This hand was played during an on-line session and illustrates how cue bidding can be used to reach a very good slam. South opens the bidding with one spade. North has a hand that is not "exactly" a forcing spade raise, nor is it "exactly" an invitational spade raise. Determining how to respond is a matter of hand evaluation.
The North hand has no distributional values, nor does it contain strong secondary cards, like nines or eights. Accordingly, North takes a conservative approach and makes a "limit" raise of three spades.
South accepts the invitation, but instead of just bidding four spades, he cue bids the ace of clubs on the way. North, having started out by slightly undervaluing his hand, cooperates in the cue bidding sequence by showing the ace of diamonds. South shows the ace of hearts.
North, with no other control cards, would simply bid four spades at this point, allowing South to initiate a Blackwood sequence. Instead, he shows that he has second round control of the club suit by bidding five clubs.
South realizes that if North held the king of spades he would not have made the five club bid. Accordingly, he signs off with six spades. In the play, the spade finesse lost to the singleton king, but hearts broke 3-3 so a club could be discarded on the fourth heart.
The small slam was bid and made with just twenty-eight high card points in the North-South hands. The singleton diamond and excellent bidding made all the difference.
Unit 125 of the American Contract Bridge League held the Buckeye State Sectional Bridge Tournament in Solon on November 5 - 7. The following players were successful in their respective events on November 7. Other results appeared in previous columns.
Flight A Swiss Teams (13 teams). Stratum A1. 1. Gary Sikon, Lakewood, Mark Rishavy, Westlake, Kenneth and Laurie Kranyak, Bay Village. 2. Frank Aquila, Fairlawn, Jim Bachelder, Columbus, Jerome Rolnick, Lyndhurst, and Lloyd Loux, Westlake. Stratum A2. 1. John Marhofer, Cuyahoga Falls. Michael Abramson, Akron, Josh Levy and Jan Miyake, Oberlin.
Flight B Swiss Teams (12 teams). 1. Dilip and Smita Maniar, Mentor, Alex McCrea, Shaker Heights, and Virginia Colville, East Cleveland. 2. Henry Essig and Gary Montain, Westlake, Donald Barrick and Donna Largent, Cleveland.
Flight C Swiss Teams (15 teams). 1. James Novak, Solon, Nicholas Ogan, Moreland Hills, Danan Fan, Westlake, and Jing-Dong Guo, North Olmsted. 2. Elisabeth Alexander, Chagrin Falls, Betty Hollister, Gates Mills, Martha Thompson, Cleveland, and Mary Fant, Chesterland.
299er Swiss Teams (12 Teams). 1. Lawrence and Carol Wise,
Chagrin Falls, William and Carol Cashbaugh, Moreland Hills. 2.
Diane and Ronald Peltz, Shaker Heights, Terry Goulder, Solon, and
Barbara Kusner, Orange Village.
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon.