Bidding Quiz                                           20th December, 2006

 

                                                    Board 1       Dealer North       None Vul

 

 

It looks as if N-S have a 10-card fit and the balance of the points so North will surely want to bid up to 4♥ before she starts doubling the opponents.  Is that a reason to bid 4♥ directly?  That’s one possibility, but we suggest a Redouble here, the purpose being to get Partner involved in the decision.  The Redouble creates a force, and now N-S will either play the hand or defend a doubled contract.  If Partner can double their next bid (she might have some unexpected defense for her preempt) we’ll pass, otherwise we’ll bid on to 4♥.

 

Yes, it would be awfully tempting for South to double their 3♠ unilaterally (and also the winning bid on the actual hand), but we’d rather bid up to our total trumps level of 4♥ before we start doubling.

 

 

                                                    Board 3      Dealer South       E-W Vul

 

 

This one is something of a refresher course, because South had an identical situation last week on Board 15.  As we did last week, we’ll recap the No Trump ranges available to Opener:

            12-14:              Open one of a suit and rebid 1NT

            15-17:              Open 1NT

            18-19:              Open one of a suit and make a jump rebid of 2NT

            20-21:              Open 2NT

            22-24:              Open 2♣ and rebid 2NT

 

On this particular hand we would open 1♦ and rebid 3NT.  This bid does not fit into the aforementioned ranges it shows a different type of hand altogether … one with a source of tricks (running Diamonds) more than a particular point count.  The ideal hand for such a bid contains a stopper in the two unbid suits and a very strong and long suit and that’s precisely what East has.

 

 

                                                    Board 5      Dealer North       N-S Vul

 

 

Our 2♣ bid was made on a minimum point-count and now East is making a slam try by cue-bidding their suit at the 4-level.  Should we recount our HCP’s, just to make sure it is really only 9, and then sign off with a bid of 5♣?  Absolutely not!  Despite the paucity of HCP’s, our hand is rather suitable for slam:

-         shortage in the enemy suit

-         extra long trumps

-         side-suit Ace

The only negative in our otherwise splendid hand is that holding of three small in Partner’s first suit, but we are still quite good enough for a jump to 6♣.

 

 

                                                    Board 7      Dealer South       Both Vul

 

 

South would love to get in on the action with her 10-count but has no obvious action.  Not a Negative Double with only 3 Hearts.  A simple 2♦ bid is possible, and likewise a cue-bid of 2♠, showing a limit raise in Diamonds … but both these bids seem misdescriptive to us (and the limit raise is a plain overbid, to boot) with such mediocre Diamonds and that square distribution.

 

When a hand looks so No Trumpish perhaps we should bid 1NT!  Yes, it’s stopperless in the enemy suit, of course, but otherwise perfect.  And we do have a half stopper, at least.  We don’t really worry too much about playing in 1NT without a stopper, the only danger is that Partner might raise us to 3NT and the opponents rattle of 5 or 6 Spade tricks.  It’ll happen once in a while, but most of the time we’ll get away with that 1NT bid.

 

                                                    Board 8      Dealer West       None Vul

 

 

How many Hearts do you bid here?  It looks as if the opponents may have slam on this board so preempting to the 4-level is not likely to inconvenience them greatly.  How about going directly to 6♥?  We think that is a bit too much, especially as 6♥ doubled may go for more than the value of the slam (down 5 is not unimaginable).  Our own choice would be the middle course of 5♥ which hopefully will be high enough to turn the rest of the enemy auction into something of a guessing game.

 

 

                                                    Board 8      Dealer West       Both Vul

 

 

Do you bid 5♠ here?  Or 6♣?  Or 6♠?  East’s 5♥ has turned our auction into a crap-shoot.  Our own particular guess would be to bid a slam, we have a 5-loser hand opposite a take-out Double which should be enough.  Which slam?  We’d opt for the lower-scoring Club slam, it looks like the safer bet, for these reasons:

-         Partner may have only 3 Spades

-         Or, Partner may have 4 Spades but the trumps break 4-1

-         Or, the opponents may get a Club ruff on the go

 

Perhaps those arguments seem a bit flimsy, we certainly wouldn’t argue with a red-blooded matchpoint bid of 6♠, which on the actual hand is the winner when both slams happen to make, at least when played by South (West has a Club void).

