The deal comes from rubber bridge and South’s 4NT was straight Blackwood, asking for aces (rather than Roman Key-card blackwood. which is popular in duplicate bridge.) How would you play the spade slam when West leads the jack of clubs? You win the club lead and draw trumps in three rounds. There is a potential loser in both hearts and clubs. The only way to dispose of one or both of these is to set up dummy’s diamond suit. Suppose you play the ace and king of diamonds and ruff a diamond. All will go sweetly if the suit breaks 3-3. You can cross to the ace of hearts and discard both your losers to score an overtrick. When diamonds break 4-2, which is more likely, life will not be so much fun. You will score only two diamonds tricks and go one down. Let’s try something different. Suppose you duck a round of diamonds after drawing trumps. You win the heart or club return in the South hand, cross to the ace of diamonds and play the diamond king. When the suit fails to break 3-3, you are still alive! You ruff a diamond, to set up the last card in the suit, and then cross to the ace of hearts to discard one of your losers.
What rebid will you make?
Answer
In old-fashioned Acol a rebid of 2NT showed 15-17 points and you had to rebid 3NT with 18-19. This was a tremendous waste of bidding space. It was not possible to locate a 5-3 spade fit, nor to investigate a club slam safely. It is much better to play a 2NT rebid as game-forcing, showing 15-19 points. Partner can then show 3-card spade support or rebid a good club suit.
AWARDS: 2NT (forcing)- 10, 3NT-6, 3S-4, 4NT-3.
The deal comes from rubber bridge and South’s 4NT was straight Blackwood, asking for aces (rather than Roman Key-card blackwood. which is popular in duplicate bridge.) How would you play the spade slam when West leads the jack of clubs? You win the club lead and draw trumps in three rounds. There is a potential loser in both hearts and clubs. The only way to dispose of one or both of these is to set up dummy’s diamond suit. Suppose you play the ace and king of diamonds and ruff a diamond. All will go sweetly if the suit breaks 3-3. You can cross to the ace of hearts and discard both your losers to score an overtrick. When diamonds break 4-2, which is more likely, life will not be so much fun. You will score only two diamonds tricks and go one down. Let’s try something different. Suppose you duck a round of diamonds after drawing trumps. You win the heart or club return in the South hand, cross to the ace of diamonds and play the diamond king. When the suit fails to break 3-3, you are still alive! You ruff a diamond, to set up the last card in the suit, and then cross to the ace of hearts to discard one of your losers.
In old-fashioned Acol a rebid of 2NT showed 15-17 points and you had to rebid 3NT with 18-19. This was a tremendous waste of bidding space. It was not possible to locate a 5-3 spade fit, nor to investigate a club slam safely. It is much better to play a 2NT rebid as game-forcing, showing 15-19 points. Partner can then show 3-card spade support or rebid a good club suit.