35

February 2016 English Bridge

www.ebu.co.uk

1.love All. Dealer South deals where our pairs have excelled, you can guess that it will

be difficult for you to 'Beat the Experts' this month. Have a

go, anyway!

How would you respond to West's take-out double? No

red-suit response is satisfactory and Forrester began with a

strength-showing cue-bid. Robson bid no trumps before

hearts, since this would leave East more bidding space. When

hearts were agreed, the RKCB cannon was fired. East showed

one ace with his 1430 5® response and Robson jumped to

6™.

The India South, Manna, held ´QJ643 ™9 tKJ63 ®A96

and doubled the slam. He was presumably asking for a

diamond lead rather than the expected spade lead. Robson

promptly redoubled and the resultant 1620 was worth 12

IMPs against 980 for 6™ undoubled at the other table.

Awards: 6™ (10), games (6), part-scores (2).

2.love All. Dealer West

´ A J 4 2 ´ 6 5

™ K 6 ™ A Q J 9 8 7 4

t A K J 9 4 t -

® Q 9 ® A K J 7

N

W E

S

We move now to the Venice Cup and a round-robin match

between England and Italy. Nevena Senior was pleased to

have a strong jump shift available (old-fashioned jump-shift,

some players call it!). On discovering two aces and the trump

queen opposite, Heather was happy to bid the grand slam on

general values. How right she was.

At the other table the auction between Paoluzi and

Saccavini was less convincing: 1t-1™, 2´-3™, 4™-5®, 5t6™.

It was not so easy to identify the playing values for a

grand slam without the original jump-shift response. That

was 11 IMPs to England, who won the encounter by 30-25.

Awards: 7NT/7™ (10), 6NT/6™ (6), games (2).

Beat Today's Experts by David Bird

Answers to Problems on Page 27

Bidding Quiz

Bidding Quiz

click

link

´ A K 10 2 ´ 8

™ A K Q 10 2 ™ J 8 5 4

t 8 t A Q 10 9 7 4

® K Q 2 ® 7 4

N

W E

S

This month we will see some further action

from the three England teams in the Chennai

world championship. Since I usually choose

West North East South

Robson Majumber Forrester Manna

1´

Dble Pass 2´ Pass

2NT Pass 3t Pass

3™ Pass 4™ Pass

4NT Pass 5® Pass

6™ Pass Pass Dble

Redble All Pass

West East

Dhondy Senior

1t 2™

2´ 4™

4NT 5´

7™