Diamonds and no-trumps - who counts points?
During my progress through the Suffolk Mixed Pairs reported last week I couldn't help but be struck by a theme. Deals where a long diamond suit compensated for lack of high cards in making three no-trumps. Let's look at the most dramatic first:
| ♠ A1092 | ♠ K64 | ||
| ♥ K1097 | ♥ 52 | ||
| ♦ J5 | ♦ AQ10987 | ||
| ♣ A108 | ♣ QJ |
| 1NT [12-14] | 2NT | ||
| Pass | |||
West's opening was impeccable but there are some who might quibble with his pass of two no-trumps. True he has just twelve HCP but look at those ten-nines in the majors; as partner failed to use Stayman he expects minor suit cards in dummy and the defence to attack hearts or spades – almost certainly developing extra tricks for him. But the real villain was East. She also had twelve HCP but that diamond suit is much, much more. The intermediate cards there are security against a bad break and the long cards are tricks. It's hard to think of a clearer hand on which disregard the raw point-count.
| ♠ K65 | ♠ J9 | ||
| ♥ 987 | ♥ K43 | ||
| ♦ AJ7542 | ♦ KQ108 | ||
| ♣ 2 | ♣ AK85 |
| 2♦ [5-9] | (X) | 2NT [Asking] | |
| 3♥ [8-9, ♦A] | 4♦ |
You may not employ a weak opening with diamonds but I'm sure you can understand the message. Even though North doubled, East used a conventional asking bid and discovered that West had a maximum in HCP and a diamond suit headed by a single honour. Despite that information, East got cold feet and signed off in four diamonds. In fact she could see eight tricks and just needed either a little help in spades to afford time to develop the ninth or an ill-advised blind lead from South. With North marked with the outstanding values, nine tricks were easy.
Rather than adopt a foundation of pessimism – they always lead our weak suit, partner never has fitting cards – below the slam level you should be much more optimistic. Though we are currently talking pairs, it's even more true of teams. Last example:
| ♠ A | ♠ KJ10 | ||
| ♥ 9 | ♥ 87653 | ||
| ♦ AKJ8632 | ♦ 1075 | ||
| ♣ Q952 | ♣ A7 |
| West | North | East | South | |
| Pass | Pass | Pass | ||
| 1♦ | X | 1♥ | 1♠ | |
| 3♦ | End | |||
Again East was worried by shadows: true, hearts might be unstopped but against that the opponents aren't psychic - they are going to lead spades, often away from the ace. Plus you possess the club ace which increases the speed of your trick taking and you have a partial diamond fit with partner to allay worries there (and possibly ease transportation). And, of course, partner has shown a good hand to boot – they will provide some cover surely. On a spade lead, ten tricks in no-trump were available.
Playing no-trumps is about taking tricks: it is much better to have those tricks and gamble on the stops in unmentioned suits than the other way around. Long suits take the place of high cards and compensate for traditional high card values. Intermediate cards – those tens and nines – solidify stops and secure tricks in long suits. And lighten up! It's not the worst thing to have a suit run against you – at least the play is over quickly.
Published Saturday 30.Jun.2007