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Bidding Quiz 10th January, 2007
Board 2 Dealer East N-S Vul
South’s hand looks more suitable for suit play than No Trump, but in the world of transfers, playing in 2♦ is not an option, and going to the 3-level with just a 5-card suit is inadvisable. So, South, with less than invitational values was content to let Partner play in 1NT. However, when West pushes on to 2♠, South is not about to sell out holding a singleton in the enemy suit and some scattered values. Here are 3 ways she might get back into the auction: - Double, which (being under the Spade bidder) would surely be for take-out, though Partner might well make a Penalty Pass; - 2NT, which would not be a bad choice if it said “pick a minor” … perhaps that is what it should mean, but is Partner on the same wavelength? By the way, one thing that 2NT is not is Lebebsohl. - 3♦, the most straightforward and unambiguous bid.
Yes, we’d just bid 3♦, keeping things simple.
Board 4 Dealer West Both Vul
North almost has a perfect hand for Roman Key Card, if Partner has two Key Cards and the Q♠ that may well be enough. But there is one small snag … if Partner has 3 small Hearts there will be an inescapable loser in the suit. How does North solve that problem?
We offer two ways to approach this hand: - North could just say “Damn the torpedoes!” and charge into Roman Key Card, and then, if Partner has 2 Key Cards, just bid the slam anyway, praying that South has a doubleton in Hearts or else the Queen; - Or, North could hope that some subtle cue-bidding will unlock the mysteries of the hand. Below, with both hands on view, we show how a cue-bidding sequence might develop.
♠ KJT943 ♠ AQ72 ♥ AK864 ♥ QT9 ♦ 6 ♦ 42 ♣ J ♣ AK84
West North East South Pass 1♠ 2♦ 3♦ Pass 3♥ Pass 4♣ Pass 4♦ Pass 5♣ Pass 5♥ Pass 6♠ Pass Pass Pass
South’s 4♣ bid was easy enough, her hand is plenty good enough to make a below-game slam-try. And 5♣ was pretty obvious, too … she has nothing else to cue-bid, does not want to show weakness with a 4♠ bid, and does not have the sort of hand that should be taking charge with Roman Key Card.
South’s real problem is on the next round of bidding when she tries to figure out what North’s sequence means. North appears to have AK♥, and a Diamond control, and was aware of our Club control some time ago. So, one wonders what was her impediment to launching a Roman Key Card auction. One might deduce, from the way that Partner has gone out of her way to show us Hearts twice, that this is a key suit and that perhaps there is a third round loser there. But, it doesn’t always pay to over-think these auctions … South has good trumps (including a 4th one) and the Q♥ which looks like a better card now than it seemed to be earlier, and should bid the slam.
Board 5 Dealer North N-S Vul
In E-W’s Two Over One style, West’s first bid was the Forcing No Trump. Forced to say something, Opener’s prescribed rebid with that 4-5-1-3 shape is 2♣, but we really couldn’t bring ourselves to make that call. That magnificent 5-card suit looks almost like six, surely more descriptive than rebidding those moldy Clubs.
Board 7 Dealer South Both Vul
If East has the AQ of trumps and if we can avoid a Club loser, then 7♠ will surely make. A third round Club loser is a possibility, for example, Partner’s hand could be 4-2-4-3 with 3 small Clubs in which case 7♠ would have no chance (though 7♦ might make!). But, most of the time, Partner will oblige us with a doubleton Club or the Queen and that’s a chance we are prepared to take.
That just leaves the problem of the AQ♠, and usually it’s easy enough to find out about these cards using Roman Key Card Blackwood. But not here! That void of ours messes up things, if Partner shows us a Key Card we’ll have no way of being sure that the Key Card is the one we want and not the useless A♥. The solution is to use the Grand Slam Force. 5NT here says “Bid 7♠ if you hold two of the top three trumps”.
This deal is strangely similar to Board 4, where North had AKxxx in a Heart side-suit and was afraid of a 3rd round loser in the suit, just as East might be here in Clubs. On Board 4 we were able to unravel the situation with some cue-bidding, but the enemy preempts have made that impossible on this Board 7, which is why we recommend going with the odds and assuming (praying, really) that there is no third-round Club loser.
