Declarer Tips
Turn six into 10
West leads the ♠K, then the ♠Q and a low spade to East’s ace. A club is then led. Should you finesse?
Answer:
You have six top tricks: four hearts and two minor-suit aces. You can’t lose any more tricks, so if either minor-suit finesse loses, you will go down. How do you turn six tricks into 10? By scoring your trumps separately via a “crossruff.”
On this deal, win the club return with the ace and ruff (“trump”) a club in dummy. Next play the ♦A and ruff a diamond in your hand. You can continue crossruffing (trumping clubs in dummy and diamonds in your hand) without worry: all the remaining trumps are high; you cannot get overruffed. This is called a “high crossruff.” The defense is helpless.
Here’s the full deal:
Note that East can scuttle this plan by switching to a trump at trick four. A trump lead would also be successful for the defense.
Bridge Term Breakdown
Forcing (adjective)
A forcing bid is a bid that requires partner to bid again – they cannot pass. There are different types of forcing bids: some are forcing for one round; others are forcing to game; others require partner to describe the shape of their hand or make a specific bid. A few of the most common ones:
- • Jumpshift
- • Jacoby transfer
- • A reverse
- • A cuebid of the opponent’s suit
Let’s look at an example of a jumpshift.
The opening bidder’s 3♣ bid is a jumpshift. It says that opener has a good enough hand to be in game, even if responder is an absolute minimum for their response. The responder is forced to bid again.
Why is the ability to make a forcing bid important? Remember, the goal of the auction is to find the appropriate “strain” (suit or notrump) and “level” (partscore, game or slam). By making bids that force partner to describe their hand, the best contract can be found.
Best Bidding
Three-level preempts
Opening bids of 3♣, 3♦, 3♥ and 3♠ show a weak hand (less than opening-bid strength), typically with a seven-card suit.
Because there is no weak-two bid available in clubs, occasionally one might preempt 3♣ with a good six-card suit.
There is no exact high-card point requirement other than “less than an opening one-bid.” Do not preempt with hands that evaluate to an opening hand. For example, open these hands at the one level and rebid your suit:
♠A 2 ♥7 6 3 ♦K Q J 10 9 6 3 ♣2
♠2 ♥A K 10 8 7 6 2 ♦K J 2 ♣5 4
♠Q J 10 9 8 5 4 ♥A K 3 2 ♦3 ♣2
They are too strong to preempt. Here are examples of three-level preemptive bids:
♠8 2 ♥7 6 3 ♦K Q J 10 9 6 3 ♣2
♠2 ♥A K 10 8 7 6 2 ♦9 8 2 ♣5 4
♠Q J 10 9 8 5 4 ♥8 7 3 2 ♦3 ♣2
Other things to consider:
Suit quality Depending on how the suit splits, Q–J–10–9–8–4–2 can be more powerful than A–Q–6–5–4–3–2. Intermediate spot cards can be very important. You often must play the trump suit “out of your own hand” because partner may not have trumps for you to take finesses and may lack the dummy entries to do so. Ask yourself, “Do I want to play this suit opposite a void?”
Distribution A hand with a seven-card suit and three low doubletons such as:
♠A K Q 8 5 4 3 ♥3 2 ♦6 3 ♣4 2,
still has at least six losers unless partner can help you out.
Position A general guideline is to be aggressive in first and third seat and sound in second seat.
Vulnerability The “rule of two, three and four” suggests that vulnerable against not, you are within two tricks of your contract, at equal vulnerability you are within three tricks and at favorable (not vulnerable against vulnerable) you are within four tricks of your contract.
Parts of this article are from Larry Cohen’s Aug. 2017 Bidding Basics column. Did you know the Bridge Bulletin’s archives go back to 2005 and are available online to ACBL members? Log into MyACBL and click on the Bridge Bulletin tab.
