Bridge Play

A fan wrote me, asking about how to handle hands worth an opening bid but with freakish distribution. The example he gave was 5, A K 7

65,8,KJ10653.Myfan wrote that his partner insisted on opening in the major suit.

I do prefer to get the major suit mentioned early, lest it not get mentioned at all, especially if the hand is a minimum in high cards.

I would open one heart with6,AQ765,AK76

3 2, 2. With more highcard strength — 6, A Q 7 6

5,AK7632,A—opener can start with one diamond, then “reverse” with a heart bid next.

With hands that are even wilder, all bets are off. Experts choose an opening bid on a case-by-case basis, depending on the hand’s strength and how they will describe it after opening.

Opening one spade with today’s South hand would strike me as extreme. I would open one club, then bid and rebid spades cheaply. North-South reached four spades when slam in either black suit would have been a favorite; North might have bid more.

But South didn’t make even four spades. He ruffed the second diamond, took dummy’s king of clubs and drew trumps, leaving him with none. When he cashed the ace of clubs next, East discarded, and the queen of clubs won South’s last trick. Down two.

South must play carefully in case of bad breaks. After he takes the king of clubs, he leads a trump to his ace, ruffs a club with the king of trumps and overtakes the jack of trumps with his queen. South then runs the clubs. He has two trumps left and retains control, losing two trumps to East plus one diamond.