A Ruse is Sometimes Very Effective

Have you ever heard the phrase. "Let the opponents make the last guess". It is usually uttered when one side has a contract option with power, and the other side has a save option. You are to continue preempting to the level where you don't know if their contract is making or not. Hey, if you don't know, perhaps they don't know either.

I fielded an interesting hand at the Eastside bridge club the other day where I wanted to invoke this practice. NV vs Vul (MP) my left hand opponent started the bidding with 1D. My partner jumped right in there with 3S (preemptive) and right hand opponent bid 4C freely. Holding xxx,Jxxxxx,QJ,xx it didn't take a trip to A land to figure out that the opponents were on for slam. If I were to make the opponents truly have the last guess, I would bid 6S, knowing full well that 6m is makable but not being sure whether 7m is. The "last guess" theory is.........if I don't know, maybe the opponents don't know either.

When I approached my mentors with this hand, they, as usual had a lot of other thoughts to share as well.

In this kind of situation, "last guess theory" is not nearly as important as your attempt to take away their machinery. You may know 6m is on, but if you take away their opportunity to find even that and they land in 5m -- look how happy you will be. Remember, offensively your spade tricks are limited and even a 5S save may go for more than 5m.

Here are their options! pick your favorite.

1) Bid 4S -- hides the degree of your fit and lack of defensive potential. Somebody will bid 5m and they can languash there. Also takes a way a 4S Q bid often use as a power raise.

2) X. Who knows, they may play 4CX when they're on for six. (Look at the score cards, you just got a top). If they XX -- "correct" to 4S and see what happens.

3) Bid 4N. This takes away the opponent's aces asking bid. You can always land safely in 5S no matter what the response of your partner is to this seemingly blackwood auction, and the opponents are now thinking you're stopping short of slam based on some values.

4) Bid 5S. You might buy it there X'd when they're on for six or seven.

It is very important to know who your opponents are when you try to guage the liklihood of success of each of these options. The more sophisticated the partnership, the more a Q bid will mean, the more a 4N bid will mean, the more forcing passes will have meaning. And trust me, the real pros won't get fooled by your X at all! That's the way they are!!

Hope this has been helpful!