November 2019 - 48

Newer Players

Ask Jerry
BY JERRY HELMS

Hi Jerry,
Recently at our local duplicate, I
held the following:
♠A 10 5 ♥A Q 10 ♦A K 6 5 ♣K 5 4.
Our auction:
2NT
3♠
All Pass

3♥
3NT

I thought that because I was
3=3=4=3, perhaps notrump would
play as well as spades and, of course,
3NT making four is better than 4♠
making four, so I passed. You can
guess what happened. 4♠ making
four; 3NT making three. Partner was
irked that I didn't correct to spades.
Question: Should you always
correct to the major on a transfer/
notrump when you have three of the
transferred suit? If not, when would
you not?
Thanks, FW
Hi FW,
In my teaching, I stress that bridge
should be more of a "we" game than
a "me" game. I completely concede
that your perfectly balanced, 3=3=4=3
shape screams notrump. Unfortunately, your partner's actions do not in any
way suggest he has similar shape. After
your 2NT opening bid, both of the following would be a hand that partner
would transfer to spades and follow
with 3NT, offering a choice of games:
♠K 8 7 6 3 ♥K 5 3 ♦Q 7 2 ♣6 2
♠Q 8 7 6 3 ♥J 5 3 ♦Q J 7 2 ♣2

48 Bridge Bulletin November 2019

askjerry@jerryhelms.com

jerryhelms.com

Assuming a club lead on these examples:
On the first, provided spades are 3-2,
you rate to take 11 tricks in a spade
contract. In a notrump contract, you
have nine tricks, and 10 if diamonds
are 3-3. Best to play spades.
On the second example, in a spade
contract, you have a club loser, at least
one spade loser, and a possible heart
loser. To take 10 tricks, if you lose two
spades, you need a successful heart
finesse. If you hold your spade losers
to one, the heart finesse would be for
an overtrick. In notrump, on the same
club lead, the heart finesse must work
to score nine tricks. If the heart finesse
loses, just hope clubs are 5-4 to minimize your undertricks.
In both of these, I admittedly created
examples to emphasize a point. In a
sequence where responder describes
a five-card major suit and then offers a
choice of games, he does not necessarily hold balanced distribution. This is
true over both 2NT and 1NT openings.
If your partner opened 1NT, how would
you bid the following:
♠4 ♥K Q 6 4 2 ♦Q J 5 ♣J 10 8 5?
Certainly your hand is worth a game
invitation, but not a game force. The
auction would likely be:
1NT
2♥
?

2♦
2NT

As responder, you should cross your
fingers and hope opener chooses a
heart contract.

Holding:
♠4 ♥K Q 6 4 2 ♦Q 7 5 ♣A 10 8 5,
you now have game-forcing values.
This would be a reasonable auction:
1NT
2♥
?

2♦
3♣

This would show at least five hearts,
at least four clubs, game-forcing values, and suggest either a reluctance for
notrump or ambitions for a slam.
For these reasons, to intentionally reject a known 5-3 major-suit fit
and choose notrump instead, opener
should try to have a double stopper in
the three unbid suits. This advice is
not cast in stone, and occasionally at
matchpoints, a little "coloring outside
the lines" with imperfect hands to
reject the suit fit and play notrump is a
risk sometimes worth taking.
As for your original example, perhaps a good decision to pass 3NT might
look more like:
♠Q J x ♥A Q 10 ♦A K x x ♣A J 10.
Now, all suits are well stopped, and
your fit in spades should easily allow
you to establish that suit before anything truly awful happens!
If you have read many of my previous
columns, you probably already have a
clue to my response to any question,
including yours, involving the word,
"always."
My answer is almost "always," there
is no such thing as "always" in the
game of bridge!
◾
http://www.jerryhelms.com
November 2019

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