CONTRACT BRIDGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22353, 26 February 1936, Page 7

CONTRACT BRIDGE

UNORTHODOX BIDDING A FORTUNATE RESULT BY FINESSE A correspondent refers to the article on psychic bidding published a week or two ago, and sends along the following hand: — East, dealer. North-South vulnerable.

pass In the actual play, the eight of diamonds was led by West; North played the nine and East the- ace, followed by the queen, taken by South's king. South then led out his ace-king of spades, followed by the deuce. West won with the queen and led the five of diamonds, taken by South's six. His lead of the seven of clubs was ducked by West, and South then ran off his two good spade tricks in dummy, now established, and the clubs, taking tho last trick with the good 10 diamonds. He thus made 11 tricks, losing only the ace of diamonds and queen of spades. Such a result was very fortunate, of course, but the defence was not very good. As regards the bidding, I presume my correspondent wishes for comment on the psychic bid of "one heart" by South, over the opening bid of one diamond. With 4J honour-tricks South would look to have some bid in the hand and in the ordinary way a take-out double could bo made to see what hia partner had to say.. If he got a bid of hearts from his partner he would be prepared for a contract at no-trump, while with spades or clubs ho would have good support. East's rebid of the diamond suit was bad; if he wished to rebid at all, he should have doubled the one heart bid for a take-out by his partner, West. As I have remarked before, first or second-hand psychics are not to be recommended, although an occasional psychic made in this position has beneficial results, as in tho case cited above. With an ordinary contract at no-trump, South must be defeated with a heart lead by West. However, my advice is not to let such a result affect your bidding as a general rule. Showing a Void In the early days of modern contract there was not so much attention paid to the question of slam bidding as in later years. The four-five no-trump aco and king-showing slam convention did not appear until 1933, when it was published in the Blue Book of that year. In November, 1934, Mr. John T. Westbrook published his theory of a double jump take out in another suit to show an actual void in the suit bid, and a very strong hand with good support for the suit opened by partner and honour strength in the hand outside. This was formally inculcated in the Culbertson 1935 official system. It is a bid which I am always on tho look out for, but the opportunity to use it comes but seldom. A correspondent sends me the following hand, which occurred in play and is a good illustration:— North, dealer. North-South vulnerable.

The bidding: (East and West pass all through) North South 1 40 4 N.T. 6 7 9? The bidding here is quite interesting. If not playing the void-showing bid South in response to one heart could make some strong response, either a direct bid to game in hearts, or a distributional forcing take-out with two spades. With those bids no doubt a slam would be reached, but the void-show-ing bid to my mind is better and might be the only bid which would make a slam possible. If, for instance, North's cards are changed slightly, and the ace of diamonds is made the ace of spades, the possibility of three losing diamonds would possibly prevent North from reaching a slam contract. Opening Hand's Rejoinder In the void showing bid it should be pointed out that if the opening hand'd outside strength is in tho void suit there is a certain duplication of values, and this should bo conveyed to partner by simply rebidding his suit at tho lowest possible level, or by bidding three no-trump if that bid is left available. If, on tho other hand, the outside strength is not in the void suit, or if he has both, i.e., general strength over and above his opening bid (as in the above hand) some strength showing bid can bo made use of. Either a bid of some new suit, a jump rebid of his own suit, or the conventional four no-trump. In the following hand there is a very good illustration of a grand slam, which can only be bid with tho use of the void showing bid: — South dealer. North-South vulnerable.

South opened the bidding with one spade, and West passed. North, considering the situation can see the possibility of South's outside strength being in diamonds, in which case ho may be missing the aces of hearts and clubs, and with a club lead through there may be several losers. So North in this situation would probably bid four spades, and the best they could hope for would be a small slam. With the void showing bid of four diamonds in response to one spade the position is clarified to a great extent for South, whose strength is all outside the diamond suit. He knows there will be no losers in diamonds as his partner has promised strong trump support; with the knowledge, also of certain honour-strength in North's hand there is no difficulty in bidding the grand slam, which is, of course, a laydown.