Bidding Quiz                                       12th July , 2006

 

                                                  Board 1       Dealer North        None Vul

 

 

With a weaker hand, South would be have no choice but to make a Negative Double.  But, with the values for a 2♥ bid, she can show her 5-card suit and still expect to find a 4-4 Spade fit if one exists.  Is it a reasonable approach make a Negative Double and then bid Hearts later?  Yes, but only if we are prepared to give up on the 5-3 Heart fit ... if Partner bids, say, 2♦ then we cannot now follow up with 2♥ without showing a weaker hand, so we'd have to try 2NT, showing our values quite well, and having given us a chance to find a fit in either major, but not the aforementioned 5-3 Heart fit.

 

 

                                                    Board 1       Dealer North       None Vul

 

 

South's 2♥ shows a decent hand, it's forcing, but not game-forcing.  Does South's 2♥ bid promise a rebid?  We prefer not, and would say that, if North bids 2NT or 3♥ here, South is allowed to pass.  Not that North has either of those in mind, and the real question here is whether 3♦ is forcing.  We think it should be, but wouldn't dare make the bid unless we had discussed it with Partner, so let's assume that 3♦ is not an option.

 

In that case, we'd cue-bid 3♣.  What if Partner now bids 3NT?  We'd try 4♦, and, if Partner is kind enough to cue-bid 4♠, we'll try 6♦.  Otherwise we'll just play it in 4NT.  Yes, we think that 4NT here should be natural.

 

 

                                                    Board 2      Dealer East       N-S Vul

 

 

Partner is a passed hand, but his 2♥ bid is constructive, he must have some values.  If our Clubs are running we can see 8 tricks ... all we need from Partner is a major suit Ace and there's 9 tricks there for the taking!  Yes, of course, we'll bid 3NT here!  Not many HCPs, but, potentially, plenty of tricks.

 

 

Board 5      Dealer North    N-S Vul

 

 

Playing a 2/1 system, after East's 1♠, West is not good enough to bid 2♥ so he must use the Forcing No Trump, and then follows up with a jump to 3♥.  What does this sequence show?  Exactly what West has … invitational values and a decent 6-card suit.

 

 

                                                    Board 7      Dealer South       Both Vul

 

 

With a 9-card Heart fit, West is prepared to compete to the 3-level.  He could pass for the time being, then back in with 3♥ if North balances his side into the auction.  That approach is wishful thinking, though, the opponents are unlikely to let it rest in 2♥, so we would apply pressure with an immediate 3♥ bid.  This is purely obstructive, with a hand that has game aspirations we would bid 2♠.

 

 

                                                    Board 8      Dealer West       None Vul

 

 

Over 2♠, as South, would you pass in the hope of a balancing Double from Partner and a big juicy penalty?  We certainly wouldn't, the expectation of game is too great in our opinion.  If we Pass here, waiting for a balancing Double, one of these bad things can happen:

(a)  Partner may decide not to balance ... she may have 2 (even 3!) Spades, not much in Hearts and a mediocre hand ... who wants to balance with that?

(b)  As often as not, though, Partner will balance with a Double, and when she does we'll sometimes not get enough tricks to beat our making game.

 

No, we don't like the Pass, we much prefer a 2NT bid here, putting Partner in a good position to decide where we belong.  On the actual deal, if we had passed, Partner would indeed double, but we would only get them for 300.  If we bid 2NT, the partnership zips into 4♥ for an easy 420 or 450.

 

 

Board 10      Dealer East    Both Vul

 

 

If you were holding a miserable hand such as ♠ 73 ♥ T9842 ♦ T987 ♣ 87, you would want to bail out in Hearts at the cheapest possible level.  On the actual hand, you would like to invite to game in Hearts.  Surely, it cannot be right to bid 3♥ with both of these hands!

 

Let’s take a System Time-Out, here.  Do you and your partner play Lebensohl opposite the Double of a Weak Two?  We highly recommend that you do!  Using this gadget, 3♥ shows values (but is not forcing).  With a weaker hand, East would be required to bid his Hearts via the Lebensohl 2NT relay.

 

So, back to our auction.  Let us assume that E-W are indeed playing Lebensohl in this situation.  The problem is solved, we simply bid 3♥.

 

                                                    Board 11      Dealer South       None Vul

 

 

 Opposite Partner's Weak Two, we don't have enough to even think about making game.  Does that mean we should pass?  Not necessarily.  We are at the 2-level, with a 9-card fit, against non-vulnerable opponents.  What are our chances of being allowed to play it at the 2-level?  Pretty slim, we'd say!  It's quite likely that East will find a way to get into the auction, and then we'll no doubt bid 3♠.  If that's the case, let's put the opponents under some pressure and bid 3♠ directly.  This bid is preemptive, of course, our only intention is to crowd the auction for our opponents.

 

On the actual hand, 3♠ is a spectacular success, pushing the opponents overboard into 4♥ doubled and a 500 penalty.  It won't always work that well!  A more likely scenario is that 3♠ will be the final contract, when they can make 4 of a minor ... over 2♠, they might well find that minor fit, over 3♠ they probably won't. 

