Bidding Quiz                                    29th August, 2007

 

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                                                    Board 1      Dealer North       None Vul

 

 

We like our preempts to have good offensive potential and as little defense as possible.  This hand certainly qualifies and the usual bid when we have 4-card support and a preemptive hand is a jump to the 3-level.  But is that really enough here?  All our points are concentrated in Partner’s suit, and we have that lovely 6-4 shape.  Our own preference would be to kick it up a notch and bid 4♠, we think the hand is that good offensively and that bad defensively.

 

How does this work out in practice?  Rather well!  The 4♠ bid will make it that much harder for the opponents to reach their optimal spot of 5♣ or 5♦.  And if they overcome that hurdle, our 4♠ bid might encourage Partner to take a “five over five” sacrifice in 5♠.  If we bid just 3♠, Partner will no doubt sell out 5♣ or 5♦.

 

 

                                                    Board 2      Dealer East       N-S Vul

 

 

We have 11 HCP’s and 4 Hearts, and, opposite Partner’s 3-level Takeout Double, that would normally be worth a jump to 4♥.  But let’s look again, this hand is loaded with defects.  It’s square, it’s Aceless, it has no Tens, and there is that K♦ which has all the appearance of being quite useless.  So, we would bid just 3♥ here.

 

On the actual hand, 3♥ is the winner as 4♥ as no play, and even 3♥ requires good play and good guessing.

 

 

                                                    Board 4      Dealer West       Both Vul

 

West                East

♠ KJ4              ♠ A97

♥ J842             ♥ KT96

♦ AK3             ♦ Q8

♣ K95             ♣ 8732

 

West    North   East     South

1NT     Pass    2♣       Pass

2♥        Pass    4♥        Pass

Pass    Pass

 

4♥ is a poor contract and the question here is “How did E-W get so high?”

 

Let’s start with West.  What a miserable 15-count!  It’s another square hand (see also Board 2), and we could do a lot worse than to subtract a point whenever we hold that shape.  Looking on the bright side, West’s HCP’s are in Aces and Kings, and we would open 1NT, anyway, acknowledging that is rock bottom minimum, if not sub-minimum.  The clinching factors for us are that it’s usually a good thing to limit our hand right away, and that 1NT against vulnerable opponents has some tactical (preemptive) value.

 

How about East?  Yes, there’s the culprit.  We’d rate his 4♥ bid as somewhat optimistic.  9 HCP’s is often enough for such a bid, but this is not a particularly good 9, especially considering that dangling Q♦.  We would say that 4♥ is a slight overbid.

 

                                                    Board 6      Dealer East       E-W Vul

 

 

Would you pass this in first seat?  Or bid 3♣?  Or start with 1♣?  This one is very much a matter of personal taste, and our own preference is for 1♣.  True, it’s not quite up to snuff on a Rule of Twenty basis, but we really like those 6-4 hands, there are no wasted values, and we have great fillers in our long suits.  All in all it’s a pretty good hand, far better than a mere 9-count.

 

Anyway, if opening 1♣ is too rich for your blood there’s nothing terribly wrong with Pass or 3♣, though we don’t much care for the latter because of the side-suit Ace.

 

 

                                                    Board 9      Dealer North       E-W Vul

 

 

Perhaps we should start by back-tracking to the previous round of bidding.  Do you agree with that 2♣ rebid?  It’s certainly very close to a game-forcing 3♣ rebid, but the trouble with that bid, when we have just 16 HCP’s, is that we may propel the partnership into a poor 3NT contract.  We need a fit to get the best out of this 4-loser hand, and if there isn’t one then Partner needs more than a minimum for us to make game.

 

So, we bid just 2♣, and Partner takes us back to Spades.  Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean that he has support, he may have just two of them and nothing else to bid.  Obviously, we must take another call, and the obvious bid here is surely 3♣, showing a 5^th Club and making a game try.

 

 

                                                    Board 10      Dealer East       Both Vul

 

 

Over 2♠, East has a bidding problem without a satisfactory solution, here are his unpleasant alternatives:

-         Pass, which is not a comfortable option with 10 HCP’s opposite an opening hand

-         3♣, about right on values, but rather lacking in the Club department

-         3♦, again OK on values (considering that East is already a passed hand), but it overstates the

      Diamonds somewhat.

-         2NT, the stopperless No Trump could be right.

-         Double, not exactly ideal with only 3 Hearts, and small ones at that.

 

We like Pass and 3♣ the least, and would probably go for the Negative Double ourselves.  But anything could work here on any given Wednesday.

 

                                                    Board 12       Dealer West       N-S Vul

 

 

We want to play this one in a major, and we don’t have enough to go to game.  If we are playing “Garbage Stayman” this one is easy enough.  We start with 2♣, and then if Partner bids 2♦ we bid 2♥ which, in the world of Garbage, says “Pass or bid 2♠, depending on your better major”.  That’s how the partnership gets to play in two of its better major.

