Contract Bridge

This deal occurred in a match between Argentina and the United States. At the first table, with an Argentine pair sitting North-South, the bidding went as shown. North’s five-notrump bid was a continuation of Blackwood and asked for kings. At the same time, it guaranteed that the partnership had all four aces.

Strongly influenced by his powerful suit, South ignored his partner’s inquiry for kings and leaped to seven diamonds. This would have worked out well had the spades been divided 2-2, but with the actual 3-1 division, South had to go down one.

North could have averted this outcome had he used the Grand Slam Force convention. After South responded five hearts, showing two aces, North should have bid six clubs. This would have bypassed the Blackwood five-notrump bid asking about kings, and would instead have inquired about South’s trump holding (spades had been agreed upon as the trump suit), asking South to bid a grand slam if he held two of the top three spade honors.

South would have responded with six spades — denying possession of the A-Q — and the bidding would have ended right there.

At the second table, with the U.S. now holding the North-South cards, the bidding started the same way. But over South’s four-spade bid, North, completely disregarding both Blackwood and the Grand Slam Force as though he had never heard of either of them, went directly to six spades, which closed the auction.

Very unscientific, you might well say, but the winning action on this occasion. North lost only a trump trick, chalked up the slam and went on to the next hand.