South was delighted to pick up this hand during a duplicate game. He could have started with a two club bid but even though he has a three loser hand it is difficult to bid big two suited hands that way. One heart was certainly a reasonable choice.
North made a limit raise by bidding three hearts. A limit raise shows four card trump support (or good three card support) and between 9 and 11 high card points. Three spades by South is a cue bid, as is four clubs by North.
South's analysis at this point should downgrade the hands slam potential because of the duplication in the club suit. But this is still a matchpoint contest and getting the best score is the goal. With that in mind, South bids four diamonds. While this is a cue bid, South has not control in this suit. What he is doing is trying to lead astray the defender who will be on opening lead. Sometimes this works, and sometimes not.
When North bids four hearts he is simply saying that he has nothing else to show and this ends the auction. West has no reason to lead the ace of diamonds - South may have a void in that suit for his cue bid, so the four of hearts is placed on the table to start the play. South quickly scores up all thirteen tricks. A diamond lead would have held declarer to only eleven tricks.
After the game, a review of the other scores showed one pair bidding six hearts and making seven. Four pairs bid four hearts and made five, and three pairs bid six and were defeated one trick. So bidding four and making seven was a next to top score made possible by the lead inhibiting cue bid. The opportunity for this type of bid does not come up often, but when it does, it can be very effective.
Unit 125 of the American Contract Bridge League held the Ohio Masters Sectional Bridge Tournament in Solon on March 17 - 19. The following players were successful in their respective events on March 19. Other results appeared in previous columns.
Open Board-A-Match Teams (8 teams). Stratum A1. 1. Jerome Rolnick, Lyndhurst, Bernie Greenspan, Beachwood, Lloyd Loux, Westlake, and Frank Aquila, Fairlawn. 2. Kenneth and Laurie Kranyak, Bay Village, with Kathleen and Don Sulgrove, Twinsburg. Stratum A2. 1. Stan Dub, Shaker Heights, Jimmy Deen, Cleveland, Elbert Hargesheimer, Hamburg, NY, Christy Kellogg, Buffalo, NY.
Flight B Swiss Teams (24 teams). 1. Marc Sylvester, Edinboro, PA, F. Randall Cox, Girard, PA, Doris Kirsch, East Springfield, PA, and James Wise, Cambridge Springs, PA. 2. Thomas and Janet Rice, Cleveland, with Linda and James Stahl, Chagrin Falls.
Flight C Swiss Teams (8 teams). 1. Lansing Fake, Sheffield
Lake, Kathy Kovacs, Westlake, Patrick School, Strongsville, and
Steven Wolotsky, Lakewood. 2. Kalina and George Braun, Cortland,
Robert Carroll, Warren, and Bradley Sevcik, Boardman.
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon.
To reach Harvey Bernstein:
hjb0416@yahoo.com