This conundrum was written by NICOLAS LHUISSIER and was originally published in the magazine Bridgerama+ No. 64 - you can find out all about it further down the page.
Variations on a hand
4. What do you bid as West?
5. What do you bid as West?
6. What do you bid as West?
Click here to reveal the answer
2♠: With four-card support and a game-forcing hand, it is advisable to start with a cue-bid. If there is a slam, you will be able to detect it more easily if you start with this basic descriptive principle.
4♥: You made a Landy in the pass-out position to show your two-suiter in the majors. 2NT opposite is invitational for a major-suit game. Your hand is far from minimum! Your partner already knows the trump suit (or he would have bid an artificial 2♦ to let you choose the trump suit). Therefore, bid the lower suit, Hearts: he will correct to Spades if that is his preferred major.
6♥: 3♥ is Smolen and 3♠ agrees Spades as trumps. From there on, 4NT is RKCB for Spades, and 5♦ shows four keycards. Your 5♥ bid asks for the Queen of trumps and 5NT shows that partner does have the Queen, but he has no outside King to show. If East is supportive and holds the Queen of Hearts, the grand slam will make. The technical bid of 6♥ is used to ask him for the presence of this Queen: if he has it, he will bid 7♠!
In The Art of Clouding the Cards, defenders show how a touch of deception can turn an ordinary deal into a masterpiece of misdirection — and how you, as declarer, can protect yourself from such traps. That’s just one of the highlights in the latest issue of Bridgerama+.
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