Bridge

Joseph Rosendo always ends his interesting travelogues on PBS with a quote from Mark Twain: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.”

When you are bidding with your partner, you are on a journey, hoping to reach the best final contract. In today’s deal, what do you think of the given auction? What is the best destination for NorthSouth?

The deal arose at Bridge Base Online. 12 pairs of robots had the given sequence. Why did South jump to six no-trump? Its two-club response was natural and game-forcing. But even in Standard American, North’s rebid was a reverse, instigating a gameforce. South could have rebid two no-trump to find out more about partner’s hand. Here, North would have continued with three diamonds. Then South might have jumped to four no-trump, Roman Key Card Blackwood in diamonds, learning that his partner had the top three diamond honors. But did he also hold the jack? And what about the club king? Well, an experienced pair could have managed the latter. South would have continued with five notrump, and North would have bid six clubs to show that king.

Then South could have bid the winning final contract of seven clubs! (Of course, North might not have passed!)

Note that seven notrump cannot make with this distribution, but seven clubs is cold. Suppose West leads a trump, killing a spade ruff on the board. Declarer draws trumps, establishes diamonds with one ruff and takes two spades, two hearts, five diamonds and five clubs for an overtrick!