 

                                                    Board 11      Dealer South       None Vul

 

Here we look at the hands side-by-side, and step through the auction bid by bid.

 

                 West               East

                 ♠ AKQ973     ♠ T542

                 ♥ AJ6            ♥ T87

                 ♦ A                 ♦ 97

                 ♣ 942             ♣ KJT3

 

                South   West    North   East 

                 1♦        Dbl      3♦        Pass

                 Pass    3♠        Pass    4♠

                 Pass    Pass    Pass

 

West’s Dbl:     What is your range for a simple overcall?  We often see cards marked 9-16 HCP’s, but we’d suggest that an upper range of 16 is a bit on the low side, we prefer 18 or thereabouts.  Having said that, we think that West’s 18-count is too strong for a mere overcall, look at that lovely 6-card suit and all those controls.  So, West doubles.

 

East’s Pass:    Clearly nothing to say at this point in the proceedings.

 

West’s 3♠:       As already discussed, this shows a hand too good to make an immediate overcall, and, of course, just how good it has to be depends on the partnership’s overcall range.

 

East’s 4♠:       If Partner is prone to making heavy overcalls (as we recommend above), then East has an easy 4♠ bid here.  If Partner might have a somewhat weaker hand for his sequence of Double followed by a new suit, then 4♠ is not so clear (but we’d no doubt bid it anyway!).

 

 

                                                    Board 12      Dealer West       N-S Vul

 

 

Playing standard methods, here are West’s options:

-         Well, 3♠ is not an option, the bid is non-forcing and this hand is going to game somewhere

-         How about 4♠?  No, the Spades don’t have enough interior strength for us to be insisting on the suit

-         3NT?  That’s a possibility but it doesn’t do justice to our 6-card Spade suit, especially considering our dangerous looking Heart holding

-         A fake jump shift to 3♣?  That will establish a force and if Partner does not take our Clubs to seriously we should be able to investigate the best game contract.

 

We wouldn’t argue with 3NT or 3♣ here, they seem like the best choices in an awkward situation.  However, there is a gadget available which gets around West’s problem on this hand.  We know it by the name of Power Relay, but it may go under other names as well.  Using this device, a rebid of 2NT by Opener is an artificial game force … Responder normally relays to 3♣, after which Opener further describes his hand.  Please follow the link if you’d like to learn more.

 

 

                                                    Board 16      Dealer West       E-W Vul

 

 

This hand is going to game (at least) in Spades, but by what route?  The three choices are:

-         2NT:   Most partnerships play some variety of the Jacoby 2NT, a bid which shows Spade support (usually at least 4) and game-going values.

-         4♥:      This double-jump would be a Splinter bid for most players, showing shortness in the bid suit and support for Partner’s Spades.

-         2♣:      Showing the strong side-suit before raising Spades.

 

Of those three bids, we especially dislike the Splinter, it wastes so much bidding space without addressing two important features of the hand, namely the very strong Clubs and the two fast Diamond losers.  This would be much more suitable as a Splinter:

            ♠ KT97

            ♥ 7

            ♦ A85

            ♣ A9852

Here we don’t have a source of tricks in a side-suit, nor do we have 2 fast losers in a side-suit.  Instead, the hand is characterized by good controls and no concentration of values, just what a Splinter should be!

 

Our preference of the other two choices would be to bid 2♣,  showing our super side-suit and establishing a force, planning to support Spades on the next round.  But we don’t think that bidding 2NT would be so bad, either.

 

SAYC Note:

Playing SAYC, a Two Over One bid is not game-forcing and therefore less attractive, so using those methods we’d establish a force right away with the Jacoby 2NT.

