Bidding Quiz                                19th September, 2007

 

                                   Click here for print-formatted version of the Bidding Quiz

 

                                                    Board 6      Dealer East       E-W Vul

 

 

This is obviously the opponents’ hand but at this vulnerability it is our solemn duty to create some mayhem with our lovely suit.  We’d say that 3♥ would be the “down the middle” course of action here, though (only because we are “White vs Red”) if we were feeling extra frisky we might try gambling with 4♥.  On the actual board, 3♥ creates problems but good opponents might still get to slam, whereas 4♥ would make their life impossible.

 

Board 6

Here we look at both E-W hands.

West                East

♠ A975            ♠ K8

♥ T42              ♥ 3

♦ J                   ♦ AKT84

♣ AKJ42         ♣ T9765

 

West    North   East     South

                        1♦        Pass

2♣       3♥        4♥       Pass

4NT    Pass     5♣       Pass

6♣       Pass     Pass    Pass

 

Nice bidding by E-W to a 23-point slam, notwithstanding North’s preempt.  Some comments on the auction:

-         1♦:  Nothing wrong with that 10-point opener!

-         2♣: Played by this pair as game-forcing.  Some players like to bid 1♠ with this type of hand, but that’s not a good treatment, when our hand is game-forcing we can usually afford to bid our long suit first.

-         4♥: All of East’s values are working, and he has massive support for Partner, so even though he has only 10 HCP’s his hand is slammish and too good for a mere 5♣ bid.

-         4NT: West could bid 6♣ directly, but 7♣ might still be on, as East’s hand remains unlimited.

The (1430) response to Roman Key Card puts an end to any hopes for a grand slam, of course.

 

As an aside, let us suppose that North had not butted in with a Heart bid.  What would be your rebid with the East hand?  Yes, of course, you would splinter with 3♥, showing Heart shortness and Club support.

 

 

                                                    Board 8      Dealer West       None Vul

 

 

Here we might be tempted to try 4♥ based on our Diamond shortness and double fit.  But let us suppose that we decide that our hand is not quite good enough.  What are the alternatives?  In standard methods, the only choice would be 3♥, leaving us with no way of distinguishing between a merely competitive Heart raise and an invitational Heart raise.  Enter the Maximal Double, which allows us to bid 3♥ if we are just competing, and Double if we want to invite game.

 

When does the Maximal Double apply?  The basic conditions are:

-         We have agreed a major

-         They have competed to one below our suit (Diamonds against our Hearts, or Hearts against our Spades)

If that is the situation, then we Double to make a game try.

 

Why only when their last bid was one rank below our own suit?  Well, if they bid 3♦, say, and our suit is Spades, then we have that intervening 3♥ bid available as a game try and don’t need a Maximal Double game try.

 

                                                    Board 8      Dealer West       None Vul

 

 

How do we propose to support Partner’s Diamonds?  One possibility is to preempt to 4♦ based on our 10-card fit, but we don’t like to make high-level preempts with defense in the side-suits.  Also, the absence of a short suit is another reason to be wary of preempting.  Sure, 4♦ might well work out, but we think it’s too likely that it will provoke Partner into a phantom sacrifice, so we’d rather make a constructive move.  It’s only 8 HCP’s but we’d show an invitational raise with this hand.

 

The modern style is to use jump raises for preemption and the prescribed method for an invitational raise is to cue-bid.  Here we have two cue-bids available, and the most common practice is for the cheap cue-bid to be a 3-card raise, and the expensive cue-bid to be a 4-card (or more) raise.  So, we finally got there, it’s a 2♥ bid!

 

                                                    Board 9      Dealer North       E-W Vul

 

 

Tempted to compete here?  Yes, so are we, but we would be deterred by the vulnerability and our 3 Spades.  They cannot have more than 8 Spades and may have less than that.  So we would meekly pass.

 

But, let’s suppose that you are made of sterner stuff and you decide to weigh in with something.  What are your methods?  We suggest that 2NT shows “two places to play”, and presumably if one of your suits is Hearts it will be only 4 cards, otherwise you would have transferred previously.  So, if you really must take action with this hand, there’s your bid.

 

 

Board 10

West                East

♠ K5                ♠ AQJ3

♥ AKJT8        ♥ 5

♦ JT32             ♦ AKQ54

♣ T4                ♣ KQ7

 

West    North   East     South

                        1♦        Pass

1♥        Pass    2♠        Pass

3♦        Pass    4♣       Pass

4♦        Pass    4♠        Pass

6NT     Pass    Pass    Pass

 

First things first.  Do you agree with East’s choice of opening bid?  With 21 HCP’s and a 3-loser hand, some would open this 2♣, but we beg to differ and much prefer to open this hand 1♦.  It’s a fact of life that 2♣ auctions work poorly when Opener’s planned rebid is 3♣ or 3♦, and we tend to avoid those auctions like the plague.  True, there is always the danger that 1♦ will be passed out, but it’s a small risk, and if it is passed out there is a good chance that game does not make.  So, yes, we strongly favor a 1♦ opening here.

 

To reinforce this thought, which of these auction beginnings do you prefer?

            West    East                 West    East

                        2♣                               1♦

            2♥        3♦                    1♥        2♠

            Etc                               3♦        Etc

Both auctions have got to 3♦ and both are game-forcing, but apart from that there is no comparison.  In the first auction, both players have named but one suit, whereas in the second auction, they have both mentioned two suits and a fit has been agreed.  We know which we prefer.

