Counting what?
Posted: 28 Jun 2024, 10:28
This is another deal from a recent club game. Vulnerable vs. not you pick up:
♠ AQ8
♥ AK6
♦ AK4
♣ AJ43
Not bad! However LHO opens the bidding with 1♣, partner passes and RHO bids 1♥. What to do?
The first thing to do is count your points. 25! That leaves 15 for the other three hands and it looks like the opponents have all of them and are bidding on fumes. Therefore partner has nothing at all.
The second thing to do is count your tricks. You have six in hand, and maybe a seventh on a friendly black suit lead. Prospects for more seem dim.
A double or 1NT call seems quite sufficient here. The nice thing about 1NT is that partner might transfer into a long suit. The bad thing about double is you don't want this hand to be dummy. I would try 1NT.
The full deal was:
The deal was played 7 times and in 6 of them your hand bid 3NT. The remaining instance was a 2NT contract which made on a small club lead and perhaps an endplay. At one table LHO bid on to 4♣ over 3NT and was soundly punished.
♠ AQ8
♥ AK6
♦ AK4
♣ AJ43
Not bad! However LHO opens the bidding with 1♣, partner passes and RHO bids 1♥. What to do?
The first thing to do is count your points. 25! That leaves 15 for the other three hands and it looks like the opponents have all of them and are bidding on fumes. Therefore partner has nothing at all.
The second thing to do is count your tricks. You have six in hand, and maybe a seventh on a friendly black suit lead. Prospects for more seem dim.
A double or 1NT call seems quite sufficient here. The nice thing about 1NT is that partner might transfer into a long suit. The bad thing about double is you don't want this hand to be dummy. I would try 1NT.
The full deal was:
- board_12.png (13.38 KiB) Viewed 6235 times
The deal was played 7 times and in 6 of them your hand bid 3NT. The remaining instance was a 2NT contract which made on a small club lead and perhaps an endplay. At one table LHO bid on to 4♣ over 3NT and was soundly punished.