xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> Mountnessing Bridge Club Featured Hand

Mountnessing Bridge Club

 

Christmas Presence....

 

 

Hand played on 

December 18th 2008 (Christmas Party Night)

Board number

Board 25 

Dealer

North

Vulnerability

EW Vul

Submitted by

Ian Moss

 

 

North

♠AQT753

♥Q3

♦763

♣A5

 

 

 

West

♠J84

♥J75 

♦KJ84

♣K72

 

East

♠K

♥K98642

♦AQT92

♣Q

 

 

 

 

 

 

North

 

 

 

Bidding: 

 

East

 

 

 

 

 

South

 

 

 

 

 

West

 

South

♠962

♥AT

♦5

♣JT98643

 

 

1♠

No

End

 

2♠(1)

4♦

 

No

5♣(3)

3♦(2)

x

 

Ian writes:

 

The Mountnessing Bridge Club Christmas Party 2008 was a hugely successful social occasion. The food and wine contributed to the enjoyment and to a more flamboyant bidding style. 

 

There was some seasonal bidding on this deal; appropriately it was Board 25 and the Kings were at the centre of the action.  Having gone out on a limb South retained just enough presence of mind to take advantage of the lie of the cards.

  1. 2♠ was Michaels cue bid showing Hearts and a minor.

  2. 3♦ was festive to say the least. Depending on your methods it would be normal to investigate which minor partner holds or settle for 3♥.

  3. Initially South tried to compete with a bid of 4♣ at this point. Realising this was insufficient South quickly corrected to 5♣ in order to avoid giving North the dubious pleasure of playing the hand in 4♠ and to avoid barring North from the auction should matters progress.

West led the ♥5, declarer decided to play low from dummy “on the bidding” and East followed with the 8.

 

Winning the Heart Ten South then advanced the ♣J. When West played low without thought South took the right view by going up with dummy’s Ace, felling the Queen.  South continued trumps and West won and played a Diamond to East’s Ace.  East returned the Heart King to South’s Ace, probably expecting his partner to ruff.

 

Declarer drew the last trump and played two more rounds retaining one diamond in dummy to provide later re-entry to the South hand should it be needed.  However on the fifth trump West discarded a Spade.  West’s original distribution was already known to be 3-3-4-3 so when South led a Spade and West followed low it was a Bridge “certainty” that West did not start with KJx or Kxx of Spades.

 

Declarer called for Dummy’s ♠A and duly felled the King scoring +550 for all the match points.

 

Points of interest:

  1. Michaels cue bid can be a double-edged weapon, often revealing the winning line to opponents.

  2. If you play Michaels make sure you define the strength and have a mechanism for exploring any potential minor suit fit.

  3. It may not be wise to conceal a six card Major suit!

  4. Sometimes it is the bids the opponents did not make that are more revealing than the ones they did.  In this deal West was marked with less than four Hearts because of his failure to bid them in support of his partner.