Bold Bidding
By Mark Horton In 44th World Bridge Teams Championships On 19th September 2019
Snatching a brief glance at the Senior’s match between Netherlands and England I spotted this deal:
You could ask a whole raft of questions about this deal.
If West had simply raised to 5
would South have taken any action? If South bids 5{ could it suggest a two-suited hand, so North can bid 5
and then pass 5? Probably not, as South might have bid 5{ on a modest hand with a lot of diamonds.
When West bids 4 what would a double by South mean – is it asking for a club lead?
Here South elected to bid 4 (not the universal choice when this sequence occurred at other tables – for instance in the Venice Cup Scotland’s Liz McGowan saw her partner pass 4 and she led the 
A. When South followed with the 2 she switched to a club for one down). Would you have been tempted to bid 5 over 5
? No need if you can rely on partner to take a second bid!
There was nothing to the play in 5x,-200, the par result.
I was toying with mentioning the fact that England’s John Holland was playing against the Netherlands, but Brian Senior pointed out that it would have been better if the Netherlands had been fielding a player called England, so I decided not to bother.
Would you consider passing with the East hand? Here East was constrained by the fact that it would have promised 11-14, 6+ – looking at what is sometimes called a ‘Cologne’ hand (4711) I think I might have stretched a point.
As a result here it was West who took two bids opposite a silent partner, but looking at seven card support for clubs East felt obliged to bid 6, giving England 6 IMPs on this exciting deal.
