|
Bidding Quiz 1st August, 2007
Click here for print-formatted version of the Bidding Quiz
Board 2 Dealer East N-S Vul
Do you rebid 2♥ or 2♠? The answer is 2♥, you can always rebid the Spades at the 3-level. Next question … what is your rebid after this auction?
East South West North 1♠ Pass 1NT Pass ??
Is this still a 2♥ rebid? No! Here we are in a non-forcing auction with less space available to find the correct fit. The percentage bid with this weak hand is 2♠, the most likely playable contract.
OK, let’s repeat the process, this time with a new and improved hand: ♠ KQT762 ♥ AJT3 ♦ K32 ♣ -- You open 1♠ and Partner responds 2♣. Your rebid is 2♥ as before.
Finally, you open 1♠ with that second hand, and Partner responds 1NT. Do you rebid 2♠ or 2♥? Here, with this improved hand, you bid 2♥, and if Partner rebids 2♠ you will raise to 3♠ showing precisely this type of hand … 6-4 in the majors with some extras.
Board 2 Dealer East N-S Vul
In this situation, it’s usual to play 3NT as 15-17 with something good in the unbid suit, and 3NT as a weaker hand with the unbid suit stopped. Nonetheless, we would bid just 2NT here. We are not completely sure that we want to play this one in NT, our 4th suit holding is not that good, and it may well be that a 6-2 Spade fit or a 5-3 Heart fit will serve better. So, we would make the very slight underbid of 2NT in the interests of finding the best game.
OK, we bid 2NT, now Partner bids 3♠, showing 6-4 in the majors. What next? It looks as if we’d be better off in Spades in that 6-2 fit. Does that mean that we should bid 4♠? No! Surely we are worth a cue-bid along the way, and our own choice would be 4♦, showing belated support for Spades, a Diamond control, and an unusually good hand for our previous 2NT rebid.
Board 5 Dealer North N-S Vul
You may have noticed that The Wednesday Game frequently offers up hands where the question being asked is “Should we preempt with this hand?” There’s are good reasons for this, namely that this decision is a recurring theme in real life, and that effective (but sane) preempting is a big matchpoint winner.
Is this a 2♠ bid? We really don’t think so: - We are Red vs White - Our suit is quite horrible - Our hand is quite minimum This one is a Pass. Bidding 2♠ suffers the well-deserved fate of -1100 on the actual hand.
Board 7 Dealer South Both Vul
It seems normal enough to start out with a bid of 4♥ here. When the auction gets back to us, the question is “Do we bid on to 5♥ here, based on that 9th Heart?” We are always advised that, once we have preempted, we should hold our peace, unless invited by Partner to take another call. Then again we do have a NINE-card suit, how bad will 5♥ be?
We have not done a simulation here, but our guess is that Pass and 5♥ are likely to have a more or less equal probability of success. Does that mean that 5♥ is a reasonable bid? We don’t think so. We are bidding in front of Partner, and who knows what he might have up his sleeve? But we do know this: - If we bid 5♥ and it turns out to be the right decision, there will be a shrugging of the shoulders. - If we bid 5♥ and it turns out that Partner was about to do serious damage to their 4♠, then it is fair to say that he will remember the hand for some time to come!
Board 8 Dealer West None Vul
Let’s consider the auction, for a moment, prior to that Double by South. 3♠ was forcing, that much is clear. In the absence of South’s Double, we would no doubt bid 4♦, non-forcing, not Spade-friendly, allowing Partner to make the final decision. But South’s Penalty Double has given us additional options, how should we use them? Nothing obvious comes to mind, other than we should make our best guess as to whether we belong in Spades or Diamonds. Some would say “Just pass, leave it up to Partner”, but our own preference is to express a preference for Diamonds in this situation. With a doubleton Spade, or with lesser Diamond spots we would pass.
