Dubious Logic

Suffolk Championship Teams

The preliminary stages of the Suffolk Championship Teams have just been completed. First the field is split into two halves, the lower plays a round-robin for the Suffolk plate and the top teams are halved again, qualifying four into the knock-out phase.

There were a number of deals to test all the teams in the first cut and this was one of them, raising questions about how much you can – or should – provoke the opponents:

There is no obvious action with the West cards over North's pre-empt and my partner chose a modest 3NT – it had the benefit of pragmatism. If you were to double, how would you proceed after three spades – four no-trump? Would that be this hand? Maybe four no-trump immediately – unless you are a very practised partnerships these will be grey areas. However 3NT has a wide range, even directly over a pre-empt (as opposed to fourth seat as here), and it is usual to play an investigative advance of 4♣. The no-trump hand is split into three categories:

1. Ordinary balanced
2. Balanced powerhouse
3. Running suit and a stop

With (a) he treats 4♣ as Stayman, with (b) he bids 4NT and with (c) he bids his suit. You can, if you wish, use the 4♦ response to show a minimum (or max…) and divide you 'ordinary' ranges further. Alternatively you can use point-count step responses.

I didn't think that I could have a slam try after passing 3♣ so I was reasonably comfortable with my 4♣ call, figuring that it was more likely to taken as Stayman than anything else. I was somewhat taken aback by the leap to 6♥. Still no-one doubled and partner was pleased with dummy and collected twelve tricks in short order; +1430.

At the other table our team-mates were a little more active:

Jeff Orton was faced with an even harder decision but backed his judgement to the hilt – right he was, he too had twelve tricks and +1440 – flat board.

Published Saturday 19.Dec.2009