Board 10 Dealer East Both Vul
First of all, let's suppose that North had passed 1NT. What would have been your plan? Some of the options (good and bad) are as follows: - Play in 3♦ via a transfer (if that is part of your methods) ... we don't recommend this, a 6-card suit is generally required for that sequence - Invite to game via Stayman ... no, we don't think that this hand is quite good enough - Play it in 1NT ... a reasonable choice - Bid Stayman, planning to pass Partner's response ... another reasonable choice
We'd say that it is a fairly close choice between the last two plans, either could be the winner on any given day. But the pendulum swings in the direction of a Stayman bid (passing the response) when North butts in with her 2♣ DONT bid. Is Stayman still available when they bid 2♣ in front of us? Yes, most partnerships use a Double here for that purpose, and they further play that the rest of their system (transfers, etc) is still on.
Some partnerships extend this concept, the so-called Stolen Bid convention, such that a Double of 2♥ (for example) would be a transfer to Spades. This is not a good idea, it raises more questions than answers, and belongs in the list of “Five All-Time Worst Conventions”, in our humble opinion. But that's just a personal view, many players seem to like this treatment, each to his own.
Board 12 Dealer West N-S Vul
Another easy one! Yes, of course, North must balance here, notwithstanding the vulnerability, and the most flexible way of doing this is with a Take-out Double, offering Partner the option of 3 suits and a Penalty Pass. The opponents are typically in the 18-22 range for their sequence, which puts Partner in the 9-13 range. In fact, Partner probably has more HCP’s than we do, but it is upon us that falls the responsibility of getting into the auction … we have the right hand-type to do so, whereas Partner, with 3 or 4 of the enemy suit has no convenient entry into the auction.
Board 14 Dealer East None Vul
What’s our plan here? Three possibilities come to mind: - 2♥, Michaels, showing Spades and a minor - 1♠, planning to rebid that fine Spade suit and ignore the Clubs - 1♠, planning to rebid Clubs (presumably at the 3-level), and then to bid 3♠, a sequence which surely shows 6-5 and a good hand.
We don’t like Michaels one little bit, those Spades are longer and so much better than the Clubs. Our preference is the third plan, bidding Spades, Clubs, then Spades again, which does a good job of conveying both our shape and our strength.
Board 15 Dealer South N-S Vul
Let’s start by taking a look at East’s initial bid. “Law of Total Tricks” purists might cringe but there is something to be said for a 1♥ overcall instead of the Double. After all, Partner is a passed hand, E-W might well end up defending, and in that case a Heart is the lead devoutly to be wished. Anyway, following East’s Take-out Double, North’s Double showed 3-card support for Spades.
What next? If the opponents have 8 Spades, we’d be well advised to bid 3♥. If they have only 7 Spades, we probably should not bid 3♥. However, if they have only 7 Spades, they may well have a 8- or 9-card Diamond fit. So, partly to keep Diamonds out of the picture, we’d take a stab at 3♥, purely a preemptive maneuver, if we wanted to make a game try we could always make a cue-bid instead.
On the actual deal, the opponents had but 7 Spades, and an 8-card Diamond fit. It also turned out that Partner’s 2♥ could best be described a quite adventurous, and the bottom line is that 3♥ goes down two. A bad board for the 3♥ bidders? Not at all, the opponents had to double to get a good board and that was far from obvious. One of the points for the 3♥ bid is that even when it is wrong it may well work out fine.
Board 16 Dealer West E-W Vul
After a 1NT opening, an 8-count is sometimes enough to warrant an invitation, but not this time. As 8-counts go, this one ranks pretty low. No Aces, no Tens, and, perhaps worst of all, that KQ doubleton. High cards work best when they are in long suits and when they are also supported by some useful intermediate cards, but here our 8 HCP’s are supported by absolutely nothing. A clear Pass.
Board 17 Dealer North None Vul
This hand passes the Rule of Twenty, but “So what?” is our answer to that! This one looks like a preempt to us, what with that fine suit and not much in the way of defense. But not just a 3♠ preempt, we’d go directly to 4♠, applying maximum pressure. North has great offense, and we’d say that the lack of an 8th Spade is nothing more than a trivial detail!
In fact, we would rather open 1♠ than 3♠, the latter will result in too many missed games. On the actual board this is what will happen in each of the 3 scenarios: - If North opens 4♠, she’ll play in there, making 10 tricks for +420 - If North opens 3♠, she’ll play it there for +170 - If North opens 1♠, she’ll at least get to game, but, alas, along the way, the opponents will find their Diamond fit and take a profitable sacrifice in 5♦, and N-S will score +300.
