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Bidding Quiz 4th October, 2006
Board 2 Dealer East None Vul
After 3♣, West wants to be in game, but does not know which game is best. The obvious candidates are 4♥ on a 5-2 fit, or 5♣, or, most likely 3NT. But, it would be somewhat reckless to bid 3NT without a stopper in the unbid suit. The solution is simple enough, West bids the 4th suit. This doesn’t show Diamond values, if we had those we would bid 3NT ourselves. No, a 3♦ bid here is fishing around for the best game contract. Strictly speaking this is not the so-called Western Cue-Bid, because the opponents have not bid, but it really amounts to the same thing.
Board 3 Dealer South E-W Vul
Perhaps this bidding problem is more of a personality test than an exercise in logic. The choice is quite clear: - Either, make a preemptive 3♦ bid, applying maximum pressure on the opponents (but also sending maximum misinformation to Partner!). The danger with this bid is that Partner may over-compete or sacrifice unwisely, not expecting so much defense from us. - Or, bid only 2♦, planning to compete to 3♦, going the studiously scientific route. The down-side here is that we may have missed the chance to discomfort our opponents with a (hopefully) well-timed preempt.
The first plan is more swashbuckling, the second plan is more descriptive. We admit that we are rather partial to the occasional swashbuckle, but perhaps the best advice we can offer is to make the bid that your Partner would make. There’s a lot to be said for harmony, even if buckling a swash once in a while is so much more fun!
Board 6 Dealer East E-W Vul
Partner has bid Stayman, and RHO threw in a lead-directing Double. What are your methods here? There are more complicated methods available, we’ll just review the standard methods, which are: - 2♦ and 2♥ and 2♠ are all normal Stayman responses - Redouble suggests strongly that the Double of 2♣ may have been a mistake, and offers 2♣ redoubled as a place to play … typically Opener has 5 good Clubs for this bid - Pass denies a 4-card major, and some tolerance to play in 2♣ doubled (or redoubled) … typically Opener has 4 Clubs, and probably some quick tricks (not a quacky hand)
Board 8 Dealer West None Vul
West’s Double was Responsive, typically 4-3 or 4-4 in the majors. A tad light, of course, but the shortness in their suit no doubt made West do it. Having overbid once, is West allowed to even think about bidding over 3♦? Well, let’s just give it a little thought, along Total Trick lines, as follows: - E-W presumably have exactly 8 trumps - It’s fair to assume that N-S have at least 9 Diamonds - That would be 17 total trumps and therefore an expectation of 17 total tricks - If they can make 9 of them in their 3♦ contract, then we can likely make 8 tricks in Spades, and if that’s the case then 3♠ (non-vulnerable) is a good save, even if doubled.
On the actual hand it turns out that the other side has a 10th trump, so that’s 18 total tricks, which turn out to be equally divided. So, bidding 3♠ is a great success, it allows E-W to go plus by making 3♠ or beating 4♦.
Board 9 Dealer North E-W Vul
We don’t know whether North is planning to write a memoir entitled “Crummy 12-Counts I Have Opened”, but, if she is, we might find this specimen in Chapter One. Well, at least the suit is good, that's a good enough excuse. But, having opened 1♠, however minimum it might be, and having prepared that reliable stand-by, the “lead-directing” defense, for the post-mortem interrogation, it is nonetheless incumbent upon North to balance here. One just doesn’t sell out non-vulnerable in these situations, unless one looks forward to seeing South's memoir entitled “Ex-Partners Who Wouldn’t Balance”.
Yes, a balance is obligatory, and the most flexible and descriptive action is a Double.
Board 9 Dealer North E-W Vul
We think that South should risk a Pass, and here are the reasons why: - There’s no guarantee that 2♥ is a good contract, Partner might well have only three, and our own Hearts are less than robust - We have shortness in Partner’s first suit, which usually augurs well for the defense - They are vulnerable, so down one will be the magic +200 - We have decent trumps, and we just love our T8 in the suit (and, as it happens, it’s the T8 which prove to be the difference between +200 and -180) Passing the Double won’t always work, but it looks like a good bet to us.
