Evening star., 1934-02-14

partner has K xxx in clubs and
not @ xxx while If he has the
weaker of these two holdings, the
hand Is still safe at four nc trumps
or five diamonds, the latter being
bid expected to reach when picked
up my hand. How can convey to
my partner that although I could not
raise his clubs, yet the king of clubs
is the key card for a small slam?
BY bidding four no trumps over
his three no-trump sign-of you con-
vey exactly this information. You say
II had only two losers in my hand
when I opened the bidding. Though
you have denied support for either
of my suits, yet tell you am willing
to play at four no trumps even if you
have nothing but @ Xxx x in clubs.
Plainly I have one loser in clubs and
one elsewhere. If had singleton
club I would not have bid four no
trumps, but four diamonds; if have
in clubs, I have no other loser"
This makes his duty very clear to the
responder If he has @ j x X in
clubs and nothing else, he passes Che
has already denied in diamonds
since he did not show preference for
diamonds as against hearts,. If he
has a club holding such as K j K x,
which will afford at least finesse to
lose only one trick in that suit should
openers holding unexpectedly be only
x, then he should carry on with the
slam try by bidding five clubs.
Opener, with his three aces, can now
bid six no trumps for him, and on
the hand as given above, the club
finesse will be necessary only If the
diamonds fail to break, so that the
small one becomes a loser and must
be discarded on a club.
Finally, a slam-persisting no-trump
rebid by the responder. Openers
hand:
a,;. s.; AXIS 4 ka '1 3i. 3i. * 4 Xxx
Responder has
II; a5s. axx q. K jxxx
The bidding goes: Two spades,
three clubs, three no trumps. The
latter bid is made for the reasons,
and gives the inferences as to the
club holding which we have just ex-
planned. Now the responder realizes
that since opener is willing to play
at three no trumps merely from
knowing about the biddable club suit,
the queen Of hearts will almost surely
eliminate loser for him; the 10
of diamonds will provide finesse ma
terials to operate against the king or
queen, If needs be, requiring only one
entry to take the fineSSe twice; and
on this bidding the hand is almost
certain to produce two entries, maybe
three. Further, he again provides a
club holding which offers at least a
finesse to lose only one club trick,
assuming two of openers losers con-
sist of two little clubs. That is to
say, openers bid of three no trumps
sheds a revealing light on the i'm
portance of responder's red cards. 1t
enables him to revalue the impor-
tanCe of his cards, as a fine mt in no
trumps is now apparent. He should,
therefore, make a slam try at this
point by bidding four no trumps over
the three no trumps. You have
brought me to life: have values in
the unbid suits which are now re-
vealed to me by your last bid as
eliminators of your losers, and my
club suit is not an utter minimum
for the bid; it offers flnesse to lose
only one trick in no trumps." Opener
now bids six no trumps. If spades do
not break, he can lose a diamond trick
and still make six; otherwise he is
finessing diamonds for seven odd. If
responder had K @ xxxx or K Q
j x in clubs, they should get to
seven no trumps. Two spades, three
clubs, three no trumps, five clubs.
seven no trumps.
(Copyright, 1934)
Mr. Sims will answer all inquiries on
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