Bridge is not always a fair game, but we would say that those three outcomes are full justice for the bids in question.
Board 18 Dealer East N-S Vul
North has an awkward problem here. If the opponents were vulnerable she might be inclined to defend, hoping that an undertrick or two will be enough to beat the N-S part-score. But the opponents are non-vulnerable and N-S will not get rich defending 1NT. What’s the best way to compete? There isn’t really a good bid here … not Double with only one Diamond … our own choice would be 2♣, just in case that happens to be our suit.
As it happens, any bid (other than Pass) is the winner. Partner has 6 Spades and that is where N-S will play it.
Board 21 Dealer North N-S Vul
We’d hypothesize that the newer player misses a number of chances to use the red card, and here’s one such Double that might not seem completely obvious at first glance. The opponents have found a fit, and our fear is that, if we pass, South might also pass, putting Partner in an impossible balancing situation … she’ll have too many Spades to do anything other than pass.
Because East knows that Partner will be unable to balance, it behooves East to “pre-balance” with a Double. Remember the situation … the opponents have bid and raised to the two-level, we are in the direct seat with shortness in their suit … when this happens it is often right to make a “pre-balancing” Double. Here is another pre-balancing situation: East South West North 1♦ Pass 1♠ Pass 2♠ ?? In this sequence there are only two unbid suits but the same principle applies.
Board 23 Dealer South Both Vul
If we assume that N-S are playing Support Doubles, then South can be counted on for 4-card Heart support. In that case, with an 8-card fit and perhaps 30 combined points, slam is a possibility. What are the choices? - Roman Key Card? Definitely not! Not only do we have Spade losers, our hand is just not good enough to commit to at least the 5-level. - 4♥? No, giving up on slam is too pessimistic. - 2♠ or 3♣ or 3♦? These are ostensibly game tries, though at least they will get Partner’s opinion … if she goes to game at least we’ll know that she is at the top-end of her range.
We would choose 3♣, the most descriptive bid available. Yes, 3♣ is forcing, but if there is even the remotest chance that Partner might Pass, better bid 3♦! If, over 3♣ (or 3♦), Partner bids 4♥ (accepting the “game try”), then we’d try 5♦ (or 5♣ if we previously bid 3♦), hoping that Partner will make the right decision (no doubt based on her Spade holding). This is not without risk, of course, we might get to the 5-level with 3 fast Spade losers.
Board 26 Dealer East Both Vul
Is North allowed to bid 3♥ in this situation? Probably not, that 2♥ bid shows weakness, South could have inquired about Hearts via New Minor Forcing with invitation values. Even so, North must have been sorely tempted with her super-maximum!
Board 27 Dealer South None Vul
East has an opening bid opposite an opening bid, which is usually enough for game. But, let’s face it, that 12-count is not the best, is it? No points in our long suit, and 3 small trumps, are big negatives. So, we would treat the hand as just invitational, planning to bid a Forcing No Trump and then jumping to 3♠ at our next turn if Partner rebids 2♣ or 2♦.
But suppose that Partner rebids 2♠. Now, we have a known 9-card fit, and are less worried about our three small trumps. This improvement in our hand is enough for us to want to bid game. Similarly, if Partner’s rebid is 2♥.
Board 28 Dealer West N-S Vul
West has shown 18-19 HCP’s and we have 13 HCP’s, putting the combined assets in the 31-32 range. For two balanced hands opposite each other, the “magic number” for 6NT is generally considered to be 33 and there doesn’t appear to be any compensation for the shortfall (such as long suits, fillers). So, we’d tamely settle for 3NT here and let Partner earn us a good board with his superior Declarer play.
Board 32 Dealer West E-W Vul
West has shown 15-17 HCP’s and Partner has invited to game. Standard operating procedure seems to be to accept with 16 or 17 and politely decline with just 15. But there is more to bridge than HCP’s, of course, and there are crummy 16’s which are not worth an acceptance. Conversely, we have this West hand … it may be minimum in terms of HCP’s, but he does have 3 Aces (cards which are short-changed in the 4-3-2-1 point scheme) and a couple of lovely Tens, and should at least have think about accepting. A close decision in our opinion.
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