump suit, and 6H in fact can be made but because the hands are so solid and because there is the small chance of an adverse ruff when you are playing in a suit contract, 6NT (if you see the SOUTH hand) is always a safer slam.
