A BRIDGE CLINIC

Southland Times, Issue 22038, 10 June 1933, Page 11

A BRIDGE CLINIC

AUCTION AND CONTRACT THE LONG SUIT. (By Horatius.) Be careful of the lure of the long puit. But do not run away with the idea that the long suit means playing the hand in suit in order to secure the best results. There are times when the long suit is a tremendous advantage at NoTrumps, obviously when the Declarant has a shortage of trumps in the two hands and runs the risk of having the long suit ruffed before he can remove the ruffing power from the defenders. The hand distributed 4-3-3-3 is not an advantage—or rather the advantages it has are largely negative, diminishing the risk of the other side having a long suit, but not eliminating it. With a 4- hand the chances of making low-card tricks are practically nil—the fourth card of the longest suit may make there is a re-entry available, but otherwise the low-cards are useless. On the other hand a hand distributed 5- may develop two or even three low-card tricks at No-Trumps and 6-3-2-2 holds even greater possibilities, if there are re-entries, because the long suit may open the way a squeeze of the other side. The long suit means an ill-balanced hand and if the suit is not strong enough to ensure immediate and continued command, it is risky unless there are cards of re-entry. K-Q-10-9-8-7 may be useless if the enemy has the Ace and there is no re-entry. A suit consisting of A-Q-J-10-9-8 also has an element of danger if no re-entry cards are present to make the rest of the suit. If you hold K-Q-10-9-8-7 and your partner holds the Ace bare, the suit is blocked and useless unless there is another entry card. So be careful of the long suit that is not unbreakable, unless the means of re-entry are reliable. In such cases it is better to make the long suit a trump because then it makes its own re-entries and can ruff the other hand losers. If you make a mistake by bidding on a long suit with insufficient honour strength, do not make the mistake, of declining to re-bid for fear of repeating your opening error. If your partner calls No-Trumps, crediting you with a sound bid, all the more reason for you to pull him into suit. Here is a case in point:—

South dealt and bid One Diamond. At Auction or Contract this is a bad bid, because honour strength is lacking. Nothing is lost by passing. If North did not possess a bid, South’s hand would not make game, and if North was weak, the opponents should have a bid, making it possible for South to bid on the second round when he could not mislead North. In this case North went One No-Trump; but on Approach principles the Spade was better. Then South said Two Diamonds and North called Two No-Trumps. Now North should have heeded this warning, but as he did not, South who knew the extent of the blunder in the first bid should have called Three Diamonds. On English bidding principles North was entitled to go to No-Trumps after the Diamond opening, but using the Approach method One Spade would have been followed by Two Diamonds. The English bidding of this hand would require passes from South and West, followed by One No-Trump from North and Two Diamonds from South. The Approach system would go: S, No; W, No; N, One Spade; E, No; South, Two Diamonds; W, No; N, No; E, No. Diamonds must be persisted with, because only if North held A-Q of Diamonds could South hope to secure the value of his hand in No-Trumps and if he held those cards, with the other strength his bid showed Three No-Trumps could be made or Three Diamonds. On this hand East opened with a Heart which took South’s King. North was put in with a Spade, and a small Diamond was led, but East refused to play the Ace, and the Jack finesse let West’s Queen make. The Ace of Diamonds held up the suit and North was one down. At Diamonds, West would probably have led the Spade. The only lead that can save game is a Club and West has no sound reason for such a choice for the opening lead. Play it Out. As long as there is a chance to make contract, play the cards, don’t give up the ship. Here is an instance from play:

South was dealer and both sides were vulnerable. Through a misunderstanding South thought North had given two raises to his Heart bid (instead of only one) and leapt to Six Heart’s. East doubled, not an unreasonable effort to secure penalties, and South still labouring under his error re-doubled. The Opening lead was the Club Knave, and when the Dummy went down, it was, of course, apparent that the contract was a hopeless one. However, the Declarer decided to play it out The second round of Hearts was won in the Dummy, and a low Diamond led toward the Ten in the closed hand. East could not wait, and went up with the Ace, dropping his partner’s singleton King. The fulfilment of the contract was now routine, since both losing Spades were discarded on the established Diamonds. Declarer’s partner suggested that the Slam bid was slightly optimistic. “Ah, but I had a very big card you knew nothing about/’ he retorted as he pointed to the Diamond Ten. Persistence was rewarded by the smile of Chance.

South Is playing Four Spades and West takes with King and Ace of Hearts. He leads a Club. What should South do? South should take the trick in his own hand and lead a small Spade. Only one Spade trick must be lost, and so the King coes up on the first Spade trick. If West shows a void, this play will take care of

four to the Q-10 in East’s hand. If the Ace is played first and East holds four to the q— lo two Spade tricks will be lost. The play of the King eliminates risk.

Clubs are trumps. South, who has the lead, must make ten tricks.