Thursday Bridge Club: Josephine

3^rd June - Board: 8 Love All. Dealer West

	North: S 9 8 3 H 8 6 D 9 C Q 9 8 7 5 4 2
West: S A J 6 5 H Q 7 5 D A K Q 8 6 3 C none		East: S 4 H A K J 4 3 D J 10 7 C A J 6 3
	South: S K Q 10 7 2 H 10 9 2 D 5 4 2 C K 10

A grand slam is available in three different denominations and yet nobody managed to get beyond game on this exciting hand. At the table where I was watching North/South endeavoured to make things harder by entering the bidding but in actual fact I think their very interference should have paved the way to a successful auction for East/West. So West opened 1D and North boldly bid 3C. East bid 3H and South competed with 4C, so what should West be thinking and what should he do? Well one thing is certain – the East hand holds at least a five-card suit – and if it is headed by the two top honours then there must be a play for the grand slam! (West can probably count on one spade, five hearts, six diamonds and a club ruff in the short hand. Note that the ace of clubs in the East hand could be thrown out the window if the grand slam was bid in hearts.) How does West find out about the ace and king of hearts? By bidding 5NT, Josephine, named after the wife of 1950’s bridge guru Ely Culbertson. Basically it asks partner to bid the grand slam if he holds two of the top three honours.

Without the intervention West can never be sure that his partner is holding a five-card heart suit, but I think the following auction might just about do it:

West North East South

1D No 1H No

1S No 2C* No

3H No 4NT No

5S No 5NT No

7H All Pass

*2C is fourth-suit forcing, and the 3H response is game forcing, showing a strong hand with three-card support and by elimination at most a singleton club. Roman Key-Card Blackwood determines there are no trump losers or indeed any top loser, and 5NT is a general grand slam try. With a solid diamond suit West should go all the way. Easier in hindsight than at the table I dare say. It gets even more difficult if South bids 1S along the way – but I am not going there!

Josephine is not used so much these days because with the arrival of Roman Keycard Blackwood both the king and queen of trumps can be shown by the various responses. However on the featured hand it would be essential and RKB would be no use because the ace of clubs would feature as a keycard and is of no use to West.

6 comments:

Anonymous5 June 2010 at 19:15
Is there a Bonapart convention too?
Dave5 June 2010 at 21:20
Ha Ha! Josephine Culbertson was supposed to have been a better player than her husband who was a Russian who had moved to America and who made bridge headline news throughout the world. The Culbertsons plus two others played a challenge match against the British in the shop window of Selfridges in Oxford Street and won by a country mile. The British were playing the 'Commonsense System' and were led by the formidable Colonel Buller. The Americans were of course playing the Culbertson System. Even today some people play the Culbertson 4NT/5NT which is the forerunner to all the decent ace asking bids. And of course Josephine is alive and well. (The convention;sadly not the lady.)
Tony Lock6 June 2010 at 07:52
Unfortunately as I had never played with Jack before, and we had not discussed the Josephine convention it was a bit difficult to find.
Dave6 June 2010 at 09:23
Of course! In the old days one could have a system discussion in about five minutes but now there is so much to talk about that it becomes unrealistic to talk about everything. And 'Josephine' probably wouldn't figure anyway. Regardless of all that the West hand is little more than a four loser so perhaps just bidding game was a little cautious.
Anonymous6 June 2010 at 13:11
Not tonight, Josephine!

KP
Dave6 June 2010 at 13:47
How did I know there would be Josephine jokes! If you want to find out more about her and the great stories surrounding her and her husband, Ely, treat yourself to 'Tales From The Bridge Table' by John Clay which looks at bridge during the period 1925 - 1995. It is published by Hodder & Stoughton ISBN
0-340-58979-5

If using the 'Anonymous' option for adding a comment please write your name in the comment box so we all know who has commented. You will also need to copy the word shown before you can publish your comment (to reduce spam.) Thanks, Dave.