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Bidding Quiz 4th April, 2007
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Board 2 Dealer East N-S Vul
Let’s first eliminate Pass as an option. There are not many hands which are too good to preempt but not good enough to open, and some would say there are no such hands. Either way this is not one of them, not with that lovely suit and that 6-4 distribution.
So, is it 1♦ or 2♦ or 3♦? We’ll leave you to make your own choice, it’s largely a matter of style. Our own personal preference is 1♦, we like this 9-count that much, and we’ll also say that considering the favorable vulnerability we are seriously tempted to try 3♦. How about 2♦? Also reasonable is 2♦, but that would be our third choice, it’s a bit too good for our taste, and if we really want to preempt with the hand we’d rather go for the gusto with 3♦.
Board 2 Dealer East N-S Vul
East has a hand that might reasonably open 1♦ or 2♦ or 3♦, and the question here, as South, is what would you do over each of those 3 bids?
South has 10 HCP’s, which is a tad light for a Takeout Double, but there is that almost perfect 4-4-2-3 shape to consider, and we would not hesitate to double 1♦. Would we also double 2♦? Some would, we think that it’s maybe a bit much, consider us on the fence on this one. How about doubling 3♦? No, that really would be altogether too much!
Board 4 Dealer West Both Vul
What are our choices here? - Bid Spades? No, we are too strong for 2♠, but our Spades are not good enough for 3♠, that would require a 6-card suit - 3♦? We’d prefer this bid if we were a little weaker, but it’s not unreasonable. - 2NT or 3NT? We don’t like our Heart holding much, and it’s hard to see where our tricks are coming from, unless Partner has something in Hearts it seems that they will enjoy their tricks before we can score enough tricks of our own. - 2♥? Yes, if in doubt, use the trusty old cue-bid and see what Partner has to say.
One of the main benefits of this 2♥ cue-bid is that it gives Partner the chance to show secondary Spade support. It’s unlikely that Partner has 3-card support, we’d probably have heard 2♠ on the previous round, but he might well have honor doubleton which might well make 4♠, on a 5-2 fit, the place to be. As it happens, Partner’s hand is: ♠ A8 ♥ T8 ♦ KQ854 ♣ AT32 Yes, 4♠ is the right matchpoint contract, making 11 tricks when the Spades split. 3NT has no chance on a Heart lead, and while it’s true that 5♦ makes a lucky overtrick, we’d obviously prefer the higher-scoring Spade contract.
Board 6 Dealer East E-W Vul
Partner’s 2NT is Jacoby, showing 4-card support and game-going values. The traditional responses are to show a singleton at the 3-level, or to jump to the 4-level with a good 5-card suit. Here we have two singletons and a good 5-card suit, which should be our choice? It looks like our hand will eventually take charge of the proceedings, we are well suited to a Key Card auction. So, why waste time telling the opening leader what our hand is? We’d just plunge straight into 4NT, and bid 5 or 6 or 7 depending upon Partner’s number of Key Cards.
As it happens, Partner has 2 Key Cards and 6♥ is a fine contract. In fact, an overtrick is made if the defense fails to cash their Diamond trick on the go. No reason to give South a road map for her opening lead. This is her hand, by the way: ♠ 62 ♥ 7 ♦ K98543 ♣ J742 If the auction goes 1♥ 2NT, Blackwood, then 6♥, we don’t know many players who would find a Diamond lead from this hand. But if East, for example, shows a good 5-card Club suit along the way, or a singleton Diamond, then a Diamond lead becomes quite possible.
Board 8 Dealer West None Vul
Do you play Responsive Doubles? If you do, then the basic rule is that if your LHO opened with a suit bid, and Partner then overcalled or doubled, and your RHO raised Opener’s suit, then Double is Responsive, a bid that is trying to find a fit, not extract a penalty. Even if you and your Partner are playing Responsive Doubles, it’s worth touching base to make sure that you both play it on when the opening bid was a preempt. We suspect that nowadays the more popular treatment is that Responsive Doubles are indeed on in this situation, is your Partner on the same wavelength as you?
Anyway, if the Responsive Double is an option here then it’s a fine choice, showing something in the minors and denying 4 Hearts. And suppose that the Responsive Double is not an option in your partnership? Then you have a difficult choice, you’ll probably be forced to Double anyway and hope that Partner does the right thing.
Board 9 Dealer North E-W Vul
In this situation 2♥ would still be Michaels, showing Spades and a minor. But is it the right bid? We don’t think so, we’d prefer to bid 2♠ here, the suit is longer and so much better than the Clubs.