 

 

Board 13      Dealer North     Both Vul

 

 

After South has overcalled 3♣, West has a choice between raising Spades (via a cue-bid) or introducing Diamonds.  We like West’s actual choice of bidding Diamonds … with a lesser hand, West might be inclined to show immediate Spade support, but this hand has a lot of slam potential, so a more descriptive auction is called for.  By the time the auction gets back to West, his hand has gotten even better! … all that vulnerable Club bidding suggests a singleton or void in Partner’s hand, and Diamonds have been raised, too.

 

At this point, you are pretty much out of constructive bidding options.  You could bid 5♦, but that seems a little on the feeble side to us.  In the circumstances, 6♦ seems like a reasonable shot.

 

If you look at the East hand on the Hand Record, you will see that Partner’s Dummy is not the best … minimum values, no Club void, no Q♠, and no K♥.  Even so, despite all that ugliness, the contract is made with the aid of the Spade finesse.

 

Board 14      Dealer  East    None Vul

 

 

In this situation, when we have game-going values in Partner's major, we will simply cue-bid first, to announce our high-card strength.  And, if we have a more preemptive type of hand we will jump to 3♥ or 4♥.  But, here, we have another option.  We should jump to 3♠, showing game values, and Spade shortness ... exactly what we have! 

 

Board 15      Dealer South      N-S Vul

 

 

Here are the options:

(a)    4♠ gets E-W to where they probably belong, and takes bidding space away from South.  The trouble is that this is a preemptive bid, and Partner might not expect so much defense from us … if South were to bid 5♦ now, and Partner held a slightly different hand to his actual one (say one less Diamond, one more Spade), he might well guess wrong and try a white against red sacrifice.  For this reason, we don’t much care for the 4♠ bid;

(b)  On the previous hand, West was able to make a jump-cue in the opponent’s suit to show shortness and game values.  So, how about 3♦ here?  No, opposite an overcall the jump-cue is generally used to show a mixed raise, which is to say something less than a limit raise, 4-card support.  Take away a Queen, a Jack, and one of those trumps, and East would have been a fine 3♦ bid!

(c)    The 2♦ cue-bid would show a limit raise (or better), and would be a reasonable choice …

(d)   … but our own personal favorite is a Splinter of 4♦, which takes bidding space away from the opponents.  And, it is also descriptive, giving Partner the best chance of guessing right if South takes another call.

 

Board 16      Dealer West      E-W Vul

 

 

We would say that this time East is not quite good enough for a splinter bid of 4♥, and, anyway, it’s a dangerous bid to make, unless you have agreed with your partner that splinters are on over a Double.  A 4♠ bid is not appropriate, given those two defensive tricks in Diamonds.  That leaves us with a limit raise … over the Double, most players use a device called Jordan, whereby 2NT here shows a limit raise or better.  Yes, the Jordan 2NT is the bid that we suggest here.

 

 

Board 17      Dealer North      None Vul

 

 

Yes, the obvious bid here is 1NT, notwithstanding the singleton Spade.  Sure, Partner will sometimes transfer us to Spades, but that's not necessarily the end of the world, sometimes those 5-1 fits play rather well!  Anyway, that singleton Spade is a minor defect, outweighed by the benefit of getting into the bidding and describing our overall strength and hand-type.

 

 

                                                    Board 18      Dealer East       N-S Vul

 

 

When West made his 4♠ preempt he was doing it white versus red, opposite a passed hand.  This means he has considerable latitude, and he might have a surprising amount of defense or fewer Spades than usual ... in these circumstances, he's got the green light to create some mayhem.  Therefore, East must be quite circumspect about taking another call.  If North bids 5♦ over 4♠, we'd say that East has an easy 5♠ call if he were not a passed hand.  As a passed hand, it is not so clear to bid 5♠, who knows what atrocity West has committed with that preempt?  East probably should bid 5♠ anyway, but he should not be surprised if it turns out badly ... maybe very badly!

 

 

                                                    Board 19      Dealer South       E-W Vul

 

 

What are the choices here?

   Pass?           No, altogether too feeble, in our opinion.

   1♠?              That's better!  Too bad we don't have a 5th Spade, though ... Partner might start doing some

                        Total Trick analysis based on us having another trump, and we might compete too high ... but

                        at least the under-tricks are only 50 apiece.

  1NT?            That would be our choice ... perhaps it's better to be a point light than a trump light!  And,

                        anyway, we all know that Aces and Tens are undervalued when it comes to counting up

                        our HCPs, so with 3 Aces and 2 useful-looking Tens, this hand is worth upgrading, don't

                        you think?

 

 

                                                   Board 20      Dealer West       Both Vul

 

 

More choices:

  3♦?               Partner probably has one or no Clubs, and most of his likely distributions (except 4-4-4-1)

                       will contain 5 Diamonds (occasionally even 6).  So, 3♦ certainly looks like a safe resting

                       place, and we don't have the values to say any more than that.

