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Our Scottish reader also queries what went wrong on this next hand, from an Aggregate Teams competition.

West	East
8 7 4 2	A J 10 5
A Q 6 3 2	J 7 4
-	J 8 3
A J 5 2	K 6 3

At Love All, their Acol auction was:

West	East
1	1
2	Pass

and a decent and making game was missed.

East wondered whether he should have bid on over 2 with a 3 trial bid. It is interesting how we tend to look at a bid which would have succeeded as the alternative to the one we actually chose at the table. 3 is tempting because of course partner has a club fit and would certainly jump to game over it. However, were I to make a try over 2, I would choose 2NT. My hand is completely balanced, so which directs partner's attention to his holding in one particular side-suit? In fact, his holdings in all four suits will be important. The other beauty of 2NT is that it allows partner to bid out his shape if he is three-suited as in the actual hand. After 1 - 1 - 2 - 2NT, West has an easy 3 bid, and now East could go on to game, knowing that nine of his ten points are working. Conversely, a 3 bid by West over 2NT would discourage East, who would see that his K was likely to be wastepaper so would sign-off in 3.

But, though a 2NT game try would have worked on the actual deal, I would pass 2. Even treating AJ10 as only one loser, we have a nine-loser hand facing a minimum opening. Losing Trick Count afficianados will tell us that even the three-level may not be safe. There is also the minor matter that partner may have raised with onlt three-card spade support.

So, if East's bidding was immaculate, it must be that West should have bid more than just 2, right? Well, I don't think so. It is true that the West hand has only six losers according to LTC, but it is a minimum opening in high-card terms, lacks intermediates, and has no honour in the agreed trump suit. It is very easy to see how a 3 raise will lead to an awful lot of games going down - or even 3 going down when partner passes, whenever partner has weak trumps or too much wasted in diamonds.

So I would agree with every call made by either player; it just happened that it didn't work out. We cannot expect to get every hand right. Good bidding is about taking the long term view and making decisions which will make a profit in the long run. Clearly it would have worked out better had either player been more aggressive on this particular deal, but I would say that for either to bid more strongly would be a long-term losing proposition.

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