Playing matchpoint duplicate, South had to decide how to bid his three-loser hand. A lot depends on methods, but starting with one club is probably right with a three suited hand. West made a very nice Michael's Cue Bid. This bid shows five cards in each major suit and near opening values.
East could have bid two spades but for some reason decided to make a preemptive call of four spades. South, with nothing else to say, doubled in an attempt to show his partner that he had a good hand. Good defense will defeat four spades two or three tricks, but this will score well below a vulnerable game or slam contract.
North has little defense and shows this by bidding five clubs. This is passed around to West who takes advantage of the vulnerability to bid five spades. If five clubs can make, the score for North-South will be plus six hundred. Beating five spades, doubled, is only plus five hundred. Of course, how many pairs will get to the vulnerable game?
South must decide whether to double or bid further. North must have four or five clubs for his bid, so South elects to bid the small slam. West opens his singleton diamond, won by South. When trumps fall two-two, all thirteen tricks are easy, scoring plus 1390 for a top board. Most of the North-South pairs were defending, scoring 100 or 300. One other pair played in five clubs.
Diane Peltz of Solon traveled to the Central States Regional Bridge Tournament at Lake Geneva, WI on March 8th and joined three players at the partnership desk who needed a fourth for a team in the Bracketed Knock Out Teams. They played in Bracket 2 and came in first earning Peltz more than enough gold points to become a life master.
The Buffalo Regional Bridge Tournament was held at Grand
Island, NY, last month. Jan Assini of Aurora and Richard Early
of Cuyahoga Falls were on a team that won the Flight A Knock Out
Teams on March 9th. Julia Allen of Willoughby was on the team
that was first in Stratum A of the Stratified Swiss Teams on
March 9th. Sharon Fairchild of Rocky River was a member of the
team that won Bracket 1 of the Compact Knock Out Teams on March
10th.
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon.
To reach Harvey Bernstein:
hjb0416@yahoo.com