Brian Davies
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There are four spade tricks possible, Ace then King and ruff the third round dropping the Queen with the King of Diamonds and Ace of Clubs as entries for the Jack and Four of Spades.
A first-round spade finesse is also a plausible line, but you will only make 8 tricks as the cards lie.
I’m not sure which hand you are referring to Hilary. Was it this one?
East has both of the unbid suits, but only has three points – not enough for a negative double. Change the âŁ4 into the âŁK and I think that East might have doubled.
You are in a good contract – not everyone will be on 3NT. You have avoided a potentially damaging spade lead. Don’t throw away your advantage, rise with the ace and cash the nine tricks.
Hi Bruce,
The Law of Total Tricks is a good guideline on how many ticks are available. But it is only ever intended as a guideline not a Law in the sense that Newton’s three Laws of Motion are Laws. Larry Cohen wrote a detailed text on the Law of Total Tricks: “To Bid Or Not To Bid” and he spends much of the book discussing why the Law is sometimes “off”.
The above hand has particularly pure trump holdings, which will tend to explain why more tricks are available than suggested by the Law.
To give some context to Julian’s answer, 1D-1H-2C is non-forcing, but the 2C bid has a wide range (11 up to a poor 18 say). For this reason the 2C bid won’t be passed very often. I would expect responder to raise on almost any hand with four-card club support.
It’s one if the golden rules – a pre-emptor never buds again. But I would break the rule on this hand.
I would never come up with a double on the South hand. But if I did, I would bid again.
Very difficult to predict this auction.
As East: with 6-6 and a 9-count, you have to consider opening 1H. But there are no aces and the only king is singleton, so not this time! You could pass and hope to come in with a two-suited overcall, but the opponents are likely to have spades and the bidding might be uncomfortably high. So my plan would be to open 2H, planning to bid clubs next (breaking all the rules!).
As South: overcalling 2NT is possible, but I probably pass and hope for penalties. West also passes.
As North: I might double in the protective seat, but I prefer a 2S overcall. East follows through the plan and bids 3C.
South shows some strength – 3H maybe? Or double? (would that be take-out?). East raises? Some tricky judgements!
Great hand! Is it worth sending to Bernard as he us discussing competitive bidding?
Julian makes some excellent points:
– You expect to hold one ten and one nine on average, so you need more than this to start thinking about upgrading.
– These intermediates are so valuable in our long suits and in combination with our honour cards. But a holding such as 10X is little better than XX much of the time.
Yes, I agree David, there is no perfect solution. Experts can’t agree on the best method so it is not surprising that we can’t either! The most important thing is to have the same understanding as your partner.
You will never miss a 4-4 heart fit if you open 1H. But you might occasionally play in a 4-3 fit!
Happy New year to you and everyone on BMB. đ
I prefer Mark’s method, but there is still a possible problem with singleton spade. It will work ok on the pair of hands above – as long as responder bids up the line, as they should. But if you change responders hand to:
S – KQ742
H – J9
D – A765
C – 54
What will opener bid after the auction starts 1C-1S? Opener can’t bid 1NT with 13 HCPs, opener cannot rebid 2D or 2H (a reverse), so opener will have to rebid the four-card club suit and play 2C in a 4-2 fit since responder doesn’t have quite enough for a second bid.
My choice of opening on my example hand (in order of preference) would be 1D (best), 1NT, 1C, 1H (worst)!
Ian, Pat, as I have said above, there is no perfect solution and any method involves compromises. I had never come across this Hot and Cold Taps idea before and whilst it is a great memory jogger, I am not a fan of opening 1H with a black singleton.
Let me give you a hand:
S – A
H – A1032
D – 9432
C – KQ98
You open 1H, based on this Taps rule and partner responds 1S (of course). Presumably, you rebid 2C since you are neither balanced nor strong enough for a 1NT rebid. So far we have 1H-1S-2C and this sequence promises an unbalanced hand. If not playing Taps, the sequence promises a five-card heart suit, but if you play Taps the sequence might be 4441.
Now let’s look at responder’s hand:
S – KQ74
H – J94
D – A765
C – A4
With 14 points, responder wants to play in game. If not playing Taps, responder can bid 4H, certain that there is an eight-card heart fit. But if playing Taps responder must (a) bid 4H anyway and risk playing in a 4-3 fit; (b) bid 3NT and miss the heart game (even playing Taps, opener will usually have five hearts) or (c) bid 2D – 4th suit forcing.
To be honest 2D is probably the better bid, but look again at openers hand. What do you bid next after 1H-1S-2C-2D*? Taps is easy on the memory, but it is it the best bridge choice?
