Bidding Quiz                                                  March 28th, 2007

 

                                   Click here for print-formatted version of the Bidding Quiz

 

                                                    Board 3      Dealer South       E-W Vul

 

 

It’s not out of the question that we can make slam in Clubs.  Nor is it out of the question that 5♣ is the only making contract.  Does that mean that we should try a game-forcing 3♣ bid here?  We wouldn’t, we’d just bid 3NT here, offering Partner a choice between 3NT and 4♠.  A little unscientific?  Probably, but it doesn’t pay to get too delicate in these situations.  95% of the time we’ll belong in 3NT or 4♠, we’re happy to give up on the other 5% in return for a less revealing auction.

 

                                                    Board 4      Dealer West       Both Vul

 

 

 We are conditioned to play in the major suit whenever we have a 4-4 fit, but sometimes 3NT will make just as many tricks.  Of course, it’s incredibly difficult to know which deal is which, but at least, on this particular hand West might consider bidding 3NT saying “I accept your game try, but maybe 3NT is better”.  If West finds this well-advised and descriptive bid, then East might find winning call of Pass, letting Partner play in 3NT notwithstanding the 4-4 Heart fit.

 

We can consider this as a triumph for good bidding judgment because, on the actual deal, whereas 4♥ is a truly atrocious contract, 3NT is no worse than slightly terrible.  But 3NT does have a play, and in real life it limps home.

                                                    Board 5      Dealer North       N-S Vul

 

 

Let’s assume that we are playing a 2/1 style.  What is your rebid?  There are three choices at your disposal:

-         2NT?   Not very appealing with no stopper in the Club suit.

-         3♦?      We’d prefer better support and more distribution if we were to suggest a minor suit contract.

-         2♠?      Yes, many (perhaps most) 2/1 partnerships use 2♠ as a “neutral” bid … it doesn’t show a 6^th Spade, though that is quite possible, of course … it merely says “I don’t have a better bid”.  As we said, it’s neutral.

 

                                                    Board 6      Dealer East       E-W Vul

 

             West    North   East     South

                                     1♦        Pass

            1♠        Pass     1NT    Pass

            ??

In this situation, many partnerships play that 2♣ here is “New Minor Forcing”.  This device is primarily intended to uncover a 5-3 fit in Responder’s major.  Does that mean that it is automatic to look for that 5-3 major fit?  We don’t think so.  As luck would have it, West had another New Minor Forcing opportunity on Board 29, and we invite you to scroll down there for a comparative study.

 

 

                                                    Board 7      Dealer South       Both Vul

 

 

We would say that South has four choices here:

-         Open 1♠, planning to make a jump rebid of 3♦;

-         Open 2♣, planning to rebid 2♠;

-         Open 2♣, planning to rebid 2NT (showing 22-24 or 22-23);

-         Open 2NT (showing 20-21).

 

The only one of these four that we really object to is the last one, we’d say that this 21-count is just too good to be showing 20-21 HCP’s, those 4 lovely Aces make the worth upgrading.  As for the other three, take your pick, there’s something to be said for all of them.

 

 

                                                    Board 7      Dealer South       Both Vul

 

 

 We have a miserable assortment, but at least we have a fit with Partner.  Playing Bergen Raises this one is easy, we’d just bid 3♠, showing 4-card support and a weak hand.  But suppose that we are not playing Bergen Raises.  Then the alternatives are:

-         If we are playing a Forcing No Trump, we would bid 1NT, and then support Spades, our way of slowing down the auction … this sequence usually shows two- or three-card trump support, but here we use it with four-card support because we are so weak and quacky.

-         If we are playing the Semi-Forcing No Trump, or SAYC, we dare not bid 1NT, it might get passed.  We also don’t want to pass 1♠, the chance of missing game is too great.  So, we’d bid 2♠ directly and hope that Partner does not carry us overboard.

 

 

                                                    Board 13      Dealer North       Both Vul

 

 

Yes, we’ve had this one before, it’s a raise to 4♠ with Club shortness, and the way to show that is to make a Splinter bid of 4♣.  As it happens, Partner has wasted values of AQ43 in the Splinter suit, and is not tempted to make a slam move.

