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Bidding Quiz 18th July, 2007
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Board 3 Dealer South E-W Vul
Do you make a Negative Double here or do you support Hearts? It’s certainly possible that a 4-4 Spade fit might play better than a 5-3 Heart fit, but we still prefer to follow the dictum of “support with support” here, so we’d bid 3♦ here, showing a limit raise or better. Having got our strength off our chest and established our major suit fit, Partner will be in a good position to place the contract.
Board 6 Dealer East E-W Vul
Opposite a 15-17 1NT opening, an 8-count is sometimes enough for an invitation to game. But it needs to be a decent 8-count and this one is far from that. Look at the defects: - No Tens - All that fire-power in the three-card Club suit - Square distribution Yes, this hand is a clear pass.
Board 7 Dealer South Both Vul
Do you make a Negative Double or do you bid that nice Club suit? A close choice. We like to get our good suits into the auction and prefer 2♣. If Partner has 4 Diamonds and only 5 Hearts, then he’ll no doubt rebid 2♦, and we’ll raise to 3♦. If Partner has 4 Diamonds and 6 Hearts and chooses to rebid 2♥ we can pass.
Boards 8 & 9 The computer gave South a similar problem on these consecutive boards:
Board 8, None Vul Board 9, E-W Vul South West North East South West North East Pass 1♣ 1♠ 1♣ 1♠ ?? ??
♠ T ♠ 94 ♥ T965432 ♥ QJ9852 ♦ KQ96 ♦ 76 ♣ 2 ♣ KJ5
Both of these South hands are too good to preempt but not good enough to bid 2♥ directly. The solution is to make a Negative Double first time around and then to bid Hearts later.
Board 9 Dealer North E-W Vul
If West had bid just 2♠ we would have no qualms about competing to the 3-level, but the 3♠ preempt took away that option. We’d guess to bid 4♥ here, obviously something of an overbid, but our hand is quite offensive in nature and we have the vulnerability in our favor. 4♥ may well not make, but down one might well be a good save against their 3♠.
Over to the South hand, which is: ♠ 94 ♥ QJ9852 ♦ 76 ♣ KJ5
North East South West 1♣ 1♠ Dbl 3♠ 4♥ 4♠ ??
Did North’s 4♥ create a Forcing Pass situation? We would say not, so our side is not obliged to double 4♠ or else bid on. Is pass an option with this particular hand? We don’t think so! We have extra trumps and a double fit with Partner, it looks to us that 5♥ will be right more often than not.
On the actual hand, 5♥ is the winner, it turns out to be a fine save against their making 4♠ contract. Sure, it’s quite possible that both 4♠ and 5♥ will be going down, and that would be most unfortunate for the 5♥ bidders.
Board 10 Dealer East Both Vul
In this Two Over One auction, Partner’s 3♠ is forcing, and more encouraging (for slam) than 4♠ directly. Although we opened on a 10-count we don’t dislike our hand for slam purposes. We have those Heart cards, an extra trump, and a singleton (albeit in Partner’s first bid suit), it’s not a hand to be ashamed of. So, yes, we’d bid 4♥ here, after which we are happy to leave the rest up to Partner.
Board 11 Dealer South None Vul
In the absence of competition, a 2NT bid opposite a Weak Two is normally some sort of game-going or game-invitational bid, such as Feature-asking or Ogust. Is it still on in this situation? No reason why it shouldn’t be, are you and your Partner on the same wavelength here?
Let’s say that we make that 2NT bid, meaning one of the aforementioned, and at our next time around the bidding has gone: North East South West 2♥ 2♠ 2NT 3♥ Pass 3♠ ?? After East had cue-bid 3♥, South could have doubled if she had wanted to offer us some encouragement, so let’s assume that by passing she is warning us of a not-so-great hand. Do we pass or bid 4♥? We probably won’t make 4♥, but it might well be a good save against 3♠. Let’s give Partner the A♥ … that’s 6 Hearts and two Aces, for 8 tricks. Maybe the 9th will come from a Club ruff in our hand, or maybe Partner has a useful Diamond card. Anyway, our guess is to bid 4♥. It may make (unlikely), it may be a good sacrifice (our best hope), it may even be down two but mercifully undoubled (distinctly possible).
