City and Canada Bay – Thursday Morning 10th July 2025.
Board 23 last week had potential for some quite ugly results. Exactly what happens may well depend on how aggressive some of the North South players are in the bidding.
South has the first decision. He might choose to open 2S as a weak two. Traditionally holding a side 4 card major is a reason not to do this (for fear of missing a game in that suit if partner happens to have a good heart suit).
But if South chooses to ignore that “rule” he will cause East a big problem (more on that later).
If South does choose to pass then the attention will switch to North. His normal opening bid is of course 1♦ but perhaps after two passes, he might consider 3♦ instead (see advanced section for why)? That will also cause a bigger problem to East!
Let’s look at things from East’s perspective. If South did open 2♠ it should go Pass Pass back to him. North obviously has a nice hand but he can’t really bid over 2♠ from partner – if he could bid 3♦ to play that would be good but it’s going to be forcing (what would he bid with 20 points and a good diamond suit?) Now East has a horrible problem – every bid has flaws. He could overcall 3♥ and risk finding partner with a hand like he has. He could double and risk partner bidding diamonds or, perhaps worse, not bidding hearts on a 3 card suit and hence missing a 5-3 heart fit where game could easily make. It’s worth East West discussing what double and then East bidding 3♥ over a 3♦ response would mean. Also, if East does double then what should West do? See advanced section for more discussion on both matters.
If instead South passed but North opened 3♦ then East also has a nasty problem. This time he can’t really double (partner will surely bid spades a lot of the time) but he can’t risk not taking any action as his side could easily have game on. So his most likely bid will be 3♥. West will probably resort to bidding 3NT over that but that has no real play. North will surely lead ♦Q and will continue diamonds when in with ♥A. Declarer can only take 8 tricks (2 hearts, 2 diamonds and 4 clubs).
3♥ is also pretty revolting though! Even though South’s natural lead is ♠K which crashes his partner’s singleton ♠A it still doesn’t really matter. At a minimum the defence will score 5 tricks (2 spades, two diamond ruffs for South and ♥A). They can, however, take another trick to take 3♥ two off – see advanced section for what they need to do. At the table it looks like some pairs even went 3 off.
Notice how much easier it is for West if neither South nor North pre-empt. If the bidding starts P P 1♦ then he can make a nice simple 1♥ overcall. South will bid 1♠, West probably won’t act with only 1 heart, North will rebid 2♦ and that may well be it. That should go off since there is no entry to the South hand at all. Hence North should lose 2 hearts, 2 diamonds and 2 clubs. Even if East starts with ♥K crashing his partner’s ♥J, when he gets in with ♦K, he can cash ♥Q and give his partner a heart ruff to recover the trick lost on the opening lead. So by not pre-empting, North South are likely to end up with a negative score.
Key points to note
Pre-empts make things much harder for the opponents. They have to take a risk to enter the auction and sometimes it can backfire horribly for them! So it’s sometimes worth breaking “the rules” to create those problems.
In 3rd seat an opening can be much wider range – you already know partner can’t open so you aren’t risking missing game by pre-empting on a stronger than usual hand.
It’s generally right to overcall a 5 card major if you have one – it’s the only way to find a 5-3 fit in the suit as you will never get partner to bid a 3 card major if you make a takeout double.
Doubling a pre-empt and bidding another suit at the same level over partner’s response can be played as showing a hand too good to overcall, but a more flexible method is to have it show the other two suits (a really big single suited hand can jump overcall instead).
Strange things can sometimes happen in the trump suit! As a defender it’s often worth leading a suit you know declarer and partner are void in. It could promote a trump card in partner’s hand into a winner.
More advanced
After two passes to North he knows that East must have a good hand of some sort since he only has 11 points himself. It’s also very unlikely that his side has game on. Therefore it’s appealing to put the pressure on with a 3♦ opening. Pre-empts in 3rd seat can be a lot more wide ranging than usual once you know partner is a passed hand. That way the opponents are left guessing who actually does have the values. Here East has to risk bidding (his partner could easily have 1o points and 4 card heart support – a hand that could make 4♥ cold). But he is forced to do so at the 3 level where he may already be too high if he’s wrong (very different to a 1♥ overcall!)
I mentioned East might consider doubling 2S and then bidding 3♥ over a 3♦ response from partner. There are two ways to play that. Traditionally doubling and then bidding a suit shows a hand too good to overcall the first time. An alternative approach (“Equal level conversion”) says that it just shows the other two suits but not necessarily any extra values. That would be a handy method here. It’s more valuable against pre-empts as well where you need the maximum bidding flexibility you can. Besides, East does have a 4♥ overcall available to show a stronger single suited hand. But, as usual, all these things are a matter for partnership discussion!
I also asked what West should bid in response to a takeout double of 2♠? The answer depends on methods again. If the pair is playing Lebensohl then a bid of 2NT is artificial showing a bad hand (less than 8) so here West would probably bid 3♣ showing 8+. If they are not playing Lebensohl then West could bid 2NT using it for a different meaning – both minors. That caters for East having to make a double on an imperfect shape because he can then pick his longer minor.
What’s the best defence to hearts then? Spade to the ♠A, diamond ruff, ♠K and another spade which North ruffs with the ♥8 or ♥10 (let’s say ♥10). What can East do? He has no useful loser to discard so assume he overruffs and tries a heart. North wins and gives South a 2nd diamond ruff. That’s already 5 tricks to the defence but at this point South has singleton ♥9 left (he has ruffed twice and followed to the 1 round of hearts declarer played). North has singleton ♥8 left (he ruffed with ♥10 and then won ♥A). East has one of the top hearts left (he overruffed the ♥10). So if North plays another diamond the defence will score a trump promotion of South’s ♥9 – if declarer ruffs high, South’s ♥9 is now the highest remaining trump, if he ruffs low, he gets overruffed. So that’s a 6th trick to the defence which leaves declarer with only 7 and two off in 3♥.
Julian Foster (many times NSW representative) ♣♦♥♠
