Bidding Quiz                                           14th February, 2007

 

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                                                    Board 1      Dealer North       None Vul

 

 

We’re all familiar with the No Trump ranges for overcalling in the direct seat, typically we will overcall 1NT with 15-18, and Double and then bid No Trump with more than 18.  In the balancing seat the ranges are adjusted to something like the following:

-         11-15:              Bid 1NT

-         16-18:             Double and rebid No Trump

-         19-20:              Bid 2NT

-         21-22:             Double and jump in No Trump

So, according to these adjusted ranges, West has an obvious 2NT bid.

 

                                                    Board 3      Dealer South        E-W Vul

 

 

Here we have 7-card support and a 5-loser hand, opposite an opening bid, so clearly slam is a possibility.  Four of those five losers would be covered by missing Key Cards, so if Partner has 3 of them the slam will be on no worse than a Heart finesse.  However, this is not a hand for Roman Key Card Blackwood.  If we bid 4NT and Partner responds 5♥, we’ll be too high, unless one of the missing Key Cards is the K♦.  Does that mean that we should bid just 5♦?  No, our hand is too good for that, so we would suggest 4♠ here.  Obviously this is a slam try, and it’s a safer one than that 4NT bid.

 

Now we fast-forward to this:

            North   East     South   West 

                                    1♦        3♠

            4♠        5♣       Dbl      Pass

            ??

Curiouser and curiouser.  East’s 5♣ no doubt shows a Spade fit and West’s Pass of our Partner’s Double shows a Club fit.  They have a double-fit in the black suits and we have the red suits.  Our 4♠ bid created a Forcing Pass situation, of course, so over 5♣ Partner could have passed if she wasn’t sure what to do.  But she doubled, expressing a clear opinion that we should be defending this hand.  Does that mean that we should now pass?  No, we don’t think so, our hand is too offensively oriented, we have singletons in both the opponents suits, we would bid 5♦ here.

 

                                                    Board 3      Dealer South       E-W Vul

 

 

We are Red against White and we must beware of going for 500 against their non-vulnerable game.  Having said that, we do have an 11-card fit, and must have an excellent chance for one of those rarities in bridge, a Red vs White sacrifice.  Does that mean we should gamble and bid 5♠ directly?  That might work, but suppose that they now bid 6♦?  If that were the case, we would certainly appreciate a Club lead.  Therefore, the time to ask for that lead is now, with a 5♣ bid.  This bid presumably shows Spades, and is a lead-director if we end up defending.

 

                                                    Board 5      Dealer North       N-S Vul

 

 

It looks like a reenactment of the Valentine’s Day Massacre is about to take place.  South is obviously sitting over Partner with a stack of Clubs, and we have an alarming absence of that particular suit.  We are not going to let Partner suffer in Clubs, would it be better to pull to 2♦ or to 2♠?  We don’t know, of course, we’d like Partner to choose, and the way to do that is with an SOS Redouble.  If we really liked 2♣ doubled, we would just pass, so Redouble is clearly a rescue maneuver.

 

                                                    Board 5      Dealer North       N-S Vul

 

 

Pass is out of the question, this is a simple choice between reopening the bidding with 2♥ or Double.  We would Double, but we have to say that we think 2♥ is a not-too-distant second, we do have six of them and the suit is well-stocked with intermediate cards … even if Partner is short in Hearts the hand should play quite well.  But, in favor of the Double is the possibility that Partner is lying in wait with a Club stack (she didn’t raise Hearts, and West didn’t raise Clubs).  So, we double and next time it is our turn to speak the auction has developed thusly:

            North   East     South   West

            1♥        2♣       Pass    Pass

            Dbl      Pass    Pass    Rdbl

            ??

West has made an SOS Redouble, he is asking East to escape into Spades or Diamonds.  Should we wait and see if Partner wants to take a piece of their escape suit?  No, enough’s enough, the time to tell Partner about our strong Heart suit is now, while we can still do it at the two-level.

 

                                                    Board 6      Dealer East       E-W Vul

 

 

We don’t expect Partner to have a particularly good hand for his 2♠ bid, he’s just raising our implied Spades, he might have as little as Axxx in Spades and nothing else.  Therefore, we would say that 4♠ here would be a bit of an overbid.  How about 3♠ instead?  Definitely not, that would be a serious underbid, it’s more competitive than constructive, the sort of bid we might make if we had a singleton in Hearts and about an Ace or a King less.

 

If we had to choose between 3♠ and 4♠ we would try 4♠, but there is an alternative, namely an invitational 3½ Spades bid.  Yes, if you play Maximal Doubles that is essentially what the Double means.  The basic elements of a Maximal Double situation are:

-         They have bid and raised their suit to the 3-level

-         We have bid and raised our suit

-         Our suit outranks their suit by one (Spades vs Hearts or Hearts vs Diamonds)

 

Yes, it’s true that we have not explicitly bid and raised Spades, but the Takeout Double counts as the first mention of the suit.  So now, over 3♥ our Double is Maximal … Partner will bid 3♠ or 4♠ depending on how much he likes his hand.

