| + | West |
 |
K J 10 7 4 |
 |
J 8 4 |
 |
10 6 2 |
 |
5 2 |
| + | East |
|
Q 9 5 2 |
|
A 9 5 2 |
|
8 4 |
|
K 9 4 |
| South |
|
A 3 |
|
|
|
A Q 9 7 5 |
|
A Q J 10 6 3 |
Click the + buttons to peep
Click the + buttons to peep
Click the + buttons to peep
Click the + buttons to peep
Bridge Deal
from the deal bank
You:
South
Dealer:
North
Vulnerability: none
Source:
L. Farrar 21
For use by: Advanced
- Question
1
Your partner at North opens the bidding with 2 Hearts. What will you bid?
1). 2NT
2). 3 clubs
3). 3 diamonds
4). 3 hearts
5). 3NT
6). 4 clubs
7). 4 diamonds
8). 4 Hearts
9). 4NT
10). 5 clubs
11). pass
12). ask Bernard
- Question
1
Your partner at North opens the bidding with 2 Hearts. What will you bid?
1). 2NT
2). 3 clubs
3). 3 diamonds
4). 3 hearts
5). 3NT
6). 4 clubs
7). 4 diamonds
8). 4 Hearts
9). 4NT
10). 5 clubs
11). pass
12). ask Bernard
Answer
1). 2NT.
Partner is long but weak, and the common thing to do after a pre-emptive weak 2 is to pass, and watch the enemy struggle to communicate in the limited bidding space you've left them with.
But you are massively strong, with 17 HCP, so the partnership has at least 23 HCP, and might have 27... not to mention some wonderful shape. Your partner pre-empted with long Hearts, but unfortunately Hearts is no good, as the enemy have more than we do.
But at least partner has the one suit covered that you don't have at South.
Could you risk 3NT? The snag is, 3NT would probably fail if your partner at North only had the 6 HCP she's guaranteed you. (If only we could ask her to wink at you if she's at the top of her range).
And of course, that's a possible answer! If you bid 2NT, ("Ogust" responses to weak 2's), she will use all the 3 level bids to tell you where she is in the 6-10 HCP range, and the level of concentration of honours she has in Hearts: bottom of the range (she bids 3 clubs), all the way to AKQ of Hearts (she bids 3NT).
The only problem with this approach can be if she comes back with a weaker answer, plus of course she'll be presuming you've got 8 trumps between you, to use against any weak or short suits....
- Question
2
She comes back with 3 Hearts. Now what?
1). pass
2). 3NT
3). 4 Hearts
- Question
2
She comes back with 3 Hearts. Now what?
1). pass
2). 3NT
3). 4 Hearts
Answer
2). 3NT
Your partner is probably presuming that you have some Heart support, such as 2 cards or more. And will be surprised, and hopefully pleased, when you put it into game in NT. After all, you now know that your partner has 8-10 HCP, and so we have 25-27 altogether. The only slight risk is that she's promised only 4-5 HCP in Hearts, but that's a certain stopper at the very least, sitting there in her 6-card Heart suit.
If she had come back with 3C or 3D, you could have backed off into 3 Hearts to end the auction.
- Question
3
On reflection, are you worried about the short Spades?
- Question
3
On reflection, are you worried about the short Spades?
Answer
Yes, I am worried now about the impact of Spades on No Trumps, given that we also have no guaranteed totally strong Heart suit, for which I needed a 3NT reply.
Maybe the thing to do now is head off into 4 or 5 clubs, where I have 6 of them, and they're very strong, and hope that we can make 11 tricks in clubs rather than 9 in No Trumps.
Other people's bidding
To examine how other people might have bid, look inside box #1 in the right-hand column (>>>), by clicking on the pink "+ button".
The card play
To see a suggested Opening Lead, look inside box #3 on the right (>>>).
Then make a plan! Think for a bit about how you'd play this contract.
Planning questions
If box #4 is there for this deal (>>>), see how others might have planned the play...
J
