Ascot Bridge Club

HAND OF THE WEEK

These are the East-West cards, with West as dealer.

                              W                                                       E

                        S  Q4                                              S  AK5

                        H  --                                                 H  AQ1063

                        D  AK87643                                   D  Q5 

                        C   AQ108                                      C   KJ7     

If the diamonds are no worse than 3-1, you have 15 tricks in No Trumps, diamonds – or even clubs (if they break 3-3 or 4-2). 

How do you get there?

At the table, my partner and I got close – but not close enough the sequence was:-

W                    N            E                      S

1D                   -            1H                     -            

2C                   -            2S(1)                -            

4D(2)              -            4NT(3)              -                        

5C(4)              -            5NT(5)              -           

6C(6)              -            6NT(7)              -           

(1)      4^th Suit Forcing

(2)      An attempt to show long diamonds  and a better than minimum hand

(3)      RKCB for diamonds  

(4)      3 of the 5 ‘aces  

(5)      Blackwood for Kings  

(6)             None!    

(7)             A King is missing  

After West’s 5C response, East “knows” that he has 6 diamonds to the AK, and 4 clubs to the Ace – with some other undisclosed goodies.  The diamond queen in the East hand should mean 6 tricks there.  West has only 3 cards (maximum) in the Majors, which are covered by East.  So it all boils down to the Clubs.  West had denied the Heart King, but has “claimed” to be better than minimum (the 4D bid), so the chances of him having one black queen must be good.  If he has

(i)                 6 diamonds and the club queen, 7NT is a very good bet

(ii)               7 diamonds and the spade queen, 7NT is equally good

(iii)             6 diamonds, the spade queen and A10 in clubs, 7NT is on a finesse

These seem reasonable odds to “bid the grand”.  The real problem is having enough time to work all this out at the table.

Has anyone got a better sequence?  I don’t think that it is any easier using Precision Club, unless you use the full range of asking bids – but I could be wrong!