Bidding Quiz                                          6th December, 2006

 

                                                    Board 2      Dealer East       N-S Vul

 

 

 North has the values for game, and she also has the unbid suit stopped.  But that doesn’t necessarily mean that she belongs in 3NT, maybe 4♥ is a better contract.  The way to get Partner’s opinion on the matter is to trot out 2♦, the so-called “Fourth Suit Forcing”.  This artificial bid asks for more information … if Partner supports Hearts, North will bid 4♥, otherwise it will be 3NT.

 

 

                                                    Board 3      Dealer South       E-W Vul

 

 

It would be a pipe-dream to pass 1♦ hoping for a balancing Double by Partner and a massive penalty in 1♦ doubled.  No doubt South will have a better place to play, so surely it is better to announce our values with a 1NT overcall.

 

                                                    Board 3      Dealer South       E-W Vul

 

 

Playing standard methods, 2-level suits bids are non-forcing, and South can bid 2♠, maybe planning to compete later with 3♥, if necessary.  No doubt she was wishing that she had a bid available to show a major two-suiter, and for that reason some partnerships play Cappelletti in this situation.  Here’s how it works:

-         Double is strength-showing

-         2♣ is a relay to 2♦ after which we will pass (Diamond support), or bid 2♥ or 2♠ or 3♣, showing a one-suited and weak hand

-         2♦ shows the majors

-         2♥ or 2♠ shows that major and an unspecified minor

 

So, on the actual hand, playing Cappelletti, we have a perfect 2♦ bid, letting us get both majors into the auction without committing to the 3-level.

 

                                                    Board 3      Dealer South       E-W Vul

 

 

If you play Double here as a penalty Double, there’s really no good bid available here … we hate to pass here with such good values, where we clearly have more than half the deck … on the other hand we don’t have enough in Spades for the Penalty Double, nor do we have a satisfactory alternative.  We could bid 2NT perhaps but it’s not ideal, and anyway many partnerships use this as Lebensohl, in which case we have nothing even remotely resembling a reasonable bid.

 

We prefer the Double here to be merely value-showing, showing a hand which is at least strong enough to invite with 2NT.  The bid should also guarantee 2 cards in RHO’s suit.  Of course, our hand is pretty minimum for the bid.

 

                                                    Board 5      Dealer North       N-S Vul

 

 

They say that troubles come in threes, and so it seems do 1NT overcalls, at least if West thinks that his 14-count qualifies.  We know that we would bid 1NT here, that T♠ looks like a big card, and, if we are going to be a tad light, when better than when White vs Red?

 

 

                                                    Board 6      Dealer East       E-W Vul

 

 

South has only 10 HCP’s, but she also has shortness in the enemy suit, and that increases her obligation to get into the auction whenever reasonably possible.  So we would double here on our modest values and take the risk that this might propel us to a bad game when Partner reasonably expects us to have a little bit more.  Looking on the bright side, we have good support for both majors, and if Partner has no major worth bidding perhaps she can make a Penalty Pass … with our Ace and two Kings we need not be too nervous about defending 3♦ doubled, if that is Partner’s choice.

 

We should add that there are limits to just how much one should stretch to take action when short in the opponent's suit.  This Double is just about stretched to that limit!

 

 

                                                    Board 9      Dealer North       E-W Vul

 

 

The opponents have more HCP’s than we do, and they probably have at least an 8-card Spade fit.  We surely don’t want to let them play in 2♠, that would make their lives far too easy, so we suggest bumping things up to 3♥, let them figure things out one level higher.

 

Post Script

Sadly, our advice on this board is not a success!  It turns out that Partner has opened 2♥ with a 4-card Spade suit (not a crime in our style but many don’t care for this at all) so there is no 4-4 Spade fit.  Even worse, the opponents don’t even have an 8-card minor fit, and all contracts above 2♥ are going down.  If South (feebly) passes 2♥, West will balance with a Double and the opponents will be going down instead of us.

 

 

                                                    Boards 13 and 22

 

Two boards with the same dilemma:

 

     Board 13                                                              Board 22

     ♠ AK53                                                                ♠ A932

     ♥ T6542                                                               ♥ AJT52

     ♦                                                                           ♦ 92

     ♣ A752                                                                ♣ K9

 

     West    North   East     South                               North   East     South   West 

                 Pass    Pass    1♣                                                 Pass    Pass    1♦   

     ??                                                                         ??

