Bridge
6 July, 2026
Judgement trumps conventional wisdom
It pays to think about the hand you have been dealt and not to just follow guidelines.
It pays to think about the hand you have been dealt and not to just follow guidelines. Not vulnerable against opponents who are vulnerable, your partner passes as dealer and right-hand opponent opens 1♣️. You are looking at:
Although the hand has far too many queens and jacks for comfort, the only bid that makes sense is 1NT, so that is what you bid. With the opponents now remaining silent, partner responds 2❤️which is a transfer to spades, then rebids 3NT. What will you do?
Conventional wisdom suggests that with 3-card support for partner's major suit and an outside doubleton, you should unhesitatingly convert to 4♠️. However, conventional wisdom doesn't mandate what you should do – you have every right to exercise judgement.
In fact there are good reasons not to bid 4♠️. Other than ♦️AK, your values are "slow" i.e. you lack top controls and will have to establish tricks. Even if partner has ♠️AK, she should have 10-11 high card points to have bid 3NT as a passed hand, so will have some other values outside. Your doubleton ❤️QJ are of uncertain value, but will be useful in 3NT if partner holds e.g. ❤️A or K, whereas they might not be worth much otherwise. And it's easier to make 9 tricks than 10 …
This was the full deal:
If you decided to pass 3NT, you would have been delighted to discover that while the opponents could cash the two ace-kings in clubs and hearts, after that you had 9 easy tricks, even though partner's values weren't quite where you thought they were! Fortunately, she had the crucial ❤️10 and the hand with long hearts had no entry.
Of course 4♠️ had no hope, but on the day this deal turned up at the club, only two North-South pairs played in 3NT.
With a balanced hand and "slow" tricks, if you have a choice of games then playing in 3NT is often best.
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Rakesh Kumar
The Southern Highlands Bridge Club runs three duplicate sessions every week (Mon 1:00 pm, Wed 6:30 pm, Sat 1:00 pm) at the East Bowral Community Centre. Highlands players and visitors welcome!
For more information: https://shbc.bridgeaustralia.org
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