Source: Mr Bridge
Mention duplicate pairs to many players and their minds immediately focus on the quickest possible way to arrive at 3NT. Certainly it isn’t hard to envisage the superiority of 3NT over five of a minor. The experience of playing in a lay-down 5
, collecting a virtuous 400, and scoring a bottom, as everybody else manages 430 in a dubious 3NT, isn’t quickly forgotten. However, it isn’t that simple when a major suit contract is the alternative. On the hand below, suppose West opens a weak 1NT. Should East use Stayman, or just settle for 3NT?
It would hardly matter at teams of four scoring, as either 3NT or 4
is laydown. How about at pairs?
In 4 you would have time to take the heart finesse, even on a club lead. In 3NT that would risk failure. Moreover, even if the heart finesse fails you will make an extra trick in 4, courtesy of ruffing a club in the West hand.
A 5-3 major suit fit may provide an extra trick, because of the extra control of the trump suit or possibly the opportunity to ruff a loser in the hand with three trumps. The 4-4 fit is rather more likely to provide an extra trick, because the chances of scoring five tricks rather than four in the suit is greater still.
At teams (or rubber bridge) you need two extra tricks to make the major suit contract indisputably correct. At duplicate pairs one extra trick is ample justification. I know that many players have strong views on whether to play 4-4 or 5-3 major suit fits in the suit contract or no-trumps, and if I try to persuade you otherwise I am asking for a string of abusive letters showing hands where no trumps was correct. My point is that whatever your ‘borderline’, you should . err towards the major suit contract at pairs.
The need to find the 4-4 major suit fit is even more pronounced at a lower level because of the greater likelihood of having a suit vulnerable to enemy attack. In the hand below 2 is massively better than 1NT.
In 1NT you are likely to lose 3 or 4 club tricks before you have a chance to establish your suits; in 2 this is no problem. Indeed it Is not inconceivable that you will take 10 tricks in spades (with the heart finesse right), while fall· ing in 1NT on a 6-2 club break! Of course, if you play the weak notrump you have no realistic way of uncovering this 4-4 spade fit because East is far too weak to use Stayman. In fact it is this sort of hand, resulting in missing the major fit rather than the prospect of losing a large penalty, that is the greatest drawback of the weak 1NT at duplicate pairs scoring.
Other close bidding decisions should be swayed by the need to find a major suit fit.
When opening a 4-4-3-2 shape hand that is too strong for 1NT it is usual to open the lower of the touching suits. This allows partner to respond in the higher one, if he has it. Otherwise you intend to rebid no-trumps at an appropriate level.
| Hand a | Hand b | |
Consider hand (a). Do you open 1
, relying on partner to introduce the hearts? Partly it depends on whether or not you are playing negative doubles. At pairs scoring your opponents will be looking for the opportunity to overcall 1, bypassing the heart suit. If partner can show hearts by doubling then no harm is done. If not, you risk losing the 4-4 major fit, as it is more than likely that your right hand opponent will raise pre-emptively to 2 or 3. This is an argument for playing negative doubles, or getting your major in quickly if you don’t! With (b), when the suits are not touching, there are arguments for opening either suit, but at pairs scoring the balance must sway towards the major.
Hand c
It pays to show support for partner’s major quickly, particularly if you are weak. lf partner opens 1
and you hold (c), modem Acol would favour a raise to 2 rather than a 1NT response at any form of scoring, but at pairs it is even more vital. It is quite possible that your left hand opponent intends to introduce spades, and competitive bidding will become easier for your side if partner knows of your heart support. False preference to a major suit becomes even more attractive. The bidding of the hand below is instructive.
| West | East | |
| 1 |
1NT | |
| 2 |
2 |
West would be foolish to rebid 2 with a 5-card suit because East could have a singleton spade and five diamonds. His 2 rebid is natural. Rather than just breathe a sigh of relief at finding an 8-card diamond fit it pays East to value his excellent spade holding and give false preference to 2. Provided he discards clubs on a heart force he will have a fair chance of making 9 tricks, and it makes it harder for South to protect with 2.
I finish with a reminder that responder should never prefer 1NT to a 4-card major biddable at the one level.
| West | East | |
| 1 |
1 |
|
| 4 |
If East responds 1NT what can West do except sign off in 3NT, a sadly inferior contract.
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