 

Hands with 4 Spades and 5 Hearts are difficult to handle once our RHO has opened 1♣ or 1♦.  If we double we may lose our 5-3 Heart fit … and if we overcall 1♥ we may lose our 4-4 Spade fit.  For these hands we like to use Michaels … well, maybe “like” is overstating things somewhat, let’s just say that it seems less bad than the alternatives.  So, on both these hands Michaels would be our choice.  Of course, when the major suit holdings are reversed, we don’t have the same problem … we can bid the Spades and later, all being well, we can show the Hearts.

 

Do you play that Michaels shows a Weak or Strong hand, but not something in the middle?  It’s a very common treatment, and using this method we’d say that both of the hands are in the in-between category, being neither one thing nor the other.  Does that mean that we wouldn’t use Michaels after all?  No, we would anyway, reckoning that the importance of getting both majors into auction outweighs the misdescription of strength.  Consider this slight variation of one of the hands above:

     ♠ A9432

     ♥ AJT52

     ♦ 9

     ♣ K9

Here we are 5-5, the ideal Michaels shape, but, paradoxically, we would bid 1♠!  The reason is simple enough … with this middling hand and 5 Spades we can bid our suits separately, and we don’t need to lie about our strength to solve our distribution problem.

 

System Note:

If you don’t like using Michaels with 4-5 hands, and if you are willing to sacrifice your Weak 2♥ Jump Overcall, then you can adopt the Flannery Overcall, whereby a jump to 2♥ shows precisely this type of hand.

 

 

                                                    Board 15      Dealer South       N-S Vul

 

 

We’re not a big fan of Weak Twos on a 5-card suit, but this one looks like a good candidate … a good suit, some shape, and we are White versus Red.  Yes, it’s hard to resist!

 

Post Script:

If West does indeed try 2♥ here, East will bump the auction to 3♥, freezing the opponents out of the auction for a top board.  We mention this only because back on Board 9 we recommended an identical E-W auction which ended rather badly.

 

                                                    Board 17      Dealer North       None Vul

 

 

The choice here is between 2♦ and 1NT.  It’s may be a comradely act to raise Partner’s suit, and our Heart stop is somewhat tenuous, but we would bid 1NT anyway.  Our shape is as No Trumpish as can be … if we raise Partner to 2♦ the last thing we want with this square hand is to hear Partner competing to 3♦.

 

 

                                                    Board 19      Dealer South       E-W Vul

 

 

We’d say that the East hand is just about good enough for a game try.  What are your methods in this situation?  Here is a quick review of the most commonly used ones:

 

Natural Game Tries

Yes, just bid what we’ve got!  On the actual hand, we might consider showing our Diamond suit, but it’s a bit skimpy, we wouldn’t bother.  If we have no suit worth bidding we can try 2NT (5-3-3-2 type distribution with lots of outside stuff and presumably weak Hearts), or 3♥ (general game try).  There’s a lot to be said for this style, if only for its simplicity.

 

Help Suit Game Tries

Here, Opener shows his weak suit, typically one with 3 losers.  If Responder has this suit covered somehow or other (with shortness or high cards) he can bid game.  The trouble with a Help Suit Game Try is that it telegraphs the defense their opening lead.

 

Modified Help Suit Game Tries

In this method, Opener makes the cheapest call (2♠ here), asking the question “What is the cheapest suit you have in which you would not accept a Help Suit Game Try”.  In the responses, 2NT would say “I don’t accept a Help Suit try in Spades”, 3♣ would say “Yes, in Spades, but not in Clubs”, and so on.  This more complicated method does a better job of concealing Declarer’s hand.

 

Short Suit Game Tries

Here, we show shortness in the hope that this information will help Partner evaluate the suitability of his hand for game.  It’s simple enough, a new suit bid by Opener shows shortness.  On the featured hand, this method works rather well … East can bid 3♦ and West (who has virtually no Diamond wastage) can bid the game.

 

Two-Way Game Tries

With a little bit of fancy footwork, we can combine methods.  For example, you might want to use both short suit and long suit tries and here’s how it works:

-         A new suit shows length and values in the bid suit, as in 1♥ 2♥, 3♣

-         As a special case, 1♥ 2♥, 2NT is used to show Spade values, and this is because 1♥ 2♥, 2♠ has another purpose (below)

-         The cheapest bid (1♥ 2♥, 2♠ or 1♠ 2♠, 2NT) is a relay … Responder now also makes the cheapest bid available, whereupon Opener reveals his short suit … on the actual hand the sequence would be 1♥ 2♥, 2♠ 2NT, 3♦ would be the way of showing that Diamond shortness.

-         The auction 1♥ 2♥, 2♠ 2NT, 3♥ would show Spade shortness

Perhaps this method should be called Three-Way, because we also have available the auction 1♥ 2♥, 3♥ as a general game-try, which we can use whenever our hand is not suitable for showing shortness or length/strength.