Board 10 Dealer East Both Vul
Passing here is not an option, of course, the question is whether to make a Negative Double or whether to raise Partner’s Clubs. We would Double, just in case Partner has Spades, but we would be rather nervous about the bidding getting too high for us to support Clubs later. Anyway, suppose that we do double, and now the auction proceeds: West North East South 1♣ 1♥ Dbl 2♣ 3♣ 4♣ ?? Yes, notwithstanding a meager two Queens, now we most certainly would support Clubs, Partner no doubt has six or more, and we have two or three ruffing values for him, that should be enough for 5♣ to be a good save (actually, it could well make!).
Board 10 Dealer East Both Vul
North South ♠ KJT764 ♠ 85 ♥ KT72 ♥ AQ965 ♦ 8 ♦ AJ743 ♣ KJ ♣ Q West North East South 1♣ 1♥ Dbl 2♣ 3♣ 4♣ 5♣ Pass Pass 5♥ Pass Pass Dbl All Pass
Here we give both of the N-S hands and dissect their auction: - South’s 1♥: A normal enough overcall, and better than showing both red suits with an Unusual 2NT bid. - North’s 2♣: It would only confuse matters to show that Spade suit. N-S already have a major fit of at least 9 cards so there’s no reason to delay showing support for Partner. North has enough for a shot at 4♥, but there’s no reason to be hasty, along the way North does better to show a decent hand and the best way to do that is with a cue-bid of 2♣, showing support and at least invitational values. - South’s 4♣: After North’s 2♣ cue-bid, South knows that her side will be going to game, but, just as North earlier declined to go directly to game, so should South. The question South asks is not “Do we belong in game?”, the question is “Will we let them play in 5♣ undoubled?”. With 2 Aces opposite a hand with values the answer is clearly “No!”, so South let’s Partner in on what’s going on by cue-bidding 4♣. This says “I have a real 4♥ bid, either we play the hand, or they play it doubled”. In other words, 4♣ creates a Forcing Pass situation. - North’s Pass of 5♣: North had three choices here. She can double suggesting that N-S defend, she can bid 5♥ if she thinks N-S should play the hand, and she can Pass if she’s not sure. North takes the third option and leaves matters up to Partner. - South’s 5♥: South has a close choice between 5♥ and Double.
Board 14 Dealer East None Vul
North has only 6 HCP’s but with that distribution we think that she should be balancing over East’s 2♥. The question is how? The choices are 2♠ and Double, what’s your preference?
It’s safe to say that our Partner is lurking behind opener with a fistful of Hearts, after all we have no Hearts and West did not raise Hearts, so it’s safe to say that Partner has at least 5 of them. With that in mind we could Double, expecting Partner to make a Penalty Pass, but we can see two deficiencies in this plan. Firstly, Partner might expect more defense from us, the danger is that West has a good hand and that Declarer can scramble 8 tricks despite the bad trump break. Secondly, having no Hearts is a distinct disadvantage, we won’t be able too lead trumps through Declarer, and Partner might well end up getting end-played in trumps. So, our preference is for 2♠, despite our ratty suit.
Which bid works better in practice? It’s hard to say. If N-S defend 2♥ doubled they’ll beat it one or two tricks depending on South’s opening lead. If N-S play it in Spades, they can make a lucky 10 tricks, but it’s unlikely that they will reach game.
Board 18 Dealer East N-S Vul
Here’s another chance to penalize the opponents in a part-score, but we really think that 1NT here is a better bid. The opponents are not vulnerable, so if we can make +110 or +120 in our own part-score then we must score a whopping 8 tricks on defense if we are to do better. And if we have a game, we’re going to need no fewer than 10 tricks if we are to get a good score defending.
All things considered, we think that converting Partner’s Double is a low percentage action, so it pains us to admit that it’s also the winning action on the actual hand, as 1♦ is down two whereas N-S have no making game. Board 20 Dealer West Both Vul
Some players never ever pass 12-counts but our personal preference with this ugly hand would be to do just that. Here are the factors with make this hand less than a real 12-count: - No Aces and 3 Queens … Aces are under-valued in the HCP scheme of things, and Queens are over-valued, so this hand has none of the good stuff and loads of the bad stuff. - Doubleton KQ … this holding is a major defect, how much nicer it would be if those 5 points were transformed into the A♠ and a Jack in Hearts or Clubs, supporting those Queens. - Unsupported honors … the Q♥ and K♦ are just dangling there with no supporting cards, and the Q♣ is only a little better off, at least that has the Ten for support.
Yes, indeed, an awful 12-count, not an opening bid, at least not for us. Think how much better this hand would be if we just rearranged the same high cards into the following: ♠ 73 ♥ KQ87 ♦ KQ8 ♣ QT52 Still not a thing of great beauty, but a much more promising collection than before and a hand we would not mind opening.
P.S. We are delighted to be able to report that if North opens the original hand, N-S will likely get into trouble. South will compete under the misapprehension that North actually has an opening bid, and on what is just a part-score hand, there will be a -200 or -500 in the N-S future.
