A BRIDGE CLINIC

Southland Times, Issue 25417, 19 October 1935, Page 13

A BRIDGE CLINIC

AUCTION AND CONTRACT

SOME BIDDING PROBLEMS

(By

Horatius).

Arguments about the bidding of difficult hands are often heated, but there is no reason why they should not be useful, if the disputants fought about defending their own bids and seek the proper course disclosed by the revelation of the cards. There are hands which defy all systems, there are hands which demand imagination, and a careful attention to those inferences which enable one player to picture hie partner’s hand. Here is a combination, for instance, which caused many arguments:

Score; Love. E deals, and says, “No Bid.” How should the bidding proceed between South and North? It is obvious that a grand slam can be made in Hearts. But can it and should it be called.

In the actual game N.S. was using the Approach-Forcing and evidently missed the Slam. The argument was that South should have opened on a shaded bid, and it is noticeable that Manning-Foster declared, when the hand was submitted to him that Culbertson’s system admit “shaded” opening bids in suit and that most users of the system would bid One Heart on South’s cards. Manning-Foster is hopelessly at sea when he says .that the system would admit One Heart as a shaded bid. Culbertson mentions this point in guarded terms and advises opening on 2 plus Honour Tricks with 5-4 in the two way or suits, or two 5-card biddable suit, one a major. South’s hand fits neither requirements. South’s hand could be cut to pieces very easily and a Heart lead into a No-Trump contract could be disastrous. This hand contains 2 Honour Tricks with a Q plus, and a pass is the only sound bid unless you have seen your partner’s hand. If South passes, North opens the bidding with One Spade. There can be no Two bid here. North can satisfy himself that unless South has good assistance there is no game available and the way to find out South’s strength is to open with One. South’s soundest bid is One No-Trump, showing 1 plus to 2 plus Honour Tricks, which North must take at the minimum for his calculations until he hears further. But North has a second suit and he shows it with Two Hearts. Now South can see a fit for the hands, and he is entitled to take North’s bid to Four Hearts. North’s next bid is Four No-Trumps, showing two Aces and a King in the suit bid. He knows that South does not hold 2J Honour Tricks, because if he had held that strength he would have bid Two NoTrumps in the first place. North can suspect distributional values from South’s raise to game, and he proceeds to look for the Aces. t South must now consider the position. He has not shown all his values and so in answer to North he bids Five Spades. This does not offer full trump support (Q-x-x or x-x-x-x) for the Spades, because obviously it would have been shown before the One No-Trump. Five Spades should suggest to North the Ace of Spades and one other Spade in South’s hand. North also knows that there is no Ace of Clubs in South’s hand, but he is void of that suit. He realizes that outside of the Ace of Spades, South has 1 plus (K-Q plus a Q or K-x and Q-x, Q-x) Honour Tricks. This means surely the Q of Hearts and at least four others, in view of the jump in Hearts on only 2 plus Honour Tricks. This leaves K and Q for Diamonds <>nd Clubs. Obviously the King of Diamonds is suggested, leaving the Queen of Clubs. The Spade suit is safe, the Hearts and Diamonds are safe, and so are the Clubs. The Little Slam is sure and North must bid it. He will be a venturesome player if he bids Seven Hearts, although the prospects are bright. Everything would depend on South holding five Hearts, no more than two Spades, and the King of Diamonds. Actually the hand can be defeated only if someone holds five Spades to the Queen and holds up the honour. A “cue” bidder offers this bidding procedure: He allowed the “One Heart” bid by South and said the bidding should go: S. N. 1H 2S 2NT 3C 4C 4D 5H 5S 7H — By this elaborate process both players show everything. After South’s “One Heart,” North makes a forcing bid of “Two Spades.” This insures the bidding not dying short of game. South makes the minimum response of Two “No-Trumps.” North now starts his feature showing. He bids “Three Clubs” on his void. Qf course South does not know that it is a void, so he obediently keeps the bidding alive by bidding “Four Clubs.” North then reveals his Diamonds and South again replies showing North that he has the King of Diamonds as North has Ace and Queen. Now the way has been paved for the great revelation. North bids “Five Hearts.” South by this time realizes what his partner is after and that he does not know where the Ace of Spades is, so he carries on the bidding to “Five Spades,” and North “puts the lid on it” with grand slam in Hearts. This may be all right, and it is possible by this tedious and cumbersome route that two players in perfect understanding might have reached the Grand Slam. But, personally, I doubt it. The Little Slam should not be missed by two reasonably good Culbertson system bidders. Here is another interesting hand:

Both sides vulnerable. South deals and the bidding should go: S. N. ID IS 3D 4C 4NT . SNT 6D NO

South might call Six No-Trumps since he has no ruffing hopes and he knows North holds the two Aces and two biddable suits. If North held the King of Spades as well, he would think of the Grand Slam. South’s jump rebid in Diamonds signalled a 6-card suit with one missing Honour, so North knows that suit is safe. As South gave no aid for Spades he can have no more than x-x-x, and as he has six Hearts, there would be only two Hearts and two Clubs, so that a discard is assured. In this way the Grand Slam could be inferred, provided North held the King of Spades.