 

That’s fine, but on the actual hand Partner will bid 2♠.  Does this change things?  Yes, we would say that it does!  Now, surely the hand is worth an invitational 3♠, based on our nice distribution and 9-card fit.

 

On the actual hand, Partner will accept the invitation, and careful play brings home the contract, notwithstanding a 4-0 trump break.

 

                                                    Board 15      Dealer South       N-S Vul

 

 

You may have noticed that we have done quite a lot of bidding on the previous hands, with an abundance of light openings and bold preempts.  But here is a hand where we prefer to be wimps.  5-card support and a weak hand is usually an excuse to preempt to the 3-level, but we would say that 2♦ is enough here.  We have that ugly 5-3-3-2 shape, and it’s Red vs White, we would say that discretion should be the better part of valor on this one.

 

                                                    Board 18      Dealer East       N-S Vul

 

 

Partner could bid only 2♥ here, and we have a mere 12 HCP’s.  Does this mean that the auction is over for us?  Certainly not!  It’s a wonderful 12-count, with that lovely 6-4 shape and muscular trump suit.  It’s also a 5-loser hand, and worth making a game try via whatever methods you use in this situation.

 

 

                                                    Board 21      Dealer North       N-S Vul

 

 

Standard practice is for 3♥ here to be preemptive.  There are two methods for handling this hand-type:

-         Some pairs will Redouble first, to show a good hand, and then support Partner on the next round of bidding.

-         The danger with the aforementioned method is that delaying support might work out badly if the opponents start jumping the auction, we could find ourselves having to show our support at an uncomfortably high level.  For this reason, the Jordan 2NT was invented, showing a “limit raise or better”.  It’s a matter of style as to whether the Jordan bidder requires 4-card support, or whether 3-card support is sufficient.

 

So, a Jordan 2NT bid is certainly an option.  Any other possibilities?  Yes, you might consider a Splinter bid of 4♣, but before you try this with your favorite Partner make sure that he or she actually plays Splinters after the opponents’ Takeout Double (we like to, but some don’t).  We rather like the Splinter here, but have to admit that it works out badly on the actual hand.  Partner is minimum (as usual!), and has a poorly fitting hand (including KQx opposite our shortness), and 9 tricks is the limit of the hand.

 

 

Board 24

North on this Board, and West on Board 28, had a similar opening bid choice.  Please see Board 28.

 

 

                                                    Board 25      Dealer North       E-W Vul

 

 

Partner cannot have more than 2 or 3 Diamonds, and yet he overcalled 1NT.  As he failed to make a Takeout Double it seems unlikely that he has both the majors.  So all the indications are that Partner has some sort of a Club fit.  Yes, we would guess to compete to 3♣, provided that we have a way to bid 3♣ competitively (as opposed to constructively).  We may not have much in the way of points, but we do have nice shape, and we probably have a good fit.

 

The next question is “What are your methods here?”  You cannot afford to bid 3♣ constructively, your goal is to compete to 3♣, not to encourage more bidding from Partner.  This is easy enough for users of the Lebensohl convention … West bids 2NT which is a relay to 3♣, providing the weak way to compete to the 3-level.

 

This is an excellent commercial for the Lebensohl convention.  Without it, West must either give up the Club suit and remain silent, or make the huge overbid of 3♣ showing invitational values.

 

 

Boards 24 and 28

 

Board 24 (North)        Board 28 (West)

♠ KQ7                         ♠ Q9

♥ K3                            ♥ A2

♦ AQ8764                   ♦ A98532

♣ J7                            ♣ AJ5

 

Two similar hands, in that both have a 6-card minor suit, both are semi-balanced, and both have 15 HCP’s.  Do you open such hands 1NT or 1♦?

 

Some players routinely open these hands 1NT, others routinely open 1♦.  We think that there is a middle course:

-         If the Diamond suit is good, we tend to open 1♦, planning to rebid 3♦, a descriptive and limiting auction.

-         If the Diamond suit is weak, we tend to open 1NT, partly because we don’t like the idea of rebidding 2♦ with such a hand, and partly because 1NT often slows down the opponents with its combination of intimidation and preemption.

 

So, on Board 28 we would certainly open 1NT.  If we open 1♦, we’ll not want to rebid 3♦ with that moldy suit, nor would we enjoy rebidding 2♦ with a hand that good.  On Board 24 we prefer to open 1♦, the suit is just about good enough for a 3♦ rebid.

 

                                                    Board 31      Dealer South       N-S Vul

 

 

2♠ is certainly an option here, showing “limit raise or better”.  An alternative is a Splinter, assuming that you play that in competition.  Something to discuss with your Partner.  Is the North hand good enough?  We have our doubts.  The Q♣ is probably useless, and the hand is loaded with soft values.  Not quite good enough, and not quite the right hand type, in our view.

 

                                                    Board 31      Dealer South       N-S Vul

 

 

Partner has shown support with at least invitational values.  Only 11 HCP’s, but it’s too good to give up on game, all the points are working and we like that singleton.  But we don’t think that it’s good enough to bid game directly, so our choice would be 3♣, a natural game try.

 

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