 

 

                                                    Board 17      Dealer North        Vul None

 

 

Attempting to penalize non-vulnerable opponents at the one-level is an iffy business, the main danger being that we’ll nip it by just one trick scoring +100 when we had more productive part-score contracts available.  And if we can make a game our way (non-vulnerable on this board) we must score no fewer than 9 tricks on defense if we are to get a good board.

 

Having said all that, this hand appears to be most suitable for such a penalty Double, here are the key ingredients:

-         That KJ9xx is almost a perfect trump holding, with 3 or 4 tricks being produced by a mere 4 HCP’s … this holding is actually more suitable for our purposes than AK432 because it’s likely to provide the same number of defensive trump tricks while being far less suitable for offense

-         The hand has modest values, reducing the chance that N-S can make game

-         North is short in Partner’s suit (usually good for defense, not so for offense)

-         North’s A♥ will be just as powerful on defense as offense (we certainly couldn’t say the same if those 4 HCP’s were not the Ace but a random sampling of Queens and Jacks)

 

So, yes, we would pass smoothly, eagerly awaiting the reopening Double.  Is Partner obliged to reopen with a Double?  There used to be a school of thought which said “Yes! South must reopen with a Double in case North is lying in wait with the so-called Trap Pass”.  But that’s altogether too dogmatic in our view and seems to have faded from the mainstream view.  We’d relieve her of that reopening Double obligation with distributional hands or those with truly appalling defensive prospects.  But more than half the time South will make a reopening Double … she would on the actual hand, and that will be +300.

 

 

                                                    Board 19      Dealer South       E-W Vul

 

 

This one is simply a methods question, judgment is not required!  What do 2♠ and 2NT mean here?  There’s no easy answer, it depends on the rest of your No Trump system, this is the simplest we can come up with:

-         If 1NT 2NT is artificial (say a transfer to Diamonds), then Responder must use Stayman as her inviting mechanism, even when she is not in possession of a 4-card major … therefore we would say that 1NT 2♣, 2♥ 2♠ is an invitational hand with 4 Spades, and 1NT 2♣, 2♥ 2NT is invitational without 4 Spades;

-         If 1NT 2NT is natural (invitational with no interest in finding a 4-4 major suit fit), then we have a spare sequence … after 1NT 2♣, 2♥ one of those rebids of 2NT and 2♠ is surplus to requirements and can be used for some other exotic purpose.

 

Confused?  No need to be, we’d suggest that 1NT 2♣, 2♥ 2♠ is always 4 Spades and invitational regardless of the rest of your system.  Let’s just leave it at that!

 

 

                                                    Board 21      Dealer North       N-S Vul

 

 

How do you like the South bidding so far?  We like it just fine!  Clearly it would be wrong for her to have bid 4♥ directly at her first turn, that is a preemptive bid.  Then when 2♣ got back to South we think that she was right to charge into 4♥ … sure, she could have cue-bid 2♠ instead which would lead who knows where, we prefer the keep-it-simple 4♥ (after 2♣) ourselves.

 

But it’s not over yet!  West bids 4♠ and North doubles.  Are we going to sit for this Double?  Surely not!  We have very little defense and are void in their trump suit.  And the clincher is that we have undisclosed support for Partner’s presumed 6-card Club suit.  Yes, we’d bid 5♣, offering Partner a choice of 5-level contracts.  Once in a while we’ll catch Partner with the wrong hand but we’ve all been there before.

 

 

                                                    Board 23      Dealer South       Both Vul

 

 

North’s 3♠ was a Splinter bid, showing shortness in Spades and enough for game.  Let’s assume that N-S are in a forcing situation, whereby they will either play the contract themselves or else the opponents will have to play it doubled.  In such a situation, South has 3 courses of action:

-         Pass                 “I don’t know what to do, you decide”

-         Double            “I’d rather defend than declare”

-         Other Bids      “I’d rather declare than defend”

 

With that in mind, how should we rate the South hand?  It’s not exactly a defensive dreadnought but surely she would be better off suggesting to Partner that they defend.  Here’s why:

-         No distribution (bad for offense)

-         Soft values

-         Not only soft values but minimum values

-         No extra trump

So, although this hand may be no great shakes in the department of defense it is even worse offensively.  Double and take the money!