Board 17 Dealer North None Vul
Do you play that, opposite an overcall, a new suit is forcing for one round (in which case we bid 2♣ here), or do you play it as merely constructive? In the latter case, we’d have to bid 3♣ here, assuming that we like our hand enough to force.
For the sake of this Quiz, let’s say that you are playing 2♣ as forcing, and that the auction unfolds thusly: West North East South 1♥ 1♠ Pass 2♣ 2♥ Pass Pass ?? North’s 2♥ relieved Partner of the obligation to bid. In light of our forcing 2♣ bid, are we ourselves obligated to bid here? We think so, but we would bid here anyway, our choice would be 3♥, hoping that Partner can bid 3NT.
Next time around, we see: West North East South 1♥ 1♠ Pass 2♣ 2♥ Pass Pass 3♥ Pass 3♠ Pass ?? Now what? Partner presumably has just five Spades, with six he would probably have bid 2♠ earlier. We could just give up and pass here, but we think that the 5-2 Spade game should have chances and that would be our choice.
Board 19 Dealer South E-W Vul
We don’t recall ever opening 2NT with 5-4 in the majors, but if such a thing is ever appropriate then this looks like the perfect hand for it. More than half of our points are in those short minors, and both of those holdings look as if they might need protection from the opening lead. If we open 1♠, Partner is odds on to respond 1NT, and our 3NT contract will be wrong-sided, so we’d grab the No Trump right away with a 2NT opening.
There is a down-side to opening 2NT, namely that we might lose the 5-3 Spade fit. “Oh, no!”, you say, “We play Puppet!”. That’s all well and good, but if Partner makes her 3♣ Puppet bid, are we supposed to bid as if we have 5 Spades? Or two 4-card majors? We cannot have it both ways and we would choose the latter course.
Board 22 Dealer Vul
West could bid 5NT, the Grand Slam Force, aiming for 7♠ if East has two of the top three honors, but there are some defects with this precipitous bid: - We won’t get to 7NT when we should - If 7NT makes, it will also be the safer contract (no chance of a ruff on the go) - We may be unable to diagnose a trump holding such as Axxx opposite Kxxxxx(x). Yes, “may” is in italics, see the System Note below.
OK, in our quest for 7NT we eschew the Grand Slam Force and try a Jacoby 2NT. Partner bids 3♦, showing shortness, now what? We would cue-bid 4♣ hoping that Partner can cue-bid 4♥. Can we be sure that Partner has the Ace, and not merely the King? That depends on your cue-bidding style … if you show Aces first, you are a simple Key Card auction from 7NT … if your cue-bidding is more flexible (our preference), then it’s not so clear-cut. But, Partner has nothing in Clubs, and if he bypasses 4♦ then he is missing AK♦ too, would he really want to cue the K♥ in that situation?
Post Script Perhaps the above is somewhat academic, in real life North would have quite a lot to say during the auction.
System Note Here are our suggested responses to the Grand Slam Force: - After Partner’s 5NT, with
two of the top three, we bid 7 of our suit. Or, if you prefer, 7♣ - With none of the top three, we bid 6 of the agreed trump suit. - With one of the top three: If Clubs are agreed, then just bid 6♣, as per the above. If Diamonds are agreed: Bid 6♣ with the Ace or King Bid 6♦ with the Queen If Hearts or Spades are agreed: Bid 6♣ with the Ace or King (now 6♦ asks for extra trump length) Bid 6♦ with the Queen This method gets around that situation mentioned earlier, where we have Axxx opposite Kxxxxx(x).
Board 22 Dealer East E-W Vul
“Oh, my goodness!” thinks North when she sees her hand and notices the vulnerability. What is 3♠ here? We would say that it should probably be Michaels, and we would also say that it is most feeble. The opponents are headed at least to game, and in all likelihood to slam, and 3♠ is not going to be much of an inconvenience to them. Do we really want to defend 6♠? Surely not! Even if they decide that they don’t have a slam, we probably have a good save at the 5- or 6-level.
