Getting in the way

Last week's article featured the autumn simultaneous for Bridge Great Britain, the body that organises the Gold Cup and the home international series. Those deals were linked by the whimsical appearance of the diamond seven in the final trick; today we have something a bit more instructive. Let's look again at one of the hands from last week:

♠ KQJ9642
♥ K10
♦ A753
♣ ---

You are second to speak and opener begins with one heart. It is almost certain that if the proper contract is two or three spades, one of three things will happen:

  1. You will not have enough information to make that decision.
  2. You will be outbid and 'take insurance' in 4♠ over 4♥, even if that is not making.
  3. You will think you can make 4♠ anyway.

In short you will end up bidding 4♠ and you should do it now. The gains are it will be harder for the opponents to double, harder to find their fit if it isn't the suit they opened (here it might be clubs) and harder for them to judge the level. Let's look at another example:

Love all

West
North
East
South
Pass
Pass
3
4
??

Four hearts? That may seem obvious but though I made the same call, I think it's a mistake. The opponents are sure to bid 5♦ and worse, North might be able to conveniently suggest a spade game on the way. Five hearts is much better. And they still might misjudge; North held ♠KQ65 ♥10 ♦J8654 ♣763, he probably shouldn't bid 6♦ – but he just might. South held ♠AJ9 ♥10 ♦KQ10932 ♣A108 and nine tricks were the limit in diamonds (but swap heart for a spade and it take a club lead to beat 6♦). Nevertheless, I felt I had to take the push into five hearts – down one. Note that East, with ♠107 ♥AK86542 ♦7 ♣KJ2, might have tried an opening of four hearts himself.

Of course, if you are going to bid to prevent the opponents scoring you had better be clear when you were doing it, else partner will misconstrue your actions to show a good hand. This is a classic situation, let's look at it from the receiving end:

Love all

West
North
East
South
—
—
1
1
1
2
Pass
3
??

East-West were playing a strong no-trump so it was quite likely that East had 12/13 HCP and four or five clubs; what should West do? Four hearts, getting partner to select the final contract is reasonable. The alternative is to guess the level in clubs. At the table the choice of four resulted in two overtricks – you have to say, that hand looks closer to six than anything.

Whatever is right, consider how much easier life would have been had South not taken up another round of bidding. With many game tries available, 3♥ here is just 'to get in the way' – and it did.

Published Saturday 28.Oct.2006