Vil Gravis's blog

This deal provides a perfect sequel to the one I reviewed last time. Clearly, none of the Wests read it, or if they did, they ignored it.

Board 24 from Wednesday 10/02/2021
Dealer W Nil Vul

	QJ62 8 Q73 KQT85
A874 AKQT32 A4 2		J96 JT9865 AJ74
	KT953 754 K2 963

Board 21 from Wednesday 3/02/2021
Dealer N NS Vul

	T965 Q5 KT9 A864
AQJ4 AJ76 Q KQJ3		K832 K82 A7543 7
	7 T943 J862 T952

Despite the fact that I intend to focus on play in this series, the bidding on this board is worth addressing because it should be easy if you follow basic ‘rules’: West opens 1C, the lowest four card suit. East bids 1D. No other option. West bids 1H, next four card suit ‘up the line’. East bids 1S. West now has heard enough to bid 4S. A trump fit has been found and even opposite East’s minimum six points, West has the POINTS and TRUMP SUPPORT for GAME. Simple. Yet only four out of 12 EW pairs were in 4S.

Thanks for your input to the tricky questions and answers. Maybe we will do this again next year if there are any interesting ones, maybe you will have some to add from your own experiences, please do send me anything of interest. In the meantime, here is the result, in Tricky Answers No.5

1. Match Points

Dealer S Nil Vul

Q4

2

AQJT4

AKJ63

The bidding has been:

South	West	North	East
1	21	3	Pass
?

What would you bid?

1. Teams
Dealer E All Vul

9873

A972

3

QT74

The bidding has been:

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1
Pass	1	Pass	2
Pass	2	Pass	3
Pass	3	Pass	4
Pass	4	Pass	5
Pass	Pass	Pass

Your lead?

Good to get a near unanimous verdict here. Even I, despite my abhorrence of singleton trump leads, would lead my singleton diamond, trying to protect what club tricks I have, since they are in danger of getting ruffed in dummy, which will almost certainly have three diamonds and a singleton club, as in fact was the case.

You are SOUTH each time.

1. Match Points
Dealer W EW Vul

A

Q3

AK64

AKT964

Partner opens 1H, you bid 2C, partner 2H.
a) What is your bid?

Everybody should be looking at the possibility of a grand slam, but how to get to it and should it be 7H or 7C, or even 7NT as one of the more optimistic panelists thinks. Some panelists believe that the 2H rebid will be at least a six card suit so it should be an easy matter to use Key Card and then, if you’re sophisticated enough (I am NOT) find out if partner has the CQ and bid 7NT. If that card happens to be singleton, partner will need six hearts to the AK and the king of spades for 7NT to make for certain, but then again, six hearts to AK without the jack will also founder against a 4-1 break. A singleton or doubleton small club would make a grand slam in hearts odds on when opener has AKxxxx when the grand slam in No Trumps is impossible.