Marathon of Sittard Imps Pairs

Sittard, Euregional Sports and Convention Center

August 25, 2001


Session 02 - Boards 21-24

Recommended bidding sequence:

2NT = Garozzo Splinter: 4+ ª-support, some singleton or void, and either 8-11 or 15+ hcp. North passed before, so he can't have the 15+ hand.
3§ = Relay for North's short suit and strength.
3© = Short hearts and 8-11 hcp.
4ª = South should not confine with 3ª, for North will pass with 8-9 hcp, in which case NS may miss an excellent game. NS have 22-23 hcp between, them, but the 9th trump, the singleton of hearts, and the doubletons in the minors make up for the missing 2-3 hcp, and the wasted queen of hearts.

Practical Souths will skip the relay stuff, and just bid 4ª over 2NT. North passed at his first turn to call, making slam most unlikely, so why give vital information to the opponents?

All Wests lead the queen of clubs, and hold South to 10 tricks. A complete wash, except for an adjusted score.

Recommended bidding sequence:

2¨ = West keeps the bidding going by Fourth Suit Forcing, for if East has 18-19 hcp, slam should be at least investigated.
2© = 3-card ©-suit, minimum values.

South leads his 5th diamond to the ace, North returns ¨T for queen and king, and dummy ruffs the third diamond. East overtakes §J with his king, and runs ªJ to the queen. North exits in clubs. East crosses in hearts, and run ªT to the king. East wins the returned heart, and cashes ªA and ©A. Fortunately, North has a third, so East gets away with -100.

The score sheets shows, that almost half of the South players rejects the ¨-lead. This indicates, that many South players are not familiar with the concept of attacking the fourth suit, which has proven to be a solid winner in the long run.

Some Easts will reject the (possible) 5-3 ©-fit, and rebid 2NT to show their ¨-stopper and flat hand:

West, who just wants to give up on his tiny hopes for slam, jumps to 4ª. South is too scared to lead into the ¨-tenace he expects East to have, and starts out with hearts. East wins in hand, dumps a ¨ on his third club, and eventually makes his costful game. Some Souths will call the director, and claim damage for misinformation by East's 2NT, saying: "If East rebids 2©, I will certainly lead a diamond, and defeat 4ª".

Director will not buy such 'rotten' excuses, and show, that a ¨-lead is not just the only lead to set 4ª, but to beat 3NT as well. Director cannot blame East for the sole fact, that South is unfamiliar with the pretty elementary concept of timing.

At the other hand, director will give EW some stuff to consider. After 2¨, East's natural priority is to show 3-card ©-support. East or West can still bid some amount of No Trump later. As matter of fact, 2NT denies 3-card ©-support. Mistreatments of conventions may lead to undisclosed partnership understandings. The oppononts are entitled to full disclosure of all implicit and explicit partnership understandings by WBF Laws 40 and 75. Director will give East a warning if this is his first infraction of this kind, and if not, give him some penalty.

If East has the habit of bypassing 3-card support for West's majors in order to sort of   win the race for No Trump, West should alert 2NT. Such alert virtually bars East from 'waking up' and support hearts later, see WBF Law 16A.

Recommended bidding sequence:

2© = Jacóby Transfer: 5+ hearts, 0+ hcp.
3¨ = Natural and forcing game.
3© = 5-card ©-suit, consequence of the fact, that East would use Stayman Relay and Smolen Transfers, if he held 5ª, 4©, and 9+ hcp.
4§ = Fourth Suit Forcing.
4ª = Preference.
4NT = Roman KeyCard Blackwood, with spades as trumps for now.
5¨ = 0 or 3 out of 5 aces (1403-variation).
5© = Relay for queen of trumps.
5NT = ªQ, no outside kimgs.

North leads ©J to king and ace. West cashes ªK, ªQ, crosses in diamonds, cashes ªA, and claims 13 tricks when spades break 3-3. If spades break 4-2, he just gives up a spade, to set up the 5th spade for his slam.

Recommended bidding sequence:

2§ = One of many types of strong hands. West upgrades for his excellent 5-card ª-suit.
2¨ = Semi-automatic relay. A positive response in a suit requires at least KQxxx or AJTxx in the suit, and 8+ hcp.
2NT = Balanced hand, 22-23 hcp. Once again, West upgraded for his excellent 5-card ª-suit.
3§ = Puppet Stayman*, asking for 4- and 5-card majors at the same time.
3ª = 5-card ª-suit.
4NT = Roman KeyCard Blackwood.
5§ = 1 or 4 out of 5 aces (1403-variation).
5¨ = Relay for queen of trumps and outside kings at the same time. The grand slam will be a lay-down, when West brings ªQ and ¨K.
6§ = ªQ and §K, or, ªQ, ©K and ¨K.
6¨ = Ultimate attempt for grand slam, giving West the opportunity to bid 6©, if he holds ©K, and therefore ¨K as well. ªAKQ, ©AK, ¨AK and §K would add up to 23 hcp, so it's still possible.

West wins the ©-lead. draws trumps in two rounds, ruffs his last heart in dummy, leads ¨Q to king and ace, cashes §K, and runs §J for 13 tricks. If §J loses to the queen of clubs, West can still unblock §T, cross in spades, and dump his ¨-loser on §A for his small slam. If ¨K loses, West tests the diamonds for 3-3. If they don't run, he plays the opponent with the doubleton of diamonds for the queen of clubs.

* As of September 1, 2001, Puppet Stayman is no longer alertable in The Netherlands. You will find Dutch Alert Regulations as PDF document here.

Go to Session 02, Boards 25-28

Copyright © 2001-2025 by Michel Franssen