 

                                                    Board 24      Dealer West       None Vul

 

 

We freely admit that we don’t know what’s right here.  We know that we don’t like 4♥ with that square hand and those soft values.  But we do have 11 HCP’s opposite a hand that has come in at the 3-level.  Our own guess would be 3NT, though Pass is certainly an option.

 

 

                                                    Board 30      Dealer East       None Vul

 

 

When they open the bidding and we have a decent hand with a 5-card major, it’s almost a reflex action to overcall in the major.  But not a good idea here, the Heart suit is so pathetic that it almost looks like a 4-card suit.  We suggest Double here, keeping more options open.

 

 

                                                    Board 31      Dealer South       N-S Vul

 

 South              North

♠ AKJT76       ♠ Q8

♥ A                  ♥ KQ73

♦ AQ5              ♦ 963

♣ AKT            ♣ 7432

 

South   West    North   East 

2♣        Pass    2♦        Pass

2♠        Pass    3♠        Pass

4♣        Pass    4♥        Pass

4NT     Pass    5♦        Pass

5♥        Pass    6♥        Pass

6NT     Pass    Pass     Pass

 

Here we trace through this long-winded auction bid by bid, with both hands in view:

 

2♣                   Artificial and strong (game-forcing, unless a 2NT rebid)

 

            2♦        Waiting

 

2♠                    Natural

 

            3♠        Quite adequate support in this situation (and, anyway, it’s not exactly as if

                        there is a reasonable alternative).

 

4♣                   A cue-bid, trying for slam.

 

            4♥        Another cue-bid, something in Hearts.

 

4NT                 This is Roman Key Card Blackwood.  A trifle strange-looking perhaps,

                        when South has all the Key Cards herself, but her plan will become clear.

 

            5♦        Playing 1430, this bid shows zero Key Cards (what a surprise!).

 

5♥                    In Roman Key Card, after a 5♣ or 5♦ response, it’s common to use the           

                        cheapest non-signoff (5♥ here) as the Queen Ask.

 

            6♥        In response to the Queen Ask, we show a side-King along the way if we

                        have one, so this bid shows the Q♠ and the K♥ (and denying the K♣ and         

                        the K♦.

 

6NT                 Giving up on 7 but opting for the better-scoring No Trump contract.

 

We’d say that the most important point here is that Roman Key Card was used by South to tell rather than ask.  She got the zero answer yet still pursued the grand slam, thereby telling Partner that there were no missing Key Cards.  In the circumstances Partner should have been quite willing to go to 7 herself if she had an unexpected source of tricks.

 

                                                    Board 32      Dealer West       E-W Vul

 

 

North’s 2NT is the Unusual No Trump, showing the lower unbid suits, in this case Clubs and Hearts.  In this situation it is common to play Unusual vs Unusual, whereby the cue-bids of 3♣ and 3♥ have pre-defined meanings.  One commonly used method (there are other equally good approaches) is:

-         3♣ is a good hand with Diamonds (lower of their suits for the lower of ours)

-         3♥ is the same but with Spades (higher for higher)

 

In this case, the problem with those responses is that we have both support for Partner’s Diamonds and a substantial Spade suit of our own so neither bid quite fits.  In the circumstances, our suggestion would be to double, keeping all options open and creating a forcing auction for us (we play it in game or they play it doubled).

 

                                                    Board 32      Dealer West       E-W Vul

 

 

The only important thing here is to realize that 3♠ is forcing.  The force was created by the Double of 2NT.  Once we’ve established that, this one is a no-brainer 3NT call.

 

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