The Times Improve Your Bridge Game. Andrew Robson

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ of 20 opens his hand (11 points and a five-four distribution). In fact South has a more promising hand than many twelve- or thirteen-point hands. He has both majors; he has a powerful 5431 shape with honours in his long suits; he has good intermediate cards; and he has no rebid problems.

      Whichever way you look at it, South should have opened the bidding. North-South would have sped to 4

.

      West leads

A, follows with K, then switches to 4. Declarer wins dummy’s A and seeks to establish his spades.

      He cashes

Q (East discarding). He returns to 9 and trumps a fourth spade with dummy’s A. He returns to his 10, draws East’s last trump, cashes the established fifth spade, and merely concedes a club. 10 tricks and game made.

Tip 1

      The Rule of 20: open the bidding when your high-card points added to the number of cards in your two longest suits gets to at least 20.

       Deal 2

      Our second deal addresses the issue of which suit to open. If one suit is longer, then that suit must be opened. Open 1

– even with

97532. The only way those small diamonds are likely to win tricks is if they are trumps. If opener has two suits of equal length, the rule is: open the higher ranking (the one exception will be covered next deal). By opening high, opener has the option of introducing his other suit more cheaply.

       What happened

      West led the

2. East won

J and led another spade (best).

      After trumping, declarer cashed

AK.

      Eight tricks. Not bad…

       What should have happened

      …but how South wished he had opened the right suit and thus finished a level lower.

Tip 2

      Open the higher-ranking of two equal length suits.

       Deal 3

      Last deal, we ascertained that it is correct to open the higher ranking of equal length suits. So it is… with one exception. Prefer to open 1

when you have precisely four hearts and four spades. This gives partner a chance to support hearts with four (or more) of those, or respond 1

with four (or more) of those.

       What happened

      This deal taught North the error of his ways. The heart suit got completely lost.

      Against 1NT, West led the

10 at Trick Three, which held the trick, then followed with

4 to West’s

A.

      West cashed the

J9 (East discarding

J.

      Declarer ducked in dummy and

J scored, but when West continued with

10, he tried dummy’s СКАЧАТЬ