Board 12 Dealer West N-S Vul
Should South make a game try here? After all, she does have three lovely Aces and a singleton and some extra values. However, there’s a serious defect in this hand, namely the Spade length. The problem is that it won’t necessarily be so easy to ruff them on the board, because East is in the over-ruffing position. We have no obvious source of tricks, and maybe no ruffs on the board, we’d say the prospects for game are bleak, and, at least at matchpoints, we’d pass. Perhaps, at teams, as we are vulnerable, it might be worth a try.
Board 15 Dealer South N-S Vul
Only 10 HCP’s (and two of those are quite wasted), but, yes, we’d open this 1♣. This may not be to everybody’s taste, but experience shows that it’s a bidder’s game. For what it’s worth, the hand passes the Rule of Twenty with something to spare, but the real point is that it’s essential to get those good suits into the auction whenever we can. Of course, if Partner now responds 1♠ we will not be bidding 2♥, that would be a strength-showing reverse … no, our rebid is 2♣.
Board 16 Dealer West E-W Vul
How robust are your vulnerable 2-level overcalls? It’s certainly a dangerous situation and West’s Partner has already had a painful reminder of that back on Board 9. However, those Club fillers should add some reassurance, we’d risk it anyway. Of course, we would love to have a 6th Club, but such is life. If we don’t get Clubs into the auction now, we never will.
Board 16 Dealer West E-W Vul
Maybe South’s first bid was a more difficult problem than her second bid. Over 2♣, do you agree with South’s Pass? Were you tempted to make a Negative Double? Yes, so were we, but the trouble with this bid is that we will be left without resource when Partner bids 2♥ (and we just know that he will!). If (or rather when!) Partner bids that 2♥ we’ll be obliged to go back to Diamonds, not very appetizing with 3-card support. So, we must pass smoothly, and await developments.
Not unexpectedly, the “developments” are a balancing Double from Partner, and now South is back in the spotlight. How many Spades shall we bid? 2♠ or 3♠? Many would jump to 3♠ here, after all North does have a 10-count opposite an opening bid, with a fit for Partner’s Diamonds, and she has yet to make a squeak. We won’t argue with the 3♠ bidders, but consider also that: - Partner is not guaranteed to have 4 Spades (we’d actually estimate it at not much better than 50% … OK, “estimate” is a bit strong, let’s just call it an educated guess) - Our trump suit is weak - We are playing matchpoints, where the need to bid marginal games is greatly reduced.
2♠ or 3♠, take your pick, our own choice is 2♠.
Board 17 Dealer North None Vul
No prizes for opening this hand 1♥ … passing would be unspeakable … opening 3♥ would be worse (way too much defense). Is that the end of this one? No, what happens when the following auction gets back to us?
North East South West 1♥ Dbl 1NT 2♦ ?? Should North cower with her 10-count, happy that she’s got away with her 10 HCP opening bid? No, of course not, she’s got extra trumps so she bids again.
North East South West 1♥ Dbl 1NT 2♦ 2♥ Dbl Pass 3♦ ?? No, we are not done yet, that 7th trump persuades us to take one more bid. After all, we have 9 trumps (Partner probably has a doubleton), we are not vulnerable, there should be safety at the 3-level.
Board 18 Dealer East N-S Vul
North is supposed to have some values for her 2♥ bid, it’s not unreasonable to expect a minimum of a 5-card suit and around 10 HCP’s. Well, 15+10 is 25, and we have an 8-card Heart fit (at least), isn’t that enough for game? Yes, it would be if we had a decent 15, but this one is quite indecent … no distribution and dubious minor suit Queens. We’d suggest that 3♥ is enough here.
Board 19 Dealer South E-W Vul
We very rarely try Weak Twos with a 5-card suit, but here the conditions seem perfect … a shapely hand, good Spade fillers, and, above all, we are in 3rd seat at favorable vulnerability. This one is impossible to resist!
Just for the record, the preempt works just fine, it will likely bounce the opponents into a hopeless 3NT.
Board 20 Dealer West Both Vul
We might bid 1♣ here, we might bid 3♣. But we certainly would not pass. It would be rather feeble to say “Not strong enough to open 1♣, don’t want to preempt 3♣ with a 4-card major and a void, so I’ll pass”. We have a strong desire to get that magnificent suit into the auction, one way or another, notwithstanding the flaws.