Board 11 Dealer South None Vul
Some players open all 12-counts, and if that is your style then you may well be in the majority. But let us also at least consider a Pass here. That 4-3-3-3 shape is hardly appealing, the hand is not overburdened with Tens, and if we do open we’ll have to start out with a 3-card suit. The Rule of Twenty is far from infallible, but it steers us right on this occasion, when we have a square 12-count we should certainly consider passing.
Board 14 Dealer East None Vul
Three choices here … Pass or 1♠ or 2♠. Let’s eliminate the Pass, that suit really needs to be introduced into the auction. So, is this a preemptive 2♠ or an opening 1♠? Neither bid is quite perfect … it’s not quite an opening bid … but with two outside Kings it’s not exactly your text-book Weak Two either. Take your choice on this one, just don’t pass. Our own choice is a flawed Weak Two.
Board 19 Dealer South E-W Vul
West’s 2♣ was DONT, showing Clubs and another suit, and in this situation, many pairs play that a Double of 2♣ is Stayman and that the rest of their No Trump system is still on. It’s a simple enough approach, so we’d Double here, asking for a 4-card major.
Suppose next that West had bid 2♦. Is Double now a transfer to Hearts, the so-called “Stolen Bid” convention? It certainly could be, but this is really not a good treatment, better to use the Double to show a good hand. If you were planning to transfer to Hearts with a weak hand you can just bid 2♥, otherwise you will have to make a stronger move, either via Lebensohl or a jump to 3♥.
Board 20 Dealer West Both Vul
After North’s Double, it is customary to play 3♠ as preemptive, but East’s hand is altogether too good for that so his plan, using standard methods, would be to bid 2♠ first and then bid again if necessary.
We would have to say that this is not an ideal plan for the East hand, there’s a lot to be said for bidding the limit of the hand right away. With that in mind, we offer the following treatment, one which is in common usage on the tournament trail, and which offers an improved method for handling the 4-card raises which are not preemptive, but also not quite good enough for a limit raise. Here it is: - In certain situations, a jump to 3♣ shows a 4-card “constructive raise” with a singleton - … and a jump to 3♦ shows a constructive raise without a singleton.
It’s a simple enough treatment, all that remains is to agree with Partner on the relevant situations and the definition of a “constructive raise”.
Let’s start with the definition of a constructive raise. It’s around 6-9, perhaps a lousy 10. And for the benefit of this treatment, 4 trumps are required.
Here is the most common situation: - Partner opens 1♥ or 1♠ (it’s only played after Partner has bid a major) - The opponents Double or overcall 1♠ - We jump to 3♣ or 3♦
Are there other situations? Yes, these Bergen-like constructive raises can also apply opposite an overcall: - They open one of a suit - Partner overcalls 1♥ or 1♠ - We jump to 3♣ or 3♦
Any other considerations? Just a couple: - If Partner is a passed hand, we suggest that you rely on Drury in preference to these constructive raises. No reason to propel ourselves to the three-level when Partner may have a light 3rd or 4th hand opener. - If the opponents bid at the two-level, and our 3♣ or 3♦ bid is no longer a jump, then we would abandon the constructive 3♣ and 3♦ and just bid naturally.
So, there we have it, a new way to treat constructive raises in competition. And a most effective way, we might add, it combines preemption with constructive bidding. It gives up on minor suit preempts, but that seems like a small price to play.
Board 21 Dealer North N-S Vul
It’s another one of those “Do we open one, or do we preempt with a Weak Two” problems. This one is more clear-cut than the problem back on Board 14. There we could have gone either way and opened one or two of our major. Here we would suggest that the hand is a bona fide 1♥ opener, just too good for a 2♥ opening bid. Once again, the Rule of Twenty guides us in the right direction.
Board 21 Dealer North N-S Vul
It’s tempting to pass here, trading on the vulnerability to get +200 on a part-score hand, or maybe +500 when all we can make is a non-vulnerable game. We wouldn’t fault a Pass (though on the actual hand this is not a success), but let’s suppose that we decide to bid our Clubs. Now the question becomes “Do you play Lebensohl in this situation?”. If so, you have two ways to bid Clubs here: - You can either bid 3♣ directly, showing invitational values, let’s say something in the 9-11 range. - Or, you can bid 2NT as a relay to 3♣ (which you will pass), showing a weaker hand. This hand is not quite strong enough to bid 3♣ directly.
