Surely West’s fault here for not bashing 5D which is cheap against game. Then North has to take the money or cross various digits and hope South has only one diamond. NS also have to avoid 6S here.
South’s club discard is interesting though as the bad trump break seemingly squeezes his hand In the black suits when the final trump is played. The realisation that if clubs are 3-3 you don’t need the extra club winner is a head hurter as Jim2 might say.
Regards
Iain
Bobby WolffNovember 19th, 2020 at 2:39 pm
Hi Iain,
While what you say is clearly true about West’s choice of diamond raise, does not do justice to his obstructive duty, especially with that vulnerability.
However, if and when, he jumps to five diamonds, North may feel comfortable to chance a 6 diamond cue bid, cheerfully (but not overly so) playing for very short diamonds with his vulnerable partner’s original TO double.
In any event, NS can then thank their luck to first, finding the right major, hearts, and then being able to accurately count their opponent’s hands to first own the crucial ten in the danger suit, but then be able to finesse through the right hand, though, at the beginning of the exploration, it is counter intuitive.
For Jim2, an impossible combination to occur (no matter his off-the-charts-talent), but for the rest of us, buy drinks time to celebrate.
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HI Bobby,
Surely West’s fault here for not bashing 5D which is cheap against game. Then North has to take the money or cross various digits and hope South has only one diamond. NS also have to avoid 6S here.
South’s club discard is interesting though as the bad trump break seemingly squeezes his hand In the black suits when the final trump is played. The realisation that if clubs are 3-3 you don’t need the extra club winner is a head hurter as Jim2 might say.
Regards
Iain
Hi Iain,
While what you say is clearly true about West’s choice of diamond raise, does not do justice to his obstructive duty, especially with that vulnerability.
However, if and when, he jumps to five diamonds, North may feel comfortable to chance a 6 diamond cue bid, cheerfully (but not overly so) playing for very short diamonds with his vulnerable partner’s original TO double.
In any event, NS can then thank their luck to first, finding the right major, hearts, and then being able to accurately count their opponent’s hands to first own the crucial ten in the danger suit, but then be able to finesse through the right hand, though, at the beginning of the exploration, it is counter intuitive.
For Jim2, an impossible combination to occur (no matter his off-the-charts-talent), but for the rest of us, buy drinks time to celebrate.
🙂
I taught three lessons on this one deal
1) Bidding as given in the column to teach about voluntary bids of 5 of a major
2) Bidding as given in the “Bid With the Aces” to discuss splinters
3) Play of the Hand: leave the tough suit till last and play out other suits to try to get counts.
Boy am I lucky you do not charge for using your column fruitfully 🙂