10 English Bridge December 2016 www.ebu.co.uk

F

irstly I will start with an apology to all my

readers (both of you!) for the mistake that

occurred in the August article, where the ace

of clubs mysteriously managed to get played twice

from the East hand. Fortunately the thrust of the

hand involved counting out East's points, so I hope

the main learning point was not affected.

On to this month's subject:

GAME TRY DOUBLES AND ASSOCIATED

GAME TRIES.

I have always found it immensely frustrating

when the auction goes something like:

West North East South

1™ 2® 2™ 3®

?

You never seem to be able to win here.

l If you are close to competing to 3™ but don't, its

wrong!

l If you do stretch to bid 3™, partner invariably

bids 4™ - and it's wrong!

l If you bid 3™ with a little to spare - hoping

partner will go on to 4™ if they are maximum,

but they are reading from a different hymn sheet

and pass - it's wrong!

HOW VERY FRUSTRATING . . .

What we actually need is a system where we can

bid 3™ (or 3´ if spades is our suit of course) in a

purely competitive sense, with no suggestion that

partner bid on if maximum. If this is the case we

obviously also need to be able to bid 3½ hearts -

looking for partner to go on to 4™ when max. How

nice would that be?

GAME TRIES - NEW SUITS

The answer is that you can bid a NEW SUIT

BELOW the 3-level in your agreed major suit as a

game try.

West North East South

1™ 2® 2™ 3®

3t

Here you can bid 3t. This acts as a game try (3½

hearts!). The key to understanding this is that unlike

game-try (trial-bid) type auctions which occur in

uncontested auctions these game tries cannot

necessarily make any guarantees as to the holding in

the bid suit.

Sometimes there are two possible game try suits

available 1´-(2®)-2´-(3®). Here you could bid 3t

or 3™ as a game try and double would be penalty

orientated. Now you can promise a slightly more

natural game try - bid the suit where you hold more

length/values.

BIDDING THREE OF THE AGREED MAJOR

If instead of bidding a new suit (a game-try

remember if below the level of the agreed major)

you simply bid three of the agreed major - then this

should be purely competitive - there is no, repeat no,

suggestion that partner should undo your good

work by then raising to four with a maximum:

West North East South

1™ 2® 2™ 3®

3™

Here we might well now bid 3™, safe in the

knowledge that:

l We have bid to the 'level of the fit' if partner has

supported with three cards - as they often do

after an overcall or if you play a five-card major

system

l Confident that partner will not misconstrue and

Game tries when competing

by Neil Rosen

If you could add one thing . .

If you could add one thing . .

click

link

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® A 5

´ A 4

™ K Q 8 7 3 2

t K 9 7

® 9 5