 

                                                    Board 17      Dealer North       None Vul

 

 

Here’s another Splinter situation.  Or is it?  Do you play that Splinters are on over a Takeout Double?  Of course, Splinter bids are primarily a slam tool, and the chances of slam go down when the opponents make a Double, but even so we like to play Splinters in this situation.  But that’s not a universally held view, so it’s worth making sure that you and your Partner are on the same wavelength here.

 

And if a Splinter bid is not available in your methods.  Some partnerships play that 2NT is “Jordan”, showing 4-card support and at least a limit raise in Opener’s major, so that would be a good choice.  And if that is not available either, then we would redouble and go to game later.  One thing we would not do is to bid 4♥ directly, that shows a weak hand, perhaps 5 Hearts and not much else.

 

 

                                                    Board 18      Dealer East       N-S Vul

 

 

Playing standard methods, there is no satisfactory solution to this problem.  Opposite Partner’s 4-card Heart suit we’d love to compete to 3♥ with this hand, but, if we bid 3♥ here, Partner will expect rather more than we have and is likely to get us too high.  What we really want here is:

-         An invitational 3♥ bid

-         And a competitive 3♥ bid.

 

Fortunately, there is a gadget available which allows us to have it both ways.  It’s generally called the Good-Bad 2NT, though it’s actually no more than another manifestation of the Lebensohl convention:

-         A direct 3♥ bid is invitational, let’s say the actual hand with another King;

-         A 2NT bid is a relay to 3♣, after which 3♥ is the competitive Heart bid.

 

This is an easy enough convention to master, but the tricky part is recognizing the situations where the Good-Bad 2NT applies.  Some of the possibilities are:

-         The situation above!

-         After they open a Weak Two and Partner doubles.

-         Those situations discussed in our article on the subject

-         Many others (we’ll prepare a definitive list in the fullness of time)

 

 

                                                    Board 20      Dealer West       Both Vul

 

 

 Do you play Support Doubles?  If so, then Partner’s 2♥ bid guarantees 4-card support (he would Double to show 3-card support), and knowing that there is a 9-card fit makes it easy for us to bid 3♥ here.  Without that inference, Partner might have 3- or 4-card support, and bidding 3♥ would be a risky proposition.  Yes, indeed, if you use Total Tricks analysis in competitive situations, then Support Doubles are a valuable tool.

 

 

                                                    Board 22      Dealer East       E-W Vul

 

 

Do you Double here, and neglect to mention your magnificent Diamonds?  Or do you bid 2♦ and risk losing the Spade fit?  We’d bid 2♦ ourselves, that suit is so good and the Spades so poor.  Also, if we are playing Responsive Doubles, there is a good chance that the auction might proceed as follows:

            North   East     South   West

                        Pass    Pass    1♥       

            2♦        2♥/3♥  Dbl      etc.

In this auction, we were able to bid our good Diamond suit and still not lose the Spade fit … Partner’s Responsive Double of 2♥ (or 3♥) shows 4 Spades and some values.

 

On the actual hand, this is exactly what happens … if North bids 2♦, East bids 2♥, and the Responsive Double allows N-S to compete in Spades.

 

 

                                                    Board 23      Dealer South       Both Vul

 

 

This is quite a monster hand opposite a 15-17 1NT, clearly it’s a question of six or seven.  There are 2-4 missing HCP’s, so it’s possible that we are missing the A♣ or the K♠.  The absence of either of these cards would make us settle for 6NT, and the presence of both of them would, in our view make 7NT worth a shot, it’s sure to have a play and is likely to be lay-down.

 

The next question is “How do we find out about those two cards?”  This depends on your methods, of course, and here is the “standard” approach:

            East     West                            East     West

                        1NT                                         1NT

            2♥        2♠                                4♥        4♠

            4NT     …                                4NT     …

The common treatment is for the first sequence (Jacoby then 4NT) to be quantitative, showing 5 Spades and inviting slam, and for the second sequence (Texas then 4NT) so be Roman Key Card (or simply Ace-Asking if that is your method).

