It has been said that there are three suits in bridge: Hearts, Spades and No Trump.
But lately I have been ending in minor suit contracts playing with the robots. Some but not all have been successful, here are three that ended well. I'll add in some commentary.
Case 1:
https://tinyurl.com/y3x9le725
+2 for a good score!, Of course in 6
Lho might well start with the
A and another
, setting 6. Moreover, if N plays it, the lead of the stiff
sets 5
. Minor Suit Stayman earned its keep here. Suppose we were not playing MSS. Then, over the Capp 2
, we could be playing that 2NT shows
. N only has five, S would expect 6, so the transfer would be a bit risky. Anyway, the bots play MSS and there we were in 5
played from the right side.
Case 2:
https://tinyurl.com/y5eb5dssI congratulated my bot partner for her restraint in passing my 4
. I got an almost inexplicable overtrick, but 4
is the right contract.
Case 3:
https://tinyurl.com/y4fg3j5q 5
making, but I would call it lucky. Obviously I will be losing a
right off, and losing at least one
. Since the
don't split, I have to ruff a
, and this requires that I not draw all the trump. The
J is well-placed so all is well. Note that partner's 3
after my reverse did not show extras. The bots play Leb after a reverse but when the auction begins 1
- 1NT -2M I guess they don't. This makes sense since the 1NT already set a limit on the hand. Moreover, after 1
- 1NT - 2
it is not hard to imagine a hand where N would like to bid 2NT to play. All in all, I think that after 1m-1NT -2M, it's best to leave 2NT as a natural call.
So the second hand belongs in 4
, it made 5 on a fluke of bot defense, while the third hand makes 5
regardless of defense but requires a bit of luck.
In bridge discussions I think we often skip past minor suit auctions, these seemed interesting, I thought I would put them up.