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Bidding Quiz 14th March, 2007
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Board 2 Dealer East N-S Vul
Here’s an awkward hand-type opposite a 1NT opening bid. We probably want to be in game, but which one? The possibilities are: - 3NT, but obviously we have concerns about the Spade suit. - If Partner does not have a suitable Spade holding, then perhaps 5 of a minor is the best contract - If Partner has a 4-card Heart suit, there’s a good chance that the 4-3 Heart fit is the place to be, after all, the ruffs in the Spades will be coming in the short suit, which will make it easier to retain trump control.
There’s a gadget that some players use to handle this specific hand-type, whereby 3♠ here shows precisely: - 3 Hearts - 1 Spade - 4-5 in the minors (either way around) - Game-going values And, of course, 3♥ would show the same hand-type with the majors reversed.
Our actual hand fits the description quite well, though we are certainly minimum, and we wish that our Hearts were a tad better than Jxx. Anyway, there we have it, a useful new gadget when we are 3-1 or 1-3 in the majors opposite a 1NT opening.
Board 3 Dealer South E-W Vul
Some pairs play the Michaels Cue-Bid as showing either a weak hand or a strong hand … with the in-between hands they bid their suits naturally. Clearly our hand is of the strong variety and we need to take another bid. Does that mean that we should bid 3♥? No, that bid just shows a willingness to compete, not substantial extras. The bid that shows North’s hand here is a Double.
Board 8 Dealer West None Vul
At first glance this square 6-count might seem to warrant no more than a Pass here, but let’s look a bit further into this. The first point to make is that East’s jump to 3♠ usually comes with shortness in one of the two unbid suits. How so? Because Partner has some extras and is in the 1NT opening range, and yet he failed to open 1NT (see also Board 32). The presumption is that he failed to do so because of, in this case, a singleton Club or Heart. Our hand is greatly improved by the suspicion of Club or Heart shortness, virtually no wastage in either of those suits. Additionally, we have a useful holding in Partner’s first bid suit, so our hand is getting better by the moment!
We’d say that West has a close choice between Pass and 4♠. Give our hand just a little more, say a 5th Spade or the J♠, and it would be clear-cut to bid 4♠.
Board 9 Dealer North E-W Vul
This is a hand where nothing seems right, so we’ll just offer the three choices and let you decide for yourself: - Overcall 1♠, which gets our best suit into the auction … but, of course, we are a Spade short and we run the risk that an over-enthusiastic Partner will notice the vulnerability and take us beyond our level of Total Trick safety. - Double, running the risk that Partner will bid Clubs … if she does, we have to leave her there and hope for the best. - Pass, hoping that we can get back in later (for example, LHO may bid 1NT and RHO 2♣, in which case a Double would now be perfect). Good luck and choose well!
Board 10 Dealer East Both Vul
Partner’s 3NT was bid under pressure, and she might have as few as 17 or so points. What are your methods in this situation? We would suggest Stayman and transfers in this situation, after all, how often will it be useful to bale out in 4♣ or 4♦? In that case, our plan for this hand is to transfer to Hearts with a 4♦ bid, and then try 5♠, Exclusion Key Card Blackwood.
Board 10 Dealer East Both Vul
How did this one get into the Bidding Quiz, you might be wondering. Simply because you might want to consider a bid of 4♠ here. True, we are vulnerable, our support is minimal to say the least, and we also appear to have an astonishing shortage of tricks in our hand. But it’s that shortage of values that makes 4♠ so attractive! If we can trust our Partner not to have two defense tricks for his 3♠ bid (and we hope we can), then the opponents have a slam in Hearts which will bring us -1430. In 4♠ doubled we will surely get out for less than that, and if the opponents bid on over 4♠ we shall at least have cramped their slam auction.
On the actual hand, 4♠ doubled would have been down four (Spade stack with South) for -1100, but, more likely the opponents would have bid on to slam. However, they are cold for a grand slam in Hearts or Clubs, and our nudge to 4♠ will make the grand very difficult indeed to reach.
