The World Wide Bridge Contest is a long-standing tournament in the World Bridge Federation’s calendar, 2013 is its 27th year, and I do hope you all enjoyed this event and found the hands interesting and challenging – my thanks go to Eric Kokish for his excellent and most entertaining commentary. Gianarrigo Rona, President, World Bridge Federation.
Most North players will open 1
, depriving East of that opportunity. Whether East passes or overcalls in diamonds will depend on personal
views on this issue; indeed, there is no perfect strategy with this type of hand.
Where East passes, South will bid 1
or a weak 2. North, with a minimum opening bid, should raise 1 to 2 rather than introduce his clubs, and might consider raising 2 to 3 as a tactical move.
Over 2, East will choose from among pass, double and 3
, with the delayed overcall implying a good hand with length in hearts, at least for those who believe in passing over 1. Where 3 is a reopening action, however, that inference is not as strong. Either North or South will usually bid 3 rather than sell out to 3, and it is quite possible that East or West will double 3 to protect their likely equity in 3.
At the tables where East overcalls 2, South will pass, overbid slightly with 2, or try a negative double, intending to convert 2 or 3
to 3, not without risk. West will raise to 3 and occasionally buy the contract, or raise to 4 and more often silence everyone. However, East might well bid 5 once he knows of four- or five-card support (from his perspective, it would not take much to make game excellent: four or five clubs to the queen, a singleton heart, jack-fifth of trumps, for example).
Where Sur has volunteered 2 over Este’s 2, Norte will raise to 3 over 3{ and will almost certainly bid 4 over a preemptive raise to 4. It is not clear where the auction will end, but the frequency sheets will include 4 and 5, doubled and not doubled.
Although 3 can be beaten, it takes a wildly unlikely sequence of plays: 9 to the ace and a second heart; declarer ruffs and plays a diamond, but the defense continues diamonds to force dummy; declarer will not be able to avoid losing
either two trumps, a club and a diamond, or two trumps and two diamonds. West will usually lead a diamond and, once in a while, a club or the Q, but the timing will be different, and even if declarer is forced to ruff a diamond with a high
spade, by judging to ruff out the Q, he will have time to discard two clubs on high hearts as West ruffs with trump winners. N/S +140 will be quite common, with +530, -50, and -100 making cameo appearances.
In diamonds, with the K capitulating, it might seem that declarer has only two club tricks to lose, but that is not nearly the same as counting 11 winners; in fact, even 10 winners will be too tall an order if the defense leads and continues
trumps. There will be some interesting variations in the play after a spade lead, but to come to 10 tricks declarer will probably need to avoid leading a low heart towards the queen and will eventually have to lead a club to the king. The
lead of the K reduces the play to the same position for declarer. Plus 130 in diamonds will be superb for E/W, and there won’t be many permitted to buy the contract at 3 and record +110. N/S might not double 5, and E/W might score well for -50 or -100, but 5 doubled, -300, will surely be awful.