CONTRACT BRIDGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 10, 12 January 1934, Page 6

CONTRACT BRIDGE.

WHAT SHOULD SOUTH BID? (By ELY CUIiBEIKTSON.) Mr. Borge Bosing, of Mount Vernon, Ohio, wrote to me the other day about a 100-rubber match between four players, two of whom used the Oulbcrtson system and two of whom used a variation of the Culbertson system, which includes an artificial Club bid known in Ohio as the Boland Club convention. In this connection he submitted a hand played in one of the rubbers, and asked me for" an analysis of the bidding, particularly as regards North and South. ■ South dealer. i ■ North and South .vulnerable. East and West not vulnerable. tart score 60.

The Bidding. (Figures after bftis in fable refer to numbered explanatory paragraphs.) South West North East 1 4 (1) 2* (2) 4> (3) 5* (4) s'*(s) 6V(6) 7.4 (7) Pass Pass Pass I—-The hand, it is true, contains only 2J honour tricks, but it has a wealth of playing tricks if Diamonds should he trump. South can well afford to make an effort to defend against East and part score and prevent them from buying a cheap contract. - , • 2.—A game bid. > , 3.—Fully justified by the flour honour tricks and .splendid support in Diamonds, even with the balanced distribution. 4.—East fears a slam, and quit© correctly injects this nuisance bid. s.—ln view of North's jump, South ia fully justified in bidding five Hearts, which is the equivalent of a six-Diamond bid, with the additional information that there no losers in the Heart suit. 6.—Not vulnerable, West should defend, particularly in view of the fact that his partner has entered the bidding. 7. —North has very important additional values —namely, the .knowledge that there , should be no Club losers. The bid of seven Diamonds should be made. As a matter of fact, East and West should probably defend against the grand slam in Diamonds by bidding seven Hearts, at which contract they would be defeated only four Jrieks,. and against which they have an offset of the honour score of 100. • But the question submitted to me was not what East and West's defence should be, but what North and South should bid. I think it is quite clear that they should have .bid the grand slam, even with the strong probability that they will never be permitted to play it. South, of course, in bidding five Hearts, does face the possibility of .duplication of values, but this risk is slight, as, in that event, North, instead of bidding four Diamonds, had 'he held tops in Hearts, would quite conceivably have bid three Hearts, in which case, of course, South should not bid the grand slam, but prefer the smaller, but more certain, bonus to be secured by defeating the opposing bid.