Board 10 Dealer East Both Vul
What does Partner’s 4NT mean? Following violent Spade preempting to the 4-level, we suggest that North’s 4NT says “I have two places to play” (not necessarily just the minors), after which the partnership will usually find their fit at the 5-level.
OK, if that is your agreement, what is our bid? With the same shape but a weaker hand, we would simply bid 5♣. Now, if Clubs is one of her suits she can pass, otherwise she will bid 5♦, offering us a choice between Diamonds and Hearts. So should we bid 5♣? Absolutely not! Our hand is too good, our choice would be 5NT, allowing us to scramble into our slam. Now if Partner bids 6♦ we’ll know she has the red suits and will wind up in 6♥.
Board 15 Dealer South N-S Vul
If both the opponents had been bidding Spades, our Q83 would be a most dubious stopper. But here the Spade length is on our right and Qxx is quite adequate. So, we would try 3NT here in the absence of a good alternative. But it’s not perfect, for example Partner might have Kx of Spades in which case 3NT would be better played from his side. Of course, we could try a 3♠ cue-bid, hoping that Partner can bid 3NT himself, but all too often he won’t be able to and we’ll regret that we didn’t bid it ourselves.
Board 16 Dealer West E-W Vul
Partner has shown 4 Hearts with her Negative Double, and it would be nice to be able to support those Hearts in two ways: - a constructive raise, showing decent values and interest in game - a purely competitive raise
There is a Lebensohl-like gadget called the Good-Bad 2NT which allows us to do just that. Using this device, if we bid 3♥ directly we have game interest … and if we bid 2NT (which is a relay to 3♣) and then bid 3♥ we are merely competing with moderate values.
OK, let’s assume that we are playing the Good-Bad 2NT … is this a 2NT bid? Probably not, our hand is poor indeed (a 9-loser hand, no less!), we should no doubt pass here, if Partner cannot double one more time then we are well out of this one. The moral of the story is that, just because we have a nifty gadget available, we are not obliged to use it!
Board 18 Dealer East N-S Vul
This hand is not good enough to force to game (see also East’s similar hand on Board 21), but we would say that it too good for a 3♥ rebid, that could be make without, for example, the K♦. Our own choice would be 2NT, notwithstanding that 6th Heart, and if we only had the T♥ we would bid 3NT.
Board 21 Dealer North N-S Vul
East has a remarkably similar hand to the one he held on Board 18. Both hands have 18 HCP’s and a 6-card suit headed by the AKQ. On Board 18 we suggested a 2NT rebid, but this hand is stronger (it has a singleton, a potential fit with Partner, and the highly useful Ten in the 6-card suit), and we would say it is worth a game-forcing jump shift to 3♣.
Board 21 Dealer North N-S Vul
East’s jump to 3♣ has created a game-force but crowded the auction. Our 3♥ bid was nebulous, it could have meant any of the following: - a second suit - a hand that is unable to bid 3NT (no Heart stopper) - a hand that would welcome secondary Spade support - a hand that has slam aspirations - some combination of the above Our own reason for bidding 3♥ was not to show that Heart suit, it was because we were too good to bid 3NT and because we were also angling for Spade support.
How about Partner’s 3♠ bid? Yes, it could be honor doubleton, Partner might, for example have a hand such as: ♠ A5 ♥ 5 ♦ AKQT62 ♣ KQ53. From the viewpoint of this hand, a 5-2 Spade fit might well be the best game contract.
What next? How about a 4♣ cue-bid showing interest in a Spade slam? Yes, 4♣ is fine if that is what the bid actually means, but we don’t believe that 4♣ should mean that. To us it sounds more like Club support.
How about 4♥, intended as a cue-bid and a Spade slam try? No, that sounds like more Hearts to us, and while it hardly seems possible that Partner will have enough Hearts to pass this bid, it seems that we might just be confusing the issue.
Our own guess here is to plunge into Roman Key Card, and we’ll be the first to admit that we are not at all thrilled with the bid. We must pray that Partner has real support for Spades, and not honor doubleton, in which case we will probably survive.
