Choice of Game

 

3NT or 4 of a major?  Or 5 of a minor?  Matchpoints encourages greed, and the winning choice is often the higher-scoring contract, not necessarily the safer contract.

 

 

4th July, 2007                   Board 8      Dealer West       None Vul

 

 

North’s 3♣ was invitational, so clearly we belong in at least game.  It seems that the most likely final contracts are 3NT (if Partner has a Diamond stop), or 5♣ or 6♣.  We need some help from Partner in finding our way to the par spot, and the best way to solicit that help is to bid 3♦.  Partner won’t know for sure where we are headed, we could be asking for a Diamond stopper and angling for 3NT, or we could be trying for a Club slam.  She’ll assume the former to start with, working on the principle of “game before slam”, and will surely bid 3NT if she has a stopper in Diamonds.

 

OK, so we bid 3♦ and now Partner bids 3♠.  Now what?  We have shown 4 Spades (no more), and Partner presumably has no Diamond stopper and 3 Spades (probably Qxx).  Is 4♠ a possibility?  Absolutely, N-S hands have the perfect ingredients for a Moysian (4-3) adventure:

-         Good trump suit

-         Our weak suit is Diamonds, and (unless Partner has 3 small Diamonds) the shortness in that suit is in the hand with the 3 trumps, protecting against a forcing defense

-         A source of tricks in a side-suit

 

Yes, we’d give up on 6♣ and settle for 4♠, outscoring all those pairs in 3NT or 5♣.  As it happens, 4♠ is just where we want to be, we have two Diamond losers and 11 tricks are possible in Spade and Clubs.

 

 

11th July, 2007                  Board 28      Dealer West       N-S Vul

 

 

Here are the possibilities:

-         Double?  No, at this vulnerability and with all this offense, we’d hate to end up defending 2♦ doubled.

-         3♠?   A jump bid below game, over their preempt, shows a very good hand as well as a good suit, ideally just a trick away from game.  Typically, Partner would raise to game with an Ace or a King or a side-suit singleton.  This hand is almost too good, just the Q♦ would be enough.

-         4♠?  It looks like we are worth a shot at game, though it’s not guaranteed to make.

-         3NT!!   Now there’s a thought, all the more intriguing as we are playing matchpoints.  There’s quite a good chance that No Trump will score the same number of tricks as Spades, what a great result that would be!  There is also the possibility that West will lead a Heart to East’s Ace, then a Diamond will come through, and after the opponents have taken 11 tricks in the red suits they will graciously concede the rest.  Because of this, only try 3NT here with a Partner who is renowned for her sense of humor.

 

On the actual hand, 3NT is the winner making 11 tricks, when 4♠ makes only 10 tricks (the opponents get a Diamond ruff).

 

 

1st August, 2007               Board 27      Dealer South       None Vul

 

 

Partner presumably has 5 Hearts and is offering us a choice between 3NT and 4♥.  Which do we choose?  Well, we don’t have a ruffing value, and we have the unbid suits well stopped, so at matchpoints we’d guess to pass here, notwithstanding our 8-card major fit.  It won’t always work out, though, imagine a hand where we have a Heart loser and where the Q♦ is in the South hand and the A♦ is in the North hand, for example.  But, more often than not, we’d expect to make the same number of tricks in No Trump as in Hearts.      

 

 

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