BRIDGE

Preemptive barrages in the auction are meant to deprive the opponents of bidding space they might otherwise use to make accurate decisions.

But taking away lots of bidding space can be a doubleedged sword as the “space deprived” pair may bid more than their cards warrant simply because they can't tell how high they should go.

And very often find out they may have blundered into a high-level contract for which their cards fit beautifully and the opponents' assets are favourably located.

In a recent match, one East took the conservative route by passing after his opponents started with a one spade opening bid and a game-forcing artificial raise. Eventually, the bidders decided their combined assets didn't warrant going beyond game and there the matter rested.

Note that virtually unbiddable assets like the combining secondary heart cards and North's club doubleton were key factors in a possible slam being available.

Over at Action Central, East jumped in over the same North response with a preemptive overcall that West, hating to be left out after South passed to await developments, raised to the five-level.

Given the convenient opportunity, North advertised his heart control(s) and South liked his spade quality, diamond shortness and club control enough to punt the slam.

And made it when the heart Queen was precisely where he needed it to be so that suit provided one club discard, one club trick was lost and one club loser was ruffed in dummy.

Other than “well done”, East and West could have no comments on their opponents' success as they themselves had in fact provided the momentum required for the slam to be reached.