Auctions where Opener jump shifts can be cumbersome, as we have just plainly demonstrated. Something to consider next time you are torn between a simple rebid and jump rebid.
Board 22 Dealer East E-W Vul
When 1NT gets around to us, the opponents had limited their combined assets to a maximum of 24 HCP’s, probably less, so Partner is marked with some values. Therefore, we would have no hesitation in bidding 2♠ with the North hand. And we would do the same if we were vulnerable.
Board 23 Dealer South Both Vul
In first seat, do you pass the South hand? Or preempt? Or open 1♦? We don’t like Pass one little bit, surely we have to get our long suit and shapely hand into the auction one way or the other. Our own preference is for 1♦, many would prefer 2♦. Take your pick, but let’s at least do something with this hand.
Board 25 Dealer North E-W Vul
North South ♠ T ♠ K5 ♥ 5432 ♥ Q986 ♦ AK98752 ♦ JT3 ♣ 2 ♣ T753
West North East South 3♦ Dbl 5♦ Etc.
When we are White versus Red it’s logical that we should preempt higher and more often and also sacrifice with greater frequency, because our penalties are less severe, and because their game or slam is more valuable.
With that in mind, what would be your preempt be with the North hand? Let’s say that you are a relatively conservative preemptor and decide that 3♦ is enough with that hand. Then, no doubt, Partner will be aware of your sound tendencies, and will feel free to further the preempt to 5♦. That’s fine, the partnership is in harmony.
Now suppose that North has a tendency to be hyper-aggressive at this vulnerability. Looking at the South hand, we would not raise one of her 3♦ bids to 5 holding that motley collection, the danger of -800 is too great. A simple nudge to 4♦ would be plenty. But, of course, our aggressive North will open 4♦ at this vulnerability, and South will raise to 5♦. It’s fun to make those swashbuckling preempts, but it’s important to have a partnership style too.
Board 26 Dealer East Both Vul
We had a hand just last week (Board 2) where we discussed the requirements for a positive response to a 2♣ opening. Then we said:
Some partnerships have strict rules about their suit requirements for a positive response to a Two Club opening, for example “2 of the top 3”. That’s a matter of personal taste, of course, our own preference is to be a little more relaxed on the subject. It’s still important to have a reasonable suit, though, and if pushed for a rule we’d say “2 of the top 3, or, failing that, 3 of the top 5”. Even that may be a bit rigid, who would not want to make a positive response holding QJ9xxx in a major and an outside Ace?
Our words were prophetic because we here we have that very QJ9xxx and an outside Ace opposite a 2♣ opening! Last week we were careful to say “QJ9xxx in a major”, because whatever our requirements for a positive response, it’s advisable to make them more rigorous if our suit is a minor, as 2♣ 3♣ or 2♣ 3♦ is such a space-consuming auction.
Nonetheless, our own choice would be to respond 3♣ with this hand, all the more so because if we bid 2♦ (waiting), and Partner then bids the expected 2♥, we still cannot show our Clubs, because 3♣ is generally used as a “second negative”. But, if we did not have that singleton we’d downgrade the hand to 2♦. In other words, this one is quite borderline for us, and we know many players who would bid 2♦ instead of 3♣, preferring a better suit before they use up so much bidding space.
Board 32 Dealer West E-W Vul
Clearly South is going to game here, but 4♠ is not the only option. South might as well make a Splinter bid along the way, in case that helps us get to a slam. We would bid 3♥ here, a Jump Reverse … as 2♥ is forcing and strength-showing, it makes sense for 3♥ to be a Splinter.
Some partnerships play that 3♥ here is not necessarily game-forcing, it could be made on a 3♠ type of hand with Heart shortness. Back on Board 8 we had an auction which started 1♦ 1♠, 3♠, and we made the comment: The jump to 3♠ usually comes with shortness in one of the two unbid suits. How so? Because Partner has some extras and is in the 1NT opening range, and yet he failed to open 1NT.
We could have taken this logic a step further and pointed out that the jump to 3♠ is likely to show Club shortness, at least if the partnership is playing that 1♦ 1♠, 3♥ is not game-forcing.
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