N-S vul, at Matchpoints, you hold as south: ♠A5 ♥A862 ♦A63 ♣K1042

W      N       E       S

-        1♣     3♠      Dbl

P       3NT  P       ?

What do you bid?

The opponents have taken away a lot of your bidding space. Your double shows at least a good 9 HCPs. Therefore partner could have a variety of hands for his 3NT rebid. He could have a minimum balanced hand, with a spade stopper, and hope to go down only one or two! He even could have 18-19 and be balanced. Of course he could be unbalanced, any strength.

The best bid is actually pretty easy, 4♣. This tells partner that you have a good opening bid with 4+ clubs. Partner can now:

·        Sign off in 4NT (see below),

·        Sign off in 5♣,

·        Ask for key cards (see below),

·        Bid 4♥, usually showing a three card holding, or

·        Bid 4♦, natural, with likely something like 3-1-4-5 shape.

On the actual deal the bidding continued as follows:

W      N       E       S

-        1♣     3♠      Dbl

P       3NT  P       4♣

P       4♥     P       4♠

P       5♣     P       ?

What do you do?

Partner’s hand: ♠K9 ♥KQ ♦105 ♣AJ98765. This hand was taken from a recent bidding challenge in the Bulletin. The two pairs failed miserably. One passed 3NT. The other pair had the auction as above, but the actual South passed 5♣. This is wrong as you are the one with 4 out of 5 key cards, not partner!!!

Lessons to Learn

1)    When the opponents preempt partner’s hand can be imperfect. As in this case, South may have four hearts, but there is no guarantee. This is even truer for South’s 3NT which can be based on 12 points, or as high as 19.

2)    The corollary is that BOTH partners know this, and should bid accordingly.

3)    The actual North’s 4♥ was a poor bid. Not because he had only ♥KQ, but because he had such a slam oriented hand for clubs. I might have just bid 6♣, and not 4♥ which is not forcing.

4)    Partnerships should have a way to ask for key cards when a minor suit is agreed, that is not 4NT, which is needed for hands like these.

5)    When investigating a slam, if one hand holds the majority of aces/key cards, they must be slightly more aggressive as their partner will be more pessimistic with a good hand lacking these key high cards. The same principle applies if a suit is agreed and you hold the top three honours.

NEXT PROBLEMS:Intermediate and newer player focused.

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