Camrose double fit 3

Game all
Dealer East

• AKQ105
• J5
• 863
• J85

• none
• A10842
• A10952
• Q63

N

W

E

S

• 974
• K973
• KQJ74
• 9

• J8632
• Q6
• none
• AK10742

West

North

East

South

John

Jonathan

Tommy

Paul

—

—

Pass

1

2NT^reds

3^spades

4

4

Pass

Pass

5

5

Pass

Pass

6

Pass

Pass

6

Pass

Pass

X

All pass

Barry

Tom

Sally

Hugh

—

—

Pass

1^{carrot club}

2^reds

4

5

All pass

Mike

Helen

John

Tyrone

—

—

Pass

1

2NT^reds

3

4

5

Pass

5

All pass

John

Paul

Ian

Gary

—

—

Pass

1

1

1

3^reds

4

5

5

All pass

Iain

Ian

John

Robin

—

—

Pass

1

2NT^reds

3

4

4

Pass

Pass

5

5

X^{spade control}

Pass

6

All pass

Hastings

Gerald

Greer

John

—

—

Pass

1

1

1

3

4

All pass

Par on this hand is two off in 6X. It's important for East or West to show both red suits. It's easier for North-South to bid high if South opens 1 and North shows spades, because if South opens 1 he'll be worried later about his weak suit. If South and East do bid the auction up to 6. North has a difficult high-stakes guess, which Jonathan Mestel did well to get right.

Camrose double fit 2

Here's the second of the double-fit hands from the Camrose:

E-W Game
Dealer West

• K3
• QJ109432
• 7
• J104

• J4
• 6
• AKJ1062
• Q753

N

W

E

S

• 62
• K
• 98543
• AK962

• AQ109875
• A875
• Q
• 8

West

North

East

South

Hastings

Jonathan

Greer

Paul

1

3

4

4

Pass

Pass

X

5

Pass

Pass

X

All pass

Heather

John

Brian

Michael

1

3

4

4

5

Pass

Pass

5

Pass

Pass

X

All pass

John

Gerald

Ian

John

Iain

David

John

Rex

Hugh

Tony

Tom

Patrick

1

3

5

5

Pass

Pass

X

All pass

Mike

Mark

John

Rory

1

3

4

4NT

5

Pass

Pass

5

Pass

Pass

X

All pass

Every table played this one in 5X making: at this vulnerability par is 5. For my part, I understand 4 by East, but if you're going to bid 5 and double 5, I think you should try 4 first, so you can get to a good slam sometimes. I think South should bid 4 if sufficient, because I did, thinking it very unlikely that 4 would buy the contract and that my side would learn something about spades. I made slightly the wrong decision by removing 4, shrug.

I don't think it possible for East-West to defend 5 undoubled. But bidding 6 would be a reasonable attempt to get a plus score, not too costly if it fails.

Camrose double fit 1

It's good advice to strain to declarer on double fit hands, but just how mightily? Suppose your side's combined shapes are 10-9-4-3 in some order, with all the honours in your long suits and none in the short ones. Then, barring ruffs by the defence, your side can make between 10 and 13 tricks depends on how the short suits divide, and so can theirs. If your perfect bidding system tells you your side can make 10 tricks, how high should you save? You can't trust the opponents to tell you, even if their bidding system is equally perfect and they are unwilling to bluff, because they may think they're saving too. You just have to go with your feel, preferring to bid too high than too low. (Ed Manfield's BOLS tip doesn't apply to big double fits — The five level belongs to opponents, except when it doesn't.)

I played in the Camrose at the weekend, and had the opportunity to dice with some good players on three hands of this sort. Here's how we all got on.

E-W Game
Dealer South

• 753
• 6
• 98754
• AKQ7

• J109864
• AK753
• none
• J3

N

W

E

S

• KQ
• QJ10942
• AJ
• 1082

• A2
• 8
• KQ10632
• 9654

West

North

East

South

Paul

Frazer

Jonathan

Philip

—

—

-

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

X

All pass

Iain

Barry

John

Sally

—

—

-

Pass

1

Pass

2

3

3

5

5

6

6

7

X

All pass

David

Tom

Rex

Hugh

—

—

-

1

2^majors

4^minors

4

5

Pass

Pass

5

6

Pass

Pass

X

All pass

Rory

Helen

Mark

Tyrone

—

—

-

3

3

5

X

Pass

5

Pass

6

Pass

Pass

7

X

All pass

Robin

Mike

Ian

John

—

—

-

3

4^majors

5

5

Pass

Pass

6

6

X

All pass

Tony

John

Patrick

Michael

—

—

-

Pass

1

Pass

2

3

3

5

5

All pass

This one is made a bit less dramatic by each side's having an ace in a short suit. The par spot is 5X, going one off as a save against 4 or 4, so none of us played there.

If South opens 3, I strongly prefer 3 to 4 for the majors, mainly because I don't want to play in hearts opposite equal length. Over that I like 5 by North, with the proviso that he has to bid 6 if 5 on his left comes round to him. I sympathize with every East-West's decision to bid at the five level, and with every North-South decision to save over it. I don't like the seven-level saves, especially if you haven't bid clubs. And I agree with 6 only if the bidder is right than North-South will save. (Possibly I'm just agreeing with what I did at the table: Certainly I agree with my 5 rather than 5 — 5 is too likely to get a raise.

The best table result for North-South was achieved by Patrick Jourdain and Tony Ratcliff, when North bid 5 then left his partner to guess to lead clubs, as he did not. The best result East-West was achieved by John Salisbury and Mike Tedd, when South doubled 6, I suppose showing good defence relative to what his bidding so far had suggested.