  3♠?               Partner should have at least 3 of them for his Double, hopefully 4.  If we end up in a 4-3

                       fit, at least we'll be able to get a couple of Club ruffs in the short hand ... we'd guess to bid

                       3♠ in preference to 3♦.  Assuming that both contracts make (big assumption, of course),

                       the major may score fewer tricks, but still score more points, as in +140 versus +130.

  Pass!            Yes, that would be our choice ... let's see if we can beat this a trick and score the magic +200!

                       We'd expect this bid to work at least 80% of the time, pretty good matchpoint odds!  Just be

                       ready to treat the occasional -670 with unflappable calm.

 

On the actual deal, Partner has a little bit extra, the cards are friendly, and it turns out that with 7 HCPs opposite 15, E-W can make 3NT or 4♠ or 5♦.  Nonetheless, we'll bet that doubling 3♣ and scoring what turns out to be +500 will be good enough for most of the matchpoints.

 

 

Board 26     Dealer East     Both Vul

 

 

In a competitive auction, when we are bidding a minor, and then we cue-bid their suit at the 3-level, we are often looking for a 3NT contract, if only Partner will have the decency to have their suit stopped.  But, this situation is different.  With the opponents bidding two suits, we cue-bid the suit that we have stopped … so North’s 3♠ shows a Spade stop and allows South to bid 3NT with her Heart stop.

 

 

                                                    Board 27      Dealer South       None Vul

 

 

Non-vulnerable, with that fine Spade seat, we would not be passing here, so the real question is "Do you open 1♠ or 2♠?".  We prefer 1♠ ourselves ... yes, somewhat light, but it gets our nice suit into the auction.  With only 5 Spades and an outside Ace, and unappetizing distribution, bidding a light 1♠ seems a better description than 2♠  ... a 2♠ opening is more likely to goad Partner into over-competing, or, heaven forbid, sacrificing.

 

 

                                                    Board 30      Dealer East       None Vul

 

 

After that 1♣ 1♥, 2♥ start, West is fairly certain that the final contract is going to be 6♥ ... it's unlikely that Partner has the magic hand for seven ... and, similarly, it's unlikely that 6 will either not be cold or at least have a decent play.  True, the defense might have two cashing Diamonds, which would be unfortunate, but even if they do they may not cash them.  Do you bash directly into 6♥?  Or do you scientifically probe for slam?  We are unabashed Bashers, our judgment is that we'll lose more here by science than we are likely to gain.

 

The Scientists Gain When ...

- the AK♦ are missing and the defense cashes them;

- the KQ♥ and the A♦ are missing and the slam is hopeless.

 

The Bashers Gain When ...

- the AK♦ are missing but the defense fails to cash them;

- the defense has a killing lead, but fails to find it due to the uninformative auction ... for example, imagine an

  off-side K♥ and an off-side K♦ ... if West cue-bids Spades and East cue-bids Diamonds, surely it is the

  killing Diamond that will be led by North.

- similarly, the defense may need to grab their A♦ at Trick One or else lose it ... for example, perhaps East

  has: ♠ 8  ♥ KT92  ♦ K82  ♣ KQJ62, and Declarer has 13 tricks without the Diamond lead ... if so, no

  need to help them find that lead with a revealing auction.

- if the K♠ is off-side, it maybe that a Spade lead is the only way to give us the contract.  For example, picture

  East with:  ♠ J8  ♥ KQT9  ♦ K98  ♣ KT76, how nice if they would lead a Spade!  Why would we want

  to cue-bid the A♠ and give them a reason not to?

 

Well, you get the general idea, we're sure.

 

 

                                                    Board 32      Dealer West       E-W Vul

 

                                       

Many partnerships play that 3♠ here is preemptive, and that 2NT is a limit raise (known as the Jordan convention).  That's all very well, but that South hand is somewhere in between ... it's got the right number of trumps but it is too good for a preempt, not good enough for a limit raise.  If those were our only methods, we would suggest underbidding with 3♠, but it's not a good solution to this type of hand, we admit.  Another approach to South's hand is to bid 2♠, planning to compete to 3♠ if necessary.  The trouble with this is that it makes it too easy for West to jump into the fray.

 

System Note:

As we just saw, basic methods don't provide a good solution for the South hand, and you may want to augment them with this little gadget:

    After 1♥ or 1♠, followed by a take-out Double, these are the options for Responder when he has 4-card  

    support for Partner's major:

          Weak Hand:               Bid 3♠ (typically shows something in the 0-6 range)

          Good Hand:               Bid the Jordan 2NT (shows invitational values or better)

          Constructive Hand:   With something in between the above:

                                                   Either, bid 3♣ showing an undisclosed shortness,

                                                   Or, bid 3♦ showing a hand with no shortness.

                                              After 3♣, we use 3♦ to ask where is the shortness, and the responses are

                                              "up-the-line", as in 3♥ to show Club shortness, 3♠ for Diamonds, and 3NT

                                              for the other major.

A useful gadget for regular partnerships wishing to improve bidding accuracy.

 

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