PORT ALFRED BRIDGE CLUB

Kos/PA Pairs Monday, 14 November 2022 Board 01 Dealer N,

none vulnerable. BBO 10023 Competitive auctions often enable you to score well in duplicate bridge. Factors to take into account include hand shape, vulnerability and which suit you are holding. In addition you must anticipate possible responses, listen carefully to the bidding and evaluate the holdings of all the players. With this deal East could open 1S or 2S, the latter is the preferred alternative because it has good pre-emptive value and conveys information to partner that you have 6 spades and a limited hand. South has 16 high card points, which will usually indicate an initial double, but that may cause problems in this auction. Partner is likely to respond in hearts or diamonds; now if you want to describe your hand you must bid a ragged club suit at the ‘four level’. A better alternative is to inform partner that you have a hand which can compete at the ‘three level’ and that you have a club suit by bidding 3C.

West has a potentially useful hand, which is enough to bid 3S, and now it is North’s turn. A bid of 4C will almost certainly elicit a response of 4S from the opposition; you have a singleton spade and ‘millions’ of trumps. Partner can hold a maximum of 4 points in clubs and may have no points in spades; he/she must therefore hold points in hearts and diamonds to justify the bid at the ‘’three level’: your best option is to bid 5C to make life hard for your opponents. 5C may, or may not make; if it fails it will probably be by only one trick, but it is very likely to inhibit E–W from trying 5S, unless they expect 5C to make.

Results: 4CN =; 4SE= (2); 5CS = (2); 5SE -2 N-S 1st J Tagg & E Jurgensen……..67.5% 2nd A Ridderhof & T Paterson...62.5% E-W 1st G Wallace & G Renecle...…62.5% 2nd D Newson & M Newport 56.7%