This conundrum was written by Mark Horton and was originally published in the book Misbid these hands with me - you can find out all about it further down the page.
Some principles that have stood the test of time are not well known. Playing in an online team event with a new partner, I pick up this miserable collection as North:
NORTH
♠K8764 ♥96 ♦8532 ♣52
When my partner opens 1♣ in first chair, West overcalls 2♥, promising a weak hand. When East raises to 3♥, my partner bids 3♠. I don’t see my modest hand as having enough to make game a good bet and my pass leaves us with this auction:
West leads the ♥Q and this is what partner can see:
Trumps are 2-2, clubs 4-2 and the ♦A is onside. That adds up to eleven tricks on this layout:
Post-Mortem
Once South has shown spades, North’s hand increases in value because of the fifth spade. The simplest way to measure its worth is to think of it as an extra king. That makes the North hand considerably stronger, without considering the added value of the doubleton club. North should raise to 4♠.
West’s overcall might be regarded as conservative by some, but 7-2-2-2 is a poor distribution. Were West to overcall 3♥, a raise to 4♥ by East could result in −500.
In the other room, East did not overcall and when North responded 1♠, South decided to reverse with 2♦. The high priest of Acol, Eric Crowhurst, suggests that is non-forcing, but that was not the agreement here. If you play Blackout, when after a one-over-one and a reverse the cheapest of the fourth suit or 2NT shows no game interest, then you can play the sequence 1♣-1♠; 2♦-3♦ as game-forcing and at least a mild slam try. What I can say with confidence is that there was no sign of anyone blacking out on this deal, as when North raised to 3♦, South jumped to 4♠, +450.
In 2007, Horton wrote Misplay These Hands with Me, a deliberate homage to Reese's classic, Play These Hands with Me. The difference was that the declarer in Horton's book always made an error, sometimes obvious, sometimes not so much. This successful book was the basis of a long-running column in the ACBL's Bridge Bulletin, a sequel in 2019, and earlier this year, Misdefend These Hands with Me. Now the same author turns to the topic of bidding, and once again gives the reader a chance to learn from someone else's mistakes. All the deals are taken from top-level play.