Board 20 Dealer West Both Vul
What’s going on here? South could only raise us to 2♠, and now here he is doubling 3♣. Obviously South has a good hand for her 2♠ bid, especially against Clubs, and the question becomes “Should we try a Double of 3♥?”. The answer is an emphatic “Yes”. Once in a while (but not very often) this contract might make, but there is a bigger danger in not doubling, namely that we can make 2♠ or 3♠ while they are going for down just one in 3♥ undoubled.
Board 26 Dealer East Both Vul
After West’s Negative Double, North had an awkward in-between kind of a hand … not quite good enough for a cue-bid showing support, too defensive oriented for a simple raise to 2♥. So, she redoubled first and then raised, a reasonable compromise. This sequence is designed to show Partner we have good defensive values, and that, while we may have support, our hand is not especially offensive, and that Partner should be cautious about competing to the 3-level.
Board 30 Dealer East None Vul
Non-vulnerable, opposite a Partner who has shown at least some values, East would like to compete to 3♣ here. It may be a minimum hand, with some dubious soft values in the side suits, but it’s a good 6-card trump suit. Alas, Partner is likely to place us with a better hand, and things might get out of control if he takes another bid. The solution to this not uncommon dilemma is to use a gadget, the Good-Bad 2NT, which is a sub-variation of the Lebensohl convention. Using this convention, East can get to 3♣ in one of two ways: - Directly, with a 3♣ bid, showing a hand somewhat better that the actual hand; - Indirectly, via a 2NT relay, after which West bids 3♣ and East passes … this sequence is purely competitive, showing long Clubs and nothing extra, exactly what East has.
So, if we are playing Good-Bad 2NT we would bid 2NT … otherwise, we would just have to pass, our hand is not good enough for 3♣.
Board 30 Dealer East None Vul
With our 4-card support for Partner’s Hearts, we are happy to compete to the 3-level if necessary. But what’s this “if necessary” nonsense? Opponents don’t let us play in our 9-card fit at the two-level more than once in a blue moon, and we can be semi-certain that it will indeed be necessary to bid 3♥ sooner or later.
Our preference is to bid 3♥ right away, depriving the opponents of bidding room. We know where we are going (to the 3-level), and we prefer to make it as hard as possible for them to figure out where they are going. Is there a danger that Partner will think that 3♥ here is inviting game? Hopefully not, with a hand that good you would cue-bid 2♠.
Board 30 Dealer East None Vul
South’s 3♥ was obstructive, she was not inviting game. We have 10 HCP’s opposite an opening bid, but nowhere to go. What can we deduce about Partner’s shape? Probably a maximum of 2 Spades and 2 Hearts, so it’s reasonable to guess 2-2-3-6 or 2-2-4-5. It looks as if we have an 8-card minor fit and they have a 9-card Heart fit. And it also looks as if we have the majority of the HCP’s, though perhaps not by much.
An awkward situation. We suspect that Pass is the “correct” bid here, and in theory that turns out to be the case. N-S can make 9 tricks in Hearts, E-W can make only 8 tricks in Clubs (not a success if 4♣ is doubled, but great if they fail to do so). In practice, West may double 3♥, not for penalty, simply a strength-showing bid and a plea for Partner to guess right. On the actual hand, he’ll bid 4♣, and this will likely escape a Double.
What does this hand teach us? Not a lot, other than reminding us that bidding is far from being an exact science! Board 32 Dealer West E-W Vul
Here are the choices: - 3NT? We may have the values for this bid, but we also have a Club weakness, and there’s a strong likelihood that we really belong in one of the major suits. Jumping to 3NT is not the best way to find that major fit. - 4♥? Again, we have game-going values, and 4♥ may well make, but it’s a shot in the dark, who’s to say that 4♠ will not be a better spot. If we jump to game in 4♥ (or to 3NT, come to that), that 5-3 Spade fit will be missed. - Spades? There is no right number of Spades that can be bid on this hand. Jumps in Spades would show 4-card support. - 3♦? How about the bogus jump shift to a short minor, creating a force and giving us the chance to investigate further the major suits? This is better than all of the aforementioned, certainly a bid that we could live with. But, again, there’s the danger that we’ll miss a 5-3 Spade fit. Picture our intrepid Partner with: ♠ K9732 ♥ 7 ♦ 976 ♣ A642. Opposite this hand we would love to be in 4♠, as 3NT will require a 3-3 Heart break. - 3♥? An underbid, and, again, with that constructed West hand it might land us in 3NT instead of 4♠. - 2NT? Playing IMP’s we wouldn’t dare make that bid, we would be afraid that it might get passed out (yes, it is an underbid) and we would miss game. But at matchpoints we’d take the chance, it seems the best way to get to the right contract, at least it will be if Partner has the decency to find one more call.
So many options! We’d like to dissuade you from the first three, and encourage you to try whichever of the last three tickles your fancy.
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