Contract Bridge
Bidding quiz
You are South, and the bidding has gone:
South West North East 1 ♦ Pass 2 ♦ Pass What would you bid now with each of the following four hands?
1. ♠ Q94 ♥ AK ♦ KJ632
♣ AQ8
2. ♠ AQ87 ♥ 5 ♦ AJ74
♣ KJ65
3. ♠ AJ ♥ 93 ♦ KQ7652
♣ AK4
4. ♠ 10 ♥ A7 ♦ AKQ54
♣ KQJ92
1. Three notrump. Partner’s raise indicates six to 10 points, so there is good reason to believe you can make nine tricks in notrump even if partner is on the lower end of that range.
It would be wrong to bid only two notrump, which partner might pass.
2. Pass. There are only two bids worth considering — pass or two spades — and good arguments can be made for or against either of them. Favoring the pass is the probability that you can’t make 11 tricks in diamonds, since partner gave you only a single raise and you have barely more than a minimum opening bid.
It is also unlikely that you can make 10 tricks with spades as trump, since partner failed to bid one spade initially, denying four or more cards in that suit.
On the other side there is the argument that a twospade bid (forcing) would probably keep the opponents quiet, while a pass would invite your left-hand opponent to “balance” by bidding two hearts.
3. Three clubs. You might have a game in either notrump or diamonds, and you can best explore both possibilities by bidding three clubs — even though you have only three cards in the suit.
You hope that partner, with stoppers in the major suits, will say three notrump or make some other constructive bid.
4. Four notrump. A diamond slam is certainly a distinct possibility, and by far the best approach is to use Blackwood to check for aces. If partner indicates one ace by responding five diamonds, you should carry on to six. If he has the club ace, you will almost surely make 12 tricks; if he has the spade ace instead, you should still have a reasonably good chance for the slam. This is because your partner might have the king of hearts, or because West might not find the potentially killing heart lead.
Although it’s possible that the slam might not make, you should have better than a 50-50 chance for 12 tricks if partner has an ace.