If You’re not Sure, Bid One More by Henry Francis

1977 BERMUDA BOWL WORLD BRIDGE CHAMPIONSHIP

MANILA, OCTOBER 20-28, 1977

October 26, 1977

BY HENRY G. FRANCIS

IF YOU” RE NOT SURE. BID ONE MORE

It doesn”t always work, but a good rule of thumb is to bid one more, when you” re not sure whose hand it is. Sometimes you” ll sustain a small loss at both tables, sometimes you will find a good saver, and once in a while you will be on the Plus side of a double game swing. Argentina picked up 16 IMPs, on such a hand against USA.

	Q J 8 6 8 6 3 9 6 5 4 J 3
10 K Q 10 9 7 4 2 A K J 3 4		9 5 4 2 5 Q 10 8 2 K 10 7 2
	A K 7 3 A J 7 A Q 9 8 6 5

The bidding in one of the tables:

West	North	East	South
Scanavino	Soloway	Cabanne	2
1	Pass	1	Dbl
3	Pass	3NT	Pass
4	Pass	Pass	Dbl
The end

It” s not at all surprising that both Scanavino and Wolff insisted on playing 4. It was natural for Scanavino to push to the game when he received a response from his partner…7-4-1-1 distributions often take lots of tricks. And Wolff, looking at a singleton Spade, wanted to make it as difficult as possible for his opponents to bid. Swanson was looking at a nice hand the best at the table when he made his 2 overcall. It looked as if he had at least four tricks against the heart game, he didn”t know about the spade fit, so he doubled, only to regret it when all he could collect were his three aces.

At the other table; Attaguile, on the other hand, wasn”t at all certain that his partner could set 4. Wolff, on the bidding and the vulnerability, had to have a highly distributional hand. Attaguile was reasonably sure Santamarina had a spade fit with him, plus lots of high cards, so he figured he couldn”t be badly hurt at a spade game. So he bid it!

West	North	East	South
Wolff	Attaguile	Hamman	Santamarina
1	Pass	Pass	Dbl
4	Pass	Pass	Dbl
Pass	4	The end

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