 

Well, here ends our little Game Try tour.  What’s the best method?  The one your Partner will remember!

 

 

                                              Board 22 - please see Board 13 for North's bid

 

 

                                                    Board 22      Dealer East       E-W Vul

 

 

Opposite Partner’s major-showing bid, how do you evaluate your hand?

-         Do you feel like preempting to the 3-level?

-         Or preempting to the 4-level?

-         Or making a constructive or invitational bid?

 

Perhaps we are jumping the gun here, though.  What are your methods opposite a Michaels bid?  The “standard” approach provides for preemptive bids of 3♥ or 3♠, with no consensus on the meaning of 2NT or 3♦.  Here’s a suggestion, we don’t know who gets credit for this, but we found it in Steve Robinson’s book “Washington Standard” (buy your Partner a copy for Christmas!):

-         2NT shows an invitational hand (or better) in Hearts

-         3♦ shows likewise in Spades

It’s easy enough to remember … the lower bid shows the lower major.

 

With this method in mind, what’s our call?  We question whether this is a hand for preempting.  We have 10 HCP’s and decent defense, and enough Diamonds to be a likely pain in the neck against 5♦.  We think that this hand is worth an invitation, and that invitation would be 3♦ using the aforementioned methods.  As it happens, 3♦ would be just as effective preemptively as 3♠, at least if the opponents’ suit is Clubs, as seems most likely … either way, they’ll have to introduce Clubs at the 4-level.

 

 

                                                    Board 25      Dealer North       E-W Vul

 

 

North was not quite good enough for a jump shift so she settled for a simple 2♣ rebid.  Partner’s 2♦ bid was merely a preference, and could be made on all sorts of different hand types:

-         a moderate or weak hand with genuine Diamond support

-         various nondescript hands with equal length in both minors

-         even a hand with shorter Diamonds than Clubs (typically 2-3) and no satisfactory alternative (the so-called “false preference”)

 

The bottom line is that Partner might have a half-decent hand over there (maybe as many as 9 or even 10), especially in the false preference case.  So, it behooves North to keep the bidding alive with just a few extras.  Here, we have more than a few extras and must take a call.  But what?  The most likely game is in No Trump, but we obviously cannot invite with 2NT.  No, the obvious bid here is 2♥ saying “Perhaps we have a game somewhere”.  Partner will no doubt bid some number of No Trump if she can … 2NT with Hearts stopped and a poor hand … 3NT with a little extra.

 

 

                                                    Board 27      Dealer South       None Vul

 

 

We have just about enough for game opposite Partner’s Take-out Double, but it would be a mistake to jump to 4♠ directly.  Partner may have only 3 Spades, in which case we’d probably be better off in 3NT.  The way to investigate further is to bid 3♦.  Partner will now show a 4-card major if he has one, and on the actual deal would bid 3♥, showing a Heart suit, of course, and also not denying a 4-card Spade suit.

 

What next?  Over 3♥, we bid 3NT, which, by inference, shows Spades.  If we are not interested in Hearts, and can bid 3NT by ourselves, then surely our reason to bid 3♦ was to investigates Spades before settling on 3NT.  Why be so devious, why not just bid 3♠ over 3♥?  Primarily because if we do, and if Partner has only 3 Spades, he will be obliged to go past 3NT (it’s hard to imagine that he would have a Diamond stop).

 

 

                                                    Board 29      Dealer North       Both Vul

 

 

To bid or not to bid?  True, we only have 4 HCP’s but there are a couple of reasons to take a call here.  Firstly, we can lay claim to the Spade suit, which is rarely a bad thing.  Secondly, we have the comforting safety of a Diamond fit.  When, as Responder, we bid with 4 or 5 HCP’s, the one bid that we don’t want to hear from Partner is 1NT … her 12-14 opposite our 4-5 gives us 16-20 which, most of the time, will be woefully inadequate for the job.  But here it’s not a concern because, if Partner rebids 1NT, we can bail out in 2♦.

 

Suppose that the auction now proceeds as follows:

West    North   East     South

            1♦        Pass    1♠

Dbl      Rdbl    2♣       ??

 

Partner’s Redouble was a Support Redouble, showing precisely 3-card support for Spades.  Is now the time to show that Diamond support?  We wouldn’t.  We were rock-bottom minimum for our first bid and the Diamond fit was merely insurance against a 1NT rebid.  There’s no need to bid the Diamonds freely at this point, the last thing we want to do is to encourage Partner to compete on to the 3-level.

 

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