 

                                                    Board 7      Dealer South       Both Vul

 

 

Yes, when Partner overcalls, and the opponents have bid and raised, our Double is for takeout, the so-called Responsive Double.  What does it show?  Exactly the same as a Negative Double would show if Partner had opened 1♦ and they had jumped in with a 2♥ bid.  So, in this case, the Double guarantees 4 Spades.  And in terms of values?  Let’s say a minimum of 7 or 8 HCP’s, or thereabouts.  Or less with really good distribution.

 

 

                                                    Board 10      Dealer East       Both Vul

 

 

We love to open distributional 10- and 11-counts, but there are also some 12-counts which we would gladly pass, and this is one of them.  Here’s what we don’t like about the hand:

-         Square distribution … by all means let’s add upgrade those 5-5 and 5-4 hands, but let’s also downgrade the 4-3-3-3 hands, they have so much less playing strength.

-         No Aces … it’s well-known that Aces are undervalued in the 4-3-2-1 HCP scale, so having none is another defect.

-         No Tens … these useful cards are also lamentably absent from our hand.

 

When is it right to open a square 12-count in first or second seat?  That’s a matter of partnership style, our own preference is not to open them unless they are loaded with intermediates or unless there is a lead-directional benefit.  And that’s another reason not to open this particular hand, because if we do we’ll be opening a suit with four small … not much lead-direction there!

 

 

                                                    Board 12      Dealer West       N-S Vul

 

 

North had a basic decision to make in this auction, namely whether to bid the vulnerable game, or whether to try for a penalty of 2♥.  At any other vulnerability, perhaps a Penalty Pass is the way to go, but here, with the opponents White and ourselves Red, they only need 5 tricks in 2♥ Doubled in order to do better than defending our game.

 

There is another way for the Penalty Pass to win, of course.  Perhaps we cannot make game (remember, Partner does not need all that much for her balancing Double) but we can beat 2♥ by two tricks.  That’ll be a nice juicy +300 on a part-score hand.

 

We suspect that, more often than not, the winning call will be to Pass, not because we have a high expectation of an 800 penalty, but because of the chance of that +300 when we cannot make game.  And the winner on the actual deal?  2♥ doubled will be worth +300.  Do we make 3NT?  Maybe, but merely decent defense will beat it one trick.

 

                                                    Board 15      Dealer South       N-S Vul

 

 

With 14 HCP’s, a 5-card suit, and some most useful minor suit fillers, we would open this 1NT even though the opponents are not vulnerable.  Is that last point relevant?  Sure, opening 1NT against vulnerable opponents is a more potent preemptive weapon than against non-vulnerable opponents.  But that is a moot point, here we like our 14-count so much we’d open 1NT under any circumstances.  And, as we make a habit of this, it’s appropriate to announce our 1NT openings as “a good 14 to 17”.

 

                                                    Board 17      Dealer North       None Vul

 

 

What are your methods after they double your 1NT opening?  One common approach is to play “systems on”, in other words the same system as would be played without the Double.  This works well much of the time, but would not be a great success on this board.  North wants to escape to Clubs, but playing just Stayman and Transfers makes this impossible at the two-level, N-S must get out in 3♣, a contract which could be down two tricks, probably doubled.

 

Some partnerships employ exotic run-out systems, utilizing the Redouble by either partner to increase their escape options.  There are countless such methods available, all no doubt with their merits and faults.  We mention just one system, it’s relatively simple, and it goes as follows:

-         Direct suit bids by Responder are DONT … for example, 1NT (Dbl) 2♦ shows Diamonds and a major.

-         After Pass by Responder, the Opener will usually Redouble, allowing Responder to get out in his suit.

-         After Pass by Responder, the Opener has the option of bidding his own suit if his hand is suitable (maybe a 6-card minor or a good 5-card suit)

-         Redouble by Responder shows a decent hand, let’s say something 7+ HCP’s

-         3 of a suit by Responder is preemptive

 

If those are our methods, then, with the featured hand, we would Pass, awaiting Partner’s Redouble, after which we would sign off in 2♣.

 

                                                    Board 20      Dealer West       Both Vul

 

 

Here’s a Valentine’s Day present for lovers of that obscure convention known as Exclusion Key Card Blackwood.  Yes, South’s hand is so good here that all she really cares about is Key Cards.  But one Key Card that she does not care about at all is the A♠.  If you are playing Exclusion Key Card, then 4♠ is the perfect solution to this hand.  A prodigious leap to 4♠ can hardly be natural, nor is it needed as a splinter (3♠ is available for that).  So, for Exclusion players, it is used as Roman Key Card, but with a twist … Partner is requested to exclude the A♠ (if she indeed holds that card) from the response.  Exclusion Key Card won’t come up very often, but once in a while it’s a most useful convention.