If not 3♠, then how about 5♠ or 5NT? That’s more like it! We prefer 5NT ourselves, but only if Partner will interpret this as any two-suiter rather than for the minors. Both would be vastly preferable to a 3♠ call.
Now, suppose that the auction starts out differently: North East South West 1♠ Pass 5NT ?? West is trying for 7♠ with the Grand Slam Force. What now? Now, we would bid 6♠ or 6NT. True, we cannot do anything if the opponents bid on to 7♠ or 7NT, but they may belong in 6♠ in which case we’d like to take a sacrifice at the 7-level.
Board 24 Dealer West None Vul
Our 2♣ was Fourth Suit Forcing, played here as forcing to game. North’s 2NT shows something in Clubs and probably not much in the way of extras. Now, our 3♠ bid was forcing, and Partner poured more cold water on the auction by bidding 3NT. We have a pretty good hand, should we persevere with the slam hunt?
We don’t think so, there are plenty of warning signs: - Partner has bid Diamonds and Spades, and then bid No Trump twice, so there is a good chance that she is short in Hearts, not good opposite our Heart strength. - Similarly, we are short in Partner’s first suit. - Partner has made minimum rebids, and declined to cue-bid over 3♠.
No, we really don’t think that we should pursue the slam. Perhaps a better question is “Should we prefer 3NT to 4♠?” Often, when we have extra HCP’s in the two hands, it turns out that 11 tricks will be available in either. On the other hand, the absence of “soft” values suggests that maybe a suit contract will play better. We’d guess to play it in 4♠. This turns out to be right on the actual hand, but 3NT could easily have been the winner.
Board 25 Dealer North E-W Vul
We have some extras here, and Partner has freely bid 2♥. Are we worth a game try? True, we have 17 HCP’s, but there are a couple of reasons for caution. Firstly, that Q♣ is surely a wasted value, so let’s treat this one as a 15-count. Secondly, we have only 3 Hearts, there’s the possibility of a 4-3 fit here. All in all, and especially playing matchpoints, it looks to us as if Pass is the winning call. And, having passed 2♥, if the opponents persevere with 2♠ or 3♣, we would double and hope that Partner will know what to do.
Note on “Free Bids” Just how much does Partner need for that freely bid 2♥? The modern style is “not very much”. In real life his hand was: ♠ 642 ♥ JT643 ♦ K3 ♣ JT5 We’d say that this is close to minimum, though we’d certainly make the same call with only 4 Hearts.
Board 26 Dealer East Both Vul
A bid of 1♥ here does not promise more than a 4-card suit, but, nonetheless we’d simply raise Diamonds, that’s really our whole hand, and 2♦ also has the advantage of limiting our hand. We hate to admit it, but our second choice would be a preemptive 3♦, even though this bid normally shows a 5-card suit.
Board 29 Dealer North Both Vul
Partner has a limit raise (or better) in Hearts, and we’ve opened on a 9-count. Does this mean that we should bid a discouraging 3♠? No, we don’t think so, our 9-count is nothing to be ashamed of, we love our void, we’d expect to make game more often than not opposite a limit raise. We could just jump to 4♥ here, putting the opponents to the guess. But, if they bid on to 4♠ it could be Partner who is put to the guess. Our choice here is 3♦, telling Partner where our strength is and hoping that this will help him if things get competitive.
Board 30 Dealer East None Vul
We’d try 4♠ here, we freely admit. Lots of offense, almost no defense. But on the actual deal this works out rather badly, -500 against their non-vulnerable game. Oh, well!
Board 31 Dealer South N-S Vul
Our suggested preempt on the previous board turned out to be a disaster, but, undaunted, here we go again, this time with 3♦. Yes, we have only 6 Diamonds, but again we have no defense, and then there is that 6-4 shape, and the favorable vulnerability to boot. This preempt turns out to be a winner, leading E-W to a profitable sacrifice.
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