Bridge

The deal comes from an Asia/Middle East qualifier for the Bermuda Bowl, contested in Jordan. The Sri Lankan South bid a dubious 4NT, despite holding two losers in West’s suit. When West continued with 5H, North used the DOPI convention. A Double would show 0 key cards and a Pass would show 1 key card. The convention should perhaps be written D0P1 rather than DOPI. North in fact held two key cards (the club ace and the trump king), plus the queen of trumps. Since this would be fourth-step response (5S) without any intervention, he now had to bid 5NT — the second available bid after Pass and Double. South duly bid 6D and West understandably took out insurance in 6H on his fine hand. North doubled but South persisted with 6S. All now depended on West’s opening lead. What would you have led from his hand? It was tempting indeed to lead the six of hearts. If partner could win with the ten, he would be able to return a diamond, delivering a ruff for the setting trick. West was the Indian ace, Subhash Gupta, who is thought to hold some sort of record for underleading aces. On this occasion he showed some disrespect for the opponents’ bidding by cashing two top hearts! A fine decision indeed.

Answer

As I mentioned last week, the Law of Total Trumps is an excellent guide to competitive bidding. Here you expect to have ten total trumps and should therefore bid 4S. If you go down you can expect that the opponents would have made game their way. By bidding 4S immediately, you cause maximum impact.

Awards: 4S-10, 3S-6, 2S-2.

David Bird — Knight Features

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