Wee Sleekit Cowran Beastie - Deal of the Week #8

I should have stayed out of it. I tried to, but I couldn't help myself.

This is from today's lunch time Bridge, and it's my Deal of the Week. North-South had a chance of a slam, but chickened out, after I came in with some not very helpful advice.

S deal, Love all ♠ 6 5 4 3 ♥ Q T x ♦ K x ♣ K T 8 x ♠ 8 7 2 ♥ A K x x x x ♦ x x x ♣ Q 8 9 3 20 ♠ 9 ♥ J x x ♦ J T x x x ♣ J x x x ♠ A K Q J T ♥ x ♦ A Q x ♣ A 9 7 x

TP JW AP NC W N E S 1♠ 3♥ 3♠ - - -

NC has the big South hand, with 20 points. You could open it 2♣, but I don't think it's quite good enough. 1♠ is the right bid, and NC found it. TB sitting West came right in with 3♥, an excellent bid with a weak hand with good Hearts. JW sitting North supported Spades. Normally, this hand would only bid 2♠, but with the preempt that's not possible so he has to bid at the 3 level. After the preempt you lose a bit of accuracy, and the 3♠ bid shows either a 2♠ or 3♠ bid, so is quite wide ranging, from 5 to about 11 points.

When it gets back to South, it's crunch time. He decided to pass. This looks mad, but remember this is rubber bridge, and actually 3♠ was enough for North-South to get their game bonus, as they already had a part score. So there was no need to bid on past 3♠. No need that is, unless you are interested in slam.

South could have bid 4♠. If it wasn't rubber bridge this would be a natural bid, but since 3♠ here is already game any bid past it is looking for slam. At this point I butted in to suggest to South that actually 4♣ is a better bid, as it shows an interest in slam and shows Club strength. Opposite a 4♠ bid North would normally pass, but opposite 4♣ North's hand is looking much better, and you might get to slam.

As it is, in all the mayhem, South was coffeehoused into passing. He'd been convinced that even bidding 4♠ might be too high. Against 3♠, West lead the Ace of Hearts.

There's an easy 10 tricks - 5 spades, 3 Diamonds, and at least 2 Clubs. In fact, you can always get an extra trick in Clubs to get you up to 11 - but how do you get 12? You need to get Clubs right. After winning the ♥A West switched to the ♣Q and it was decision time for declarer. Either you assume the Club is a singleton (like it is), in which case you win with the ♣K, then finesse East for the ♣J. Or, you assume that West has ♣QJ and if you think that's the case, you have to instead win the first one with the ♣A, and finesse West for the ♣J.

Given that he was only playing 3♠, NC wasn't that bothered about making 12 tricks, but just for style he won the ♣K in dummy, drew trumps, then correctly finessed the ♣J for 3♠+3.

I was blamed for North-South failing to bid this makeable slam, and if they lose the week's bridge it's apparently my fault.