IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

Here's a hand where another rarely used convention solved a bidding problem.

Scoring:  Matchpoints (Pairs Game)

Hand #31
Dlr   E
Vul N/S
S A
H A843
D AK73
C AKQJ
S J86
H Q105
D Q1085
C 864
    
S 3
H KJ72
D J642
C 10952

S KQ1097542
H 96
D 9
C 73
West North
 East
 South


Pass
 3S
    Pass    5NT*
    Pass 
    7S
All Pass
      

*Grand Slam Force

BIDDING:   North was still counting his points when he saw his partner make a preempt in spades.  Since they were vulnerable against non-vulnerable opponents, North was confident his partner would have a good spade suit, but to make sure, he employed the Grand Slam Force convention.  This leap to 5NT asked South to bid seven with two of the top three spade honors.  South complied and the grand slam was quickly reached.

PLAY:  It didn't matter what West led as there was no way to defeat the slam.  Another good method of bidding the grand slam would be to use Roman Keycard Blackwood.  This convention allows you to uncover both the king and queen of the trump suit.  Lacking such tools, can you be confident your partner didn't open with this spade suit: KJ1098754?  Or perhaps QJ10987542?  It's usually bad practice to preempt vul against non-vul with a weak suit, but have you discussed this with your partner?

Copyright ©2008 Larry Matheny.