Bridge Game, Bridge Lessons at RonKlingerBridge.com

Morning class on how to deal with strong opening hands.

In the afternoon the Moreton Bay Pairs was won by Glad Tulloch (N-S) and Kaye Hart – Jeff Carberry (E-W).

The evening Moreton Island Pairs went to Freda Herring – Jos Wallace (N-S) and Anne Boekelaar – Tony Bowden (E-W).

You are vulnerable against not. Right-hand opponent passes. What would you do with:

8 5
K Q J 8 6 4 3 2
9
Q 9

Make up your mind before looking at the full deal which arose in the Moreton Island Pairs.

South dealer : East-West vulnerable

West	North	East	South
---	---	---	Pass
3	Dble	Pass	4
All pass

Normally with such an eight-card suit you would open 4 . Here the vulnerability indicates 3 only as you can count on only seven tricks.

North doubles for takeout and with 9 HCP South should insist on game. The options are 4 , trusting the doubler to have four spades, or bid 4 to insist on game with a two-suiter or a three-suiter. If South bid 4 , North would bid 4 and play it there. If North happened to have a 3-1-4-5 pattern, North would bid 5 over 4 and South would correct to 5 .

In 4 declarer should pick the clubs correctly and make eleven tricks. Four pairs did exactly that. One South was in 5 for +420 (hard to see how that happened). At the other tables East-West played in 4 five times, twice doubled for –200, the others –100. One West managed to buy it in 3 for +140, the only plus score for East-West.