Diary of a Bridge Pro #38

Springfield, April 20

Department of Alarming News:

I noticed yesterday that the regional in Wisconsin is requiring "Proof of Vaccine" once more.
This is beyond amazing to me.

August Update: Attendance was terrible at the Wisconsin regional which required proof of
vaccination, so - the League came up with the right policy for the wrong reason (imo),
specifically:

By fiat of the ACBL, effective immediately, districts can not require proof of vaccination as a
condition of participation in their tournaments.

*****
Here's a deal I was sent from the Gatlinburg regional, which is happening this week.
Responder holds: AKJ9x, Jx, x, QT9xx -

Opener begins with One Diamond, and the opponents stay silent: We respond One Spade,
Partner rebids Two Diamonds. What do we bid now?

*****

​
I'm going to spend much of the balance of this column about this deal from the recent regional
in Florida - Board 22.

I was West and held xx, xx, T9x, AQTxxx - Partner Opened One Diamond, RHO passed.

I like to treat 1D - 3C as showing this type of hand - six or seven clubs and 7-9 HCP - Walter and I play a similar treatment, but I knew Wall Street Walter would expect more high cards for
an invitational 3 Club response, so I contented myself with One No Trump.

This floated around to RHO, who reopened with double. I retreated to 2C, and the lovely and talented Sandra Rimstedt, my LHO, competed with Two Spades. Walter raised to 3C, and Sandra took the push to 3S. Here’s the full sequence: 1D - (P) - 1NT - (P) - P - (Double) - 2C - (2S) - 3C - 3S - All pass.

Walter led a club, dummy tabled KJxx, Kxx, Axx, Kxx, and I won my queen. The ten of
diamonds shift was appealing, but eventually, after my longest tank of the tournament (two
minutes? Very rare that I think as long as two minutes about a single play or bid), I shifted to my
doubleton heart - I decided that my best chance to :beat 3S was to find Walter with both major
suit aces, and secure a heart ruff.

He had both aces, but we didn’t find the winning defense. During the bidding Sandra had kept
her hearts concealed, and Walter misread the position, so he tried for something else
(diamonds, I think).

Here’s a line you can use next time someone complains to you about their partner’s bidding or
play, I’ve found it pretty effective at bringing those conversations (typically they’re more of a
diatribe than a conversation) to a merciful conclusion:

Thought for the Day:
Partners are the bane of humanity!

*****

Here’s a tough pair of hands I was given to bid, imagine yourself responder after partner opens
One Heart, you have this powerful duke: AKQxxx, K, Axxx, Qx.

You bid One Spade, partner continues with 2D.
.
I’d like to recommend a 3S bid here - in Standard systems this second - round jump to 3S is
invitational. There’s a lot of merit to playing this bid as a natural force. In WBS, we have an easy
time playing this as forcing - 1H - 2S is invitational, so we have that hand covered - using
standard methods, you have to “go through fourth suit”, so a second round bid of 3C is
obligatory. This makes the bidding more difficult, as we’ll soon see.

Swing around to opener’s side of the table - he holds x, AJTxx, KQTxx, Kx - after 1H - 1S - 2D
- 3C, many would bid 3 No Trump - they treat Fourth Suit as “Asking for a stopper” - I prefer 3D
at opener’s third turn.

At the table, my correspondent chose 3 No Trump, the popular bid, I’ll bet. Responder took out
to 4D, and then - the specter of a Redwood 4 Hearts hovered over the auction. Ever pragmatic,
our opener simply bid 6 Diamonds. Responder, annoyed that Opener hadn’t bid Blackwood,
corrected to 6 No Trump. This might have made, if spades had broken 3-3, or a squeeze
manifested - neither eventuated and 6 No Trump went down one.

I thought this deal revealed a lot, about the psychology of modern bidders, and the downside
of fourth suit forcing.

Everyone loves the idea of “going through fourth suit” to show their forcing hands, but there’s a
lot of merit in allowing Responder to simply show the nature of their force with a second round
jump. Certainly we might be more comfortable with a start of 1H - 1S - 2D - 3S - 3NT - 4D.
Just sayin’ -

Here’s one more modern-day mishap from a recent regional pair game - Our auction began 1C
- 2C (inverted raise) - 3NT - I thought that showed a two no trump rebid, somewhere in the
17-19 range - apparently that’s not a universal treatment. Our hands were Ax, Axx, xx, AKxxxx
facing KJx, KJ, AQTx, QJxx - Six Clubs is cold (heart ruff in dummy for the twelfth trick) and Six
No Trump is on either of two finesses - you just have to choose which one(s) you want to take -
in Three No Trump I won the heart lead with dummy’s jack, and played a diamond to the queen
for my thirteenth trick.

The old plus 520....

Thought for the Day: Modern players don’t like to define ranges. But you have to, how can you
bid effectively otherwise? It makes no sense for one guy to think 1C - 2C - 3NT shows a good
13 or 14, while the other guy thinks it shows 18-19.

Gotta go, I’m at a regional and it’s not much more than an hour to game time.
​
- BG

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