 

System Note

Nowadays, most players use 1430 responses with Roman Key Card, but, just to confuse things, it’s customary to use 3014 responses when answering Exclusion Key Card.  Is your Partner on the same wavelength?

 

Afterthought

Actually, South had another way of tackling this hand.  She could have bid 5NT over 2♦, the so-called Grand Slam Force, saying “Bid 7♦ if you have 2 of the 3 top Diamonds”.  Of course, South knows full well that Partner does not have “2 of the top 3”, so this 5NT bid will need to be augmented by an agreement such as:

-         Over 5NT, 6♣ shows the Ace or King

-         Over 5NT, 6♦ denies the Ace and denies the King

 

                                                    Board 21      Dealer North       N-S Vul

 

 

Back on Board 15, South had a square 12-count which, to us at least, looked like a clear Pass.  Here’s an 11-count that we would have no hesitation opening … good controls, some distribution.

 

The Rule of Twenty is a useful guideline in opening bid decisions, but, just like HCP’s, it does not provide all the answers.  Here, for example, the Rule of Twenty evaluates 4-4-1-4 and 4-4-2-3 exactly the same, and that clearly is an over-simplification.

 

                                                    Board 22      Dealer East       E-W Vul

 

 

After 1♥, North has three or four ways to get her two-suiter into the auction, what would be your choice?

-         1NT?               For most players, this would not be an option, 1NT generally shows 15-18 and a balanced hand.  But some partnerships play that 1NT in this situation shows the unbid suits, the so-called Sandwich No Trump.  It’s not our favorite convention, but even if you play that, this is not the right hand for it, way too strong.

-         Dbl?                Yes, we do have the unbid suits, but doubling with 5 Spades is generally a bad idea, unless we happen to have a very strong hand and a Spade one-suiter.  We certainly have a strong hand, but it’s not one-suited.

-         2NT?               This is the so-called Unusual No Trump, showing the two lower unbid suits, and, in this case, the only two unbid suits.  This bid is usually a preemptive maneuver, but, just as Michaels can be made with a weak or strong hand (but not an in-between hand), so can the Unusual No Trump.  If that is your style, then we would say that this hand is really close to 2NT, followed by another call later in the auction (this call may well be a Double of their contract, not for penalties but to announce that we have a really good hand).

-         1♠?                  Yes, a simple overcall is also an option!

 

Our own choice would be to overcall 1♠, but we would say that bidding 2NT (and planning to take another call) could also work out well … however, for that sequence we would prefer to be even stronger than the actual hand.  But a Takeout Double would be plain bad in our view.

 

 

                                                    Board 23      Dealer South       Both Vul

 

 

What would a Pass of that Redouble mean?  No, definitely not a desire to play in 1♦ redoubled, it simply means that South has no preference and will leave it up to North to pick the suit.  But, if South held, for example, 3-4 in the majors, she would bid the 4-card major immediately.

 

                                                    Board 25      Dealer North       E-W Vul

 

 

Most players would bid 4♥ here, and so would we.  Our only point is that it’s not exactly a slam dunk, Partner may be quite broke.  We have 17 working HCP’s and shortage in their suit, but we also have a crummy trump suit.  So, by all means, bid 4♥, just remember to say “Good luck, Partner” as you put down your dummy, because he may well need it.

 

On the actual hand, Partner had AJxx of Hearts and out, and he certainly did need some good luck.  And, as it happened, he did not get it!

 

                                                    Board 30      Dealer East       None Vul

 

 

Partner has doubled, we have 4 cards in the unbid major, don’t we simply need to decide whether this hand is a 2♥ bid, or a 3♥ bid?  OK, let’s assume that this is so.  How many Hearts do you bid?  2♥ seems rather feeble, but are you really sure that you want to commit to the 3-level?  That Q♠ probably won’t be worth much in a Heart contract, and that reduces us to an 8-count.  But it gets worse!  We have Spade length under Spade length, and therefore they have Spade shortness over Spade shortness.  In other words, they are in the overruffing position, which might well make the play of the hand uncomfortable.  In fact, as it happens, in the play of the actual hand, that turns out to be the death of a Heart contract.

 

So, what we are saying is that we don’t think the hand is worth a 3♥ bid.  In fact, Professor Oddbid tells us that he wouldn’t even bid Hearts, he would bid 1NT!  Yes, like many of his bids, it seems somewhat strange at first, but there is some logic to the call.  It lets us show some values (let’s say 7-10) without jumping to the 3-level … a NT contract will allow our Q♠ to play a role … and there will be no overruffs!  The Professor’s plan is to chirp in with 2♥ if that turns out to be an option later in the auction.

 

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