This hand came up in a recent online club duplicate session. The auction started normally but then livened up somewhat! South opened the normal 1♠ and West overcalled 2♦. North raised to 2♠ (more on that below) and East bid 3♥ (yes obviously she has huge diamond support for partner but she can show her hearts first in case partner has some too – especially playing pairs where you want to play the higher scoring major suit contract if you can).
South competed further to 3♠ and West raised to 4♥. Although he only has ♥Qx, partner will have 6 hearts most of the time and there’s nothing else appealing.
4♥ proceeded back to South and this is where things took a very bizarre turn. It would be perfectly reasonable, at favourable vulnerability, to bid 4♠ here. Had she done that then East would no doubt have completed the description of her hand by bidding 5♦. That’s what happened at many tables. 5♦ became the final contract and the result was usually 1 off with the 3 obvious red suit losers.
At our table, however, South jumped to 5♠! This is basically an impossible bid (remember she bid 3♠ non-forcing over 3♥ on the round before!) It’s actually possible it was a mis-click (remember this is online) but no undo was requested, and nothing was said. On this particular hand, however, 5♠ turns out to be a genius bid. With 3 black suit losers East could hardly bid 6♦ now so she doubled. See advanced section for more on that.
The result was a disaster for East West. North put down a dummy that, far from its raw 2 high card points, was now worth an absolute fortune! Void in diamonds and 5 card club support for a 2nd suit that South had never mentioned in the auction! ♥Q was the only trick the defence got as declarer could ruff her two diamonds in dummy and score 5♠x+1 for +750 and a total top.
It’s perhaps worth noting that North made a very important contribution by raising to 2♠. Quite a few tables didn’t do that and that meant South couldn’t safely compete further over East West’s diamond contract. Even though North only has 2 high card points, the void in diamonds clearly makes the hand worth more than that. Stretching to raise, especially in spades, is usually a good idea in both a contested auction like this one and an uncontested auction for several reasons:
- Holding spades, it takes up more space in the auction. It stops East being able to bid 2♥. On this hand that didn’t matter as East was strong enough to bid 3♥ anyway but on other hands it might make it too risky for East to show her hearts.
- It helps partner compete. Knowing your side has a fit is one of the most useful things in bridge. Again, holding spades, it means you can outbid the opponents at the same level. Here it enabled South to bid more spades.
- These days it’s becoming quite common to open some very strong hands (right up to 21 points or so) at the 1 level because opening 2♣ just occupies too much bidding space. Particularly 2 suited hands like South’s where a 2♣ opener would mean you may never be able to show your 2nd suit at a comfortable level. If partner can be that strong for 1♠ it’s important for the other hand to stretch to raise if you can, especially in an uncontested auction. Otherwise you might have an occasional embarrassing score of +170 in 1♠ passed out making 4!
The hand shows once again the enormous power of the double fit. North South here have a combined 16 high card points but they can make 6♣ and 5♠ (6♠ was made at the time but can you see how the defence hold spades to 11 tricks? See advanced section for the solution). The reason is the double fit provides them 10 black suit tricks.
Key points to note
Double fits almost always score more tricks than you expect – certainly more than the raw high card points might suggest.
Stretching to raise partner, particularly in a major, is a very good idea. It helps your side compete and can also take space away from the opponents in the auction.
Doubling requires tricks not points!
Sometimes a really strange bid gets lucky – that’s part of bridge!
More advanced
What do you think of East’s double of 5♠? I am not a fan – yes your side obviously has the majority of the values but where are your tricks coming from? With such enormous diamond support the chances of the defence having a trick there are remote. Partner has also raised hearts so you have at most 2 tricks there but no guarantees. It’s looking hard work to beat 5♠! On the other hand, however, at matchpoints the double actually doesn’t cost much. We scored 0 out of 34 matchpoints for -750. But had we not doubled we would have scored -480 which would have only been worth 5 matchpoints anyway. At imps, of course, the difference is more significant. Once North South had gone past 5♦, they had basically won the board since East West could hardly bid 6♦ – that would be 2 off for -500 (South would surely be doubling it).
On the hand South got lucky. She had no way of knowing that partner had a void in diamonds (East had not raised them). Nor could she know about the club support. On another day 5♠ could easily be doubled and she’ll end up going 1 more down than everyone else playing in 4♠ doubled.
How do East West hold spades to 11? With an initial trump lead. South can win in her hand and ruff a diamond in dummy. Then she can cross to hand with ♣A to ruff the other diamond with dummy’s last trump. But now she is stuck in dummy. A club allows East to ruff, a heart allows East to duck it to West’s ♥Q to also receive a club ruff.
Although spades can be held to 11 tricks, 12 tricks are always available in clubs – despite just having 16 combined high card points! The 10 card fit means there’s plenty of time to draw trumps and ruff the 2 diamond losers – the defence just score one heart trick. That in turn means the “par” result for the board (the theoretical best that both sides can do) is actually 6♦ doubled by East West scoring -500 which is basically a save against -920! Needless to say, on this board, no-one got anywhere near that and -500 would have beaten every North South score except our -750 and one other pair who doubled 5♣ for -650.
Julian Foster (many times NSW representative) ♣♦♥♠
