Getting to game was not necessary

FRANK-N-ERNEST®

GRIZZWELLS®

BIG NATE®

ARLO & JANIS®

ZITS®

If you play bridge for money or in a knockout teams match, you try to get to game on every deal. The game bonus is huge; it pays big bucks or lots of international match points. But in a duplicate, it is not always necessary to bid game to get a great score. If all of the pairs are in a partscore, you can get a top by winning one trick more than everyone else.

Here is an example from a deal played at Bridge Base Online.

A second-position preempt should be close to textbook. One opponent has already passed, and it is likely that partner has a decent hand. Here, North did not raise to four spades because he could guarantee only eight tricks: seven spades and one club. Maybe there would be one more winner from somewhere, but probably not two.

The defenders were robots, who lead king from ace-king. At trick two, West shifted to a diamond, East winning with the ace and returning the suit. Now South played well. He won with his diamond king, played a spade to the ace, ruffed a heart, led a spade to the queen and ruffed another heart, bringing down West’s ace. After cashing the spade king, declarer played a club to the ace and cashed the two heart winners, discarding his two remaining minor-suit losers. Plus 200 was an 86.7% board.

One North-south pair bid and made four spades, but six other pairs went down one. Five failed to ruff down West’s heart ace, and the sixth had no chance when the West robot somehow found the killing trump lead. Six pairs were plus 140, and one other pair was plus 200.