 

There is another popular method, namely 4♣ after a Jacoby Transfer as Roman Key Card.  This has the benefit of keeping things low, and often being able to stay at the 4-level if Opener gives an unfavorable response, though this is not a factor on this particular hand, as Responder is so strong.

 

Whichever method is used, the answer will be two Key Cards, and 7NT will be the final contract.  Partner has his usual minimum, as it turns out, but there are still no fewer than 15 top tricks when the Spades break, and 13 even if they hadn’t.

 

                                                    Board 27      Dealer South       None Vul

 

 

 4NT was Roman Key Card, we showed 1 or 4 (1430 responses).  Now, what does that 5♦ mean?  The most common method in this situation is for this to be the Queen Ask … it’s the cheapest available (non-signoff) bid when the RKCB response did not account for the Queen of Trumps.  For the responses to the Queen Ask please follow the link, here we will just say that West’s correct response at this point is 6♣, showing the Q♠ and also the K♣, and (by the failure to bid 5♥) denying the K♥.

 

 

                                                    Boards 6 and 29

 

            Board 6                                                           Board 29

            West                                                                West

            ♠ KQT85                                                        ♠ AJ543

            ♥ 2                                                                   ♥ J52

            ♦ Q854                                                            ♦ K97

            ♣ AT2                                                             ♣ AQ

            West    North   East     South                           West    North   East     South

                                    1♦        Pass                                         Pass    1♣       Pass

            1♠        Pass    1NT     Pass                            1♠        Pass    1NT     Pass

            ??                                                                    ??

In both auctions we hold 5 Spades and in both cases we are worth another bid … the first hand is worth an invitation to game, the second hand will insist on game one way or the other.  Most partnerships play New Minor Forcing (or some variant) in both situations as a method of checking to see if Partner has 3-card Spade support.  So, the question here is “Would you use NMF in the two situations above?

 

In the first case, Board 6, we most certainly would use NMF because of our Heart shortness, it’s likely that we have a Heart weakness and if Partner shows up with 3 Spades we can invite with 3♠, otherwise we’ll invite with 2NT and hope that the Heart situation is not fatal.

 

In the second case, it’s not so clear that we should be using NMF, the hand looks so No Trumpish.  True, we don’t have a Heart stop on this hand either, but Jxx might be quite useful in 3NT.  Remember, if Partner has 3 Spades then he chose not to give us a 3-card raise, presumably he thinks that his hand is also No Trumpish.  One thing we can be sure of is that Partner will not have 3 Spades and a small doubleton in Hearts for his 1NT rebid, with such a hand we’d expect him to raise to 2♠ instead.  So, perhaps we should not worry unduly about Hearts, and should just bid 3NT directly, our judgement being that 3NT is likely the best spot regardless of Partner’s Spade holding.

 

                                                    Board 31      Dealer South       N-S Vul

 

 

E-W are bidding strongly and have created a game force.  Nonetheless we are prepared to compete to 4♠, notwithstanding the vulnerability.  Should we just bid 4♠ or is there an alternative?  How about 4♦?  And if so, what does this bid mean?

 

First of all, when we have agreed a major in a competitive auction, and then introduce a new suit at a high level, we are usually doing one of two things:

-         Either, showing strength in that suit, and inviting Partner to use that knowledge in deciding whether to compete further (in this case to the 5-level)

-         Or, making a lead-directing bid.

 

Obviously, if we are on lead then the lead-directing interpretation is not an option.  Here, Partner is on lead, so that would be our preferred interpretation.  4♦ says “I’m bidding 4♠, if they bid on to 5♥ I would like you to lead a Diamond”.

 

                                                    Board 32      Dealer West       E-W Vul

 

 

 What would 2♥ show here?  A few values for sure, we could always just pass with a rotten hand, we’d say any decent 5- or 6 count is enough, maybe less with a bit of shape or a 5^th Heart.  Here we have a 6-count but it’s too good for a mere 2♥ bid, we’d bit 3♥ here.  3♥ is not preemptive, it’s invitational to game, and we would say that this hand is good value for the bid.

 

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