Slam bidding is still uncertain

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, “Joy, temperance, and repose, / Slam the door on the doctor’s nose.”

What did he have against doctors? When you are below expert level, surely the worst part of most players’ game is defense -- but only a whisker behind is slam bidding.

If you bid and make a slam without a large number of high-card points, you are sure to get well over average in a duplicate, and you will enjoy the bulge in your pocket from the money collected if playing Chicago for a reasonable stake.

This week, let’s look at slam deals played at Bridge Base Online. As you will see, my partner and I were lucky!

Here, I opened one no-trump, showing 12-14 points. North’s response of three spades promised at least gameforcing values with a minimum of 5-5 in the majors.

Over that I like to play that four clubs shows a good hand for hearts and four diamonds a slam-suitable hand in spades. An immediate rebid in four of a major denies slam suitability. However, my partner prefers KISS -- keep it simple, sensible. As a consequence, I settled for four hearts. Regardless, my partner was going to bid six of the major I chose.

West led the club eight. (Why not the spade king, not that it is lethal?) I won with my nine and cashed the heart king to get the expected news. I continued with the heart eight, covered by the 10 and jack, then took tricks with the diamond queen, club ace, club king, heart nine, heart ace, diamond ace, diamond king, hearts six and spade ace. I lost one spade trick to West, and we had no company.