W . 06 . Afte, NAP E I NA
BRIDGE
30 point pack
Andrew Robson
When North was asked why he had made such a rampant overbid on this week's deal, he replied that he was playing with a thirty point pack'. Normally a game con- tract requires 25 out of the 40 points in the pack. However, if your partnership has no losers in the suit in which you have no points, you are only playing with 30 of those points and need far less than 25 to succeed in a game venture.
Dealer South Neither side vulnerable The Bidding South West North East
111 pass double 34 pass 2, 4, pass 24 double South's 3V bid was not inviting game, merely competing the part-score. Why then, with just four points, did North take it upon himself to bid 41►? He had listened to the opponents bidding and worked out that his partner had a void in 4s — ten of the opponents points would make no tricks. East doubled, knowing the oppo- nents were well short of the high-card val- ues for game and West led *A.
South trumped and led a 40, attempting to trump his three minor suit losers in dummy. Wise to declarer's plan, West won +Q and returned his singleton trump. Declarer won the trump in dummy and trumped a second 4. He led another and East won 4A to return his second trump. Unable now to trump all his losers in dummy, he had a second string to his bow. He won the trump in dummy and trumped a third 4. He trumped his last 4 and trumped a fourth 4, establishing the fifth 4 as a master. He conceded a •, but won the • return with the ace, trumped a • with dummy's last trump and discarded his last • on dummy's winner. he had made his doubled game with just 15 points — the power of the 'thirty point pack'.
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