Improvising a Transfer
Each year the English Bridge Union holds the Corwen Trophy for the top pairs in each county. Not all counties are equal in their acumen of course and the field is mixed and fortune bears no little part in final outcome. Suffolk's representatives fared well without distinction and the best placed (24th/112), Peter Gemmell and Peter Sutcliffe of Ipswich and Kesgrave club, sent me this hand; it's love all:
- KJ10632
- 7654
- 7
- KQ
Bidding spades seems like a good idea but there are problems. First, how many? Two spades, non forcing, would be absurdly parsimonious. It is a common treatment to dispense with a natural 2NT call here and use that to introduce other hands. Thus, had your suit been clubs or diamonds, you would have the option of bidding three direct, forcing another bid from partner, or calling 2NT – a puppet - and either passing or converting your partner's 3♣ rebid to 3♦. As spades are biddable at the two level, the 'extra' sequences given by 2NT allow you to express invitational and game forcing spade hands. Usually, what was the weak part, via 2NT, gets the weaker, invitational 3♠, the immediate, the game forcing alternative. As the artificial 2NT introduces the poorer hand type, to play at the three level in a minor, invitational in a major, it is called a 'Bad 2NT'. You can design it the other way round of course – the 'Good 2NT'.
Peter and Peter were playing Bad 2NT that but wished they weren't. Any spade contract by South would expose opener's holding to the opening lead. What they needed were transfers – but though a perfectly serviceable system here, they simply weren't part of their methods. So improvisation was called for:
Three hearts purported to show just four spades without a heart stop and the further effort of four hearts obviously got the message across – or at least left North with no place else to go. The auction wasn't quite over; West doubled the final contract because "he didn't like the sound of the bidding". That wasn't a success when opener's hand was ♠Q84 ♥A9 ♦KQ5 ♣A10874 and ten tricks rolled in.
This escapade put me in mind of a hand from the 2001 Bermuda Bowl final:
- J10
- 1032
- AKJ5
- AK86
Two hearts showed spades but now you wish you weren't playing transfers and partner was declaring. But there's no reason to say you can't transfer too. Peter Weichsel bid four hearts, improvising a transfer of the spade suit back to his partner, protecting Sontag's heart king.
Published Saturday 11.Jun.2005