BRIDGE

Crafting a partnership’s bidding system to align with aggressive vs. conservative tendencies is a key concern, particularly if you want to avoid truly ugly results like the one North-South suffered on this deal from the Kingston Regional.

The opening bid? Not everyone’s cup of tea but opening the bidding with a five-card major and anything resembling 11 high-card points is fast becoming a regular feature of tournament competition. (My vote: No!)

Then North had a turn at being aggressive: The one notrump response was for- cing to prepare for a secondround jump rebid to show three-card spade support with 10-11 high-card points to invite game.

All to end in a truly ugly contract given the lie of the cards. A layout the defenders exploited to the hilt starting with the diamond lead, ducked in dummy, for East to win the Queen and return the suit.

In dummy, South tried the spade finesse but West captured the Queen with his King and shifted to the club Jack to the Queen, King and ace.

Declarer cashed the trump ace, gasped and looked around for new worlds to conquer. There weren’t any, and the final wrapup had South taking but five tricks of the nine he needed for down four!

Yes, the lie of the cards was especially punishing for the undernourished contract, but assuming the partnership standards go as low as having South opening the bidding, a better system alignment would require North to have more to invite game.

Footnote: A common result for this deal at the tournament was to have it passed out as many players, especially those holding the South cards, simply didn’t see an opening bid.