"Saturnalia" by Marti Ronemus

"Saturnalia" was an ancient Roman holiday, at the Winter Solstice. It was a holiday of general unrestrained merrymaking and wild revelry and thought to be the forerunner of Winter holidays. It is still celebrated today, but frankly, I suspect most bridge players are unlikely to be participants. It sounds like a lot of work. Most of us get our unrestrained revelry from trying to make difficult contracts and set the opponents.

And let's see how wild merrymaking fits in with today's quiz. Get ready to party.

Question 1

Your Hand
♠ 8 7 3 2
♥ A K J 9 8
♦ A Q 2
♣ 9

Q: 1 - And South says?

South	West	North	East
1♥	1♠	2♥	2♠
?

A: 3♦: This is a little bidding technique that comes in darn handy. It's called Help Suit Game Try. First, let's analyze what we know. Pard only has one Spade, so we don't have to worry about them. Next, we only have one Club. So that's two black losers. Now, the Diamond suit. Hmmm. We know Pard only has a max of 6-9 pts. BUT! Where are they? By naming a new suit AFTER trump agreement, we are asking, "Pard, do you have a Diamond honor?" We are asking for HELP in the named suit. If Pard has a Diamond honor, he'll go to game. If not, he'll park the contract in 3♥.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 2

Your Hand
♠ 3
♥ 10 9 4
♦ Q 8 4 3 2
♣ Q J 10 5

Q: 2 - Can we revel with this hand? As South?

South	West	North	East
Pass	Pass	2♣	4♦
Pass	Pass	4♥	Pass
?

A: 5♥: You might need a talk with Pard. If you were to Double after the 4♦ bid, would that be Negative? We don't have that agreement, so we passed to show a small hand and throw it back at our Pard, the 2♣ opener. Pard showed he could make 4♥ with nothing from you, but NOW we've got some value. We've got that singleton. Next, we've got the llooonnnggg Diamonds. Pard's got to be short. East's got at least seven of them. Why not invite slam? It's Saturnalia after all!

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 3

Your Hand
♠ Q 5
♥ 4 2
♦ A 10 9 2
♣ A 10 8 4 3

Q: 3 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	1♥	1♠	2♣
Pass	2♥	2♠	3♥
?

A: 4♠: We've been wanting to party since the auction opened. We've got a good hand that we haven't been able to bid so far. Now that we know Pard has not only a six-card suit, but a hand good enough to keep bidding even opposite a passed Pard (that would be us), we've got a lot to offer. We've got the honor doubleton in Pard's suit, and many minor suit goodies. No need to skip this revelry.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 4

Your Hand
♠ A 10 9 2
♥ A 6 5
♦ A K 6 5 3
♣ 4

Q: 4 - South:

South	West	North	East
1♦	Pass	1♥	Pass
1♠	Pass	2♥	Pass
?

A: 3♥: We check our social calendar, and decide to invite Pard. We've got 15 HCP (high card points), but with dummy points for our singleton, we can squeeze out 18-ish. We invite. By the way, why not use Help Suit Game Try and bid Diamonds? That's for a strong intermediate hand. We ain't got it.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 5

Your Hand
♠ A 9 8 6
♥ Q 8 5 4
♦ 7 5
♣ 6 5 2

Q: 5 - South?

South	West	North	East
-	3♠	Dbl	Pass
4♥	Pass	4♠**	Pass
?

**Cuebid showing first round Spade control and slam interest.

A: 5♥: We have no controls to show, so we just want to close this down! Our rebid of "our" suit shows no controls. We abandon the party.

What will Pard do? Can we make the contract? Enquiring minds want to know, and will find out---in just a few seconds when we play the hand.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Play this Hand

Now that you've bid five hands, let's see how your play goes.

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Overall Results

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What next? You may enjoy playing our prepared hands series.
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