Of course, if you are not playing Lebensohl, you will have a choice between the imprecise 3♣ (0 to 11) or an ambitious Penalty Pass.
Board 24 Dealer West None Vul
This one is mostly about partnership bidding style, here are the options: - 3♦: We could preempt with this hand, but that’s not ideal with that outside Ace. - 2♦: This bid is not game-forcing, but it does show some values, and most would rate this hand as a tad on the light side (but not hugely so). - Dbl: Normally the Negative Double will show 4 cards in the unbid major, but the bid can also be used with a one-suited hand where the strength is insufficient to bid the suit directly. On the actual deal, Partner has a really good hand and would leap to 4♥, expecting us to have 4 of them. In that case, we’ll bid 5♦, not ideal if it turns out that the better matchpoint spot was 3NT. - Pass: As none of the direct bids are ideal, we might consider passing and awaiting developments. Not a good plan in our opinion, the auction might be out of control by the time that it gets back to us.
You might reasonably try any of the first three options, and our own preference is to lighten up a little on the requirements for a 2♦ bid. But we wouldn’t suggest that you lighten up any further than the actual hand, that would be going too far.
Board 25 Dealer North E-W Vul
How do you show 5-5 game-going hands opposite a 1NT opening? First, let’s assume that the 5-4 game-going hands are handled through Stayman (with or without the additional use of Smolen). If that is the case, then consider this auction: South West North East 1NT Pass 2♥ Pass 2♠ Pass 3♥ Yes, this auction shows at least 5-5 in the majors and is game-forcing, we would have used Stayman with 5-4.
Board 27 Dealer South None Vul
Partner presumably has 5 Hearts and is offering us a choice between 3NT and 4♥. Which do we choose? Well, we don’t have a ruffing value, and we have the unbid suits well stopped, so at matchpoints we’d guess to pass here, notwithstanding our 8-card major fit. It won’t always work out, though, imagine a hand where we have a Heart loser and where the Q♦ is in the South hand and the A♦ is in the North hand, for example. But, more often than not, we’d expect to make the same number of tricks in No Trump as in Hearts.
Board 29 Dealer North Both Vul
3♣ here would show a 6-card suit and some extras, but let’s eliminate that as a possibility, this hand is at least an Ace too strong for such a bid, we need to make a forcing bid. We cannot bid 4♠ here, that would require 4-card support. Nor can we bid 3NT with that singleton in one of the unbid suits. By a process of elimination we are left with a reverse into our 3-card Heart suit, and that would be our choice.
Isn’t it rather dangerous to lie about our major suit holding in that way? Not really, at least not in this case. If Partner takes our 2♥ bid seriously and raises to 3♥ or 4♥, then we can be sure that he has 4-card Heart support. Therefore, because he responded 1♠ initially, we can be sure that he has 5 in that suit, and can revert to Spades if Partner raises Hearts.
Board 29 Dealer North None Vul
An Opener’s Reverse shows a good hand, but is not forcing to game. After the reverse, the most commonly used weakness-showing options for Responder are: - Bid the 4th suit at the two level, if available, as in 1♣ 1♠, 2♦ 2♥. Not an option in the actual auction. - Bid 2NT to show a weak hand. - Rebid 2♠ as a “neutral” bid. 2♠ would be ambiguous, showing a 5th Spade and any strength, could be weak or strong.
Under this schema, North could reasonably bid 2♠ or 2NT. Our own preference would be 2NT, not feeling the need to rebid that mangy Spade suit, and warning Partner immediately that our hand is weak.
© BES, Inc All Rights Reserved | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Home Hand Analyses Bidding Quizzes Play Problems System Library | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
