13th January 2016

Dealer South
S
6432
   
Love All
H
-
   
    D Q64
   
    C KJ10843
   
S
AKQJ105
    S
987
H
752
    H
KQJ9843
D
3
    D
J
C
975
    C
A6
    S
-
   
    H
A106
   
    D
AK1098752
   
    C
Q2
   


South
West
North
East
1D 1S Pass 4H
5D 5H 6D 6H
7D Double
Pass
Pass
Pass





The above deal from a festive individual unsurprisingly produced some completely different auctions.  It wasn't helped by no-one being sure whether the scoring was by match points or IMPs.  At one table the auction was as above.  South opened one diamond and West overcalled one spade, all fairly normal so far.  North then passed, possibly unsure whether one diamond could be a three card suit.  East bid what he thought he could make and South showed his powerful hand by bidding five diamonds.   From this point on everyone was guessing as to what was the right level.   West showed heart support and North awoke to raise diamonds.  East had no idea who could make what, but followed the sound principal of giving the opponents the last guess.  South knew there were two outstanding diamonds and eventually assumed that they were likely to split two nil and took the save.  This is probably right at any form of scoring, seven diamonds will not be many off and at matchpoints may beat pairs who let East West play in game.  At IMPs it is taking insurance, even if six hearts isn't making seven diamonds will not be costly, whereas six hearts making could cost a lot of IMPs.   At the other two tables South played in six diamonds doubled making and East in five hearts making.