Board 26 Dealer East Both Vul
At his second turn, East was not so far away from jumping to 3♥ … stiffening up the long suits with another Ten and a Nine was about all that was required. But, we took the low road with 2♥ and now Partner has given us a preference to 2♠. In this situation, we should not expect more than doubleton Spade support, Partner was obliged to bid something (well, semi-obliged, anyway). Clearly we must invite to game, what’s your choice?
We suggest that East does well to invite in Spades, rather than to bid the Hearts again. The point is that the 6-2 Spade fit is likely to be safer than the 5-3 in Hearts. It’s easy to visualize a forcing defense against Hearts … on the actual hand this would have beaten 4♥ if trumps were breaking 4-1. However, in 4♠ 10 tricks are easy enough, even though that trump suit is, indeed, 4-1.
Board 27 Dealer South None Vul
This week’s theme appears to be balancing. With 7 points, opposite a bidding Partner, non-vulnerable, we cannot sell out at the one-level without making at least one contribution to the proceedings. In these situations the catch-phrase is “If in doubt, double”, and that is what we suggest here. This simply says “I want to compete, but I don’t know what to do, hopefully my esteemed Partner does”. We’d say that this bid has to show Spade tolerance, which is bridge-writer-speak for a doubleton … with 3 he would have already supported Spades, with just one he would be somewhat intolerant.
Board 28 Dealer West N-S Vul
2♣ auctions are quite difficult when the minors are involved (correction, let’s make that very difficult), but we would say that East is quite justified in bidding 3♦ here … true, it crowds the auction and he only has 5 of them … but the suit is strong and the hand is going to slam somewhere anyway. OK, so far, so good, now let’s fast-forward the auction to:
East South West North 2♣ Pass 3♦ Pass 4♦ Pass ??
If you are one of the enlightened pairs that would play 4♥ as Redwood (a cheaper form of Roman Key Card), then you should resist the temptation! Partner’s hand is completely unknown, other than that Diamond support, it would be far better for East to describe his own hand (which is Diamonds with something in Spades). So, even if we have that lovely Redwood bid available, we’d decline to use it, we’d bid 4♠. As we said, it’s Diamonds, with something in Spades, let Partner make the decisions on this one.
Board 28 Dealer West N-S Vul
Partner has a good Diamond suit, normally we’d expect 6 of them, but a really good five is not out of the question. Then Partner showed something in Spades, no doubt the King. Our 4NT was Roman Key Card, and that 5♣ showed one Key Card.
It’s time to count up our tricks, suit by suit: - 3 Spades … let’s hope that Partner does not have Kx, that would be too horrible for words! - 3 Hearts - At least 5 Diamonds - 1 Club
Assuming that Partner does not have the death holding in Spades, we have 12 tricks … and there are all sorts of ways for a 13th … an extra Diamond, the J♥, a 4th Spade trick … and, if none of that happens, then there is the Club finesse in reserve. Looks like 13 tricks to us!
Is there likely to be a benefit to playing this in Diamonds rather than No Trump? It’s possible that Partner has 4 Spades, and that a Spade ruff is the 13th trick, but it’s quite a long shot, we’d go for the gusto with a bid of 7NT. It’s the bid that has so many different ways to win.
P.S Yes, it is the winner … Partner had a 4th Spade trick to take us up to 13 … and the Heart situation takes us to 14 … and if we want to get to 15 the Club finesse works!
Board 30 Dealer East None Vul
For the second time in this set, we recommend a 5-card Weak Two bid. This is not a practice that we especially recommend, but sometimes it just seems right. Back on Board 19, we were in 3rd seat and white against red, with a decent suit and some shape … how could anyone resist? This time, our excuse is the stellar suit, it kind of looks like a six-bagger, and we like to help Partner find the right lead.
Board 30 Dealer East None Vul
This one is a matter of style, we merely seek to present the options: - Either, open 1♦, planning to rebid 2♣ over 1♥ - Or, open 1♣, planning to rebid 1NT over 1♥
We like the second option, many don’t. It’s a partnership choice.
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