 

Moving right along, and reverting to the featured auction, what are your methods after East’s 4♣ cue-bid?  More specifically, how, as West would you invoke Roman Key Card?  Many would use 4NT here, and that is certainly a safe approach.  But it’s also a space-consuming approach which is why some players prefer to use Minorwood or Redwood:

-         If E-W have Minorwood in their arsenal, then both players have a chance to use 4♦ as Roman Key Card.  East could have used it over 3♦, and West over 4♣, as in fact he did in the featured auction.  The rules vary from partnership to partnership, but a simple set of rules might be: (a) The minor suit is already agreed; (b) No other suit has been bid and raised; and (c) The auction is game-forcing.

-         If E-W disdain Minorwood in favor of Redwood, then the basic methodology is that the suit above the agreed minor is used as Roman Key Card.  That would be Hearts here, but it’s a tad dangerous to use previously bid suits for this purpose, the scope for misunderstanding is boundless!

So, for more on this thorny issue, please visit the Convention Library.

 

 

                                                    Board 16      Dealer West       E-W Vul

 

 

North’s 2NT showed the minors, and the first question is “How do we use the 3♣ and 3♦ cue-bids?”  This is the so-called “Unusual vs Unusual” situation and there are various flavors of this in common use.  Please visit the site and see the Convention Library for more, for the time being we’ll just say that rhe cue-bids are used to cover the game-invitational (or better) hands.  This hand does not qualify, so the question becomes “Is this hand preemptive, in which case we bid 4♠ directly?  Or is it a constructive 3♠ bid?”  This looks like a constructive raise to us, we have a smattering of defense, it looks just too good to be preempting with 4♠.  But, it’s close either way. 

 

                                                    Board 17      Dealer North       None Vul

 

 

With the South hand would you make a Takeout Double of 1♥?  There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with doubling on 11 HCP’s, but when we do we’d like the hand to be closer to the perfect shape.  Yes, we do have 4 Spades, but that doubleton Club is a defect, as is our Heart holding.  No, it’s not quite a Double in our view, but, if we were to switch the Heart and Club holdings, then we might well scrounge up a Double.

 

 

                                                    Board 19      Dealer South       E-W Vul

 

 

North transfers to Hearts, and then bids Diamonds, showing a game-forcing hand.  Of course, South now wants to show her Heart fit, and the question is “What is the difference here between a 3♥ bid and a 4♥ bid?”  As the auction is already game-forcing, common practice here is to use the Principal of Fast Arrival.  So, 4♥ here says “Yes, I have Hearts, but not a slam-suitable hand”, and 3♥ says “I have Hearts and a good hand”.

 

While we are on the subject, how does Opener support Diamonds?  By bidding anything but Hearts and 3NT.  So here, 3♠ would say nothing about Spades, it would merely say “I have Diamond support”.  And it should also show either a defect for No Trump and/or a slammish type of hand.

 

 

                                                    Board 23      Dealer South       Both Vul

 

 

We rather like the Rule of Twenty, which advises us to open 5-5 10-counts and 5-4 11-counts.  But we like the hand to be relatively “pure” and this one is not.  By the Rule of Twenty measure (HCP’s plus length of two longest suits) this one comes to 20, but nonetheless we would pass.  True, we have a nice suit we can bid, and an easy 2♣ rebid.  But on the down-side we have that doubleton Q♥ which is not pulling its full weight, and another unsupported Queen in the Club suit.  Not an opening bid in our style.

 

 

                                                    Board 24      Dealer West       None Vul

 

 

Usually, when the opponents get into a 2/1 auction, the recommended strategy is silence.  But this hand is too exciting for silence, what’s the best way to get in there and wreak some havoc?  We could simply bid 2♠, planning to bid Clubs later, but the danger there is that the bidding may be up to 4♥ by the time we get a second bid.  We’d be happy to commit this hand to the 4-level, but bidding 5♦ over 4♥ seems a bit much.  No, it’s better to show both suits immediately, and we suggest a simple 2NT bid.  The opponents are in a strong (perhaps game-forcing) auction, so 2NT can hardly be natural, in which case what could it mean but the unbid suits?

 

Having shown our two-suiter, we’d be prepared, later in the auction, to bid 3♠ if we get the chance, showing extra Spade length and presumably a 6-5 hand.  But 4♠ opposite a silent Partner seems like a bit too much!

 

 

                                                    Board 25      Dealer North       E-W Vul

 

 

Partner has shown 18-19 HCP’s, which puts the partnership into the 30-31 range, not quite enough to expect that 6NT will be a good contract.  How about 6♥?  No, it’s unlikely that we’ll get any additional tricks playing in Hearts, even if Partner has three Hearts he cannot possibly have any ruffing values for us.  That leaves 6♦ as the only slam worth considering, and we discard that idea because our trumps are so bad.  So, we tamely bid 3NT.

 

Partner’s hand is: ♠ AK3, ♥ J7, ♦ AKQ9, ♣ J432.  How good is 6♦?  It needs some luck, but we’ve all been in worse. 

 

 

Board 26

            North               South

            ♠ AJ93            ♠ KT864

            ♥ AK43           ♥ 765

            ♦ KT9              ♦ 8

            ♣ K2               ♣ T953

 

West    North   East     South

                        3♦        Pass

Pass    ??        Pass    ??

 

How should N-S cope with that 3♦ preempt?  Starting with North, would you double or would you try 3NT?  Holding 3 Diamonds as we do, Partner will not be overloaded in that department, so there is a strong possibility that he holds a 4-card major suit, making Double all the more attractive.  On the other hand, if we Double, Partner is likely to be Declarer, exposing our Diamond suit to the opening lead, and that consideration makes 3NT more attractive.

 

Let’s say that both Double and 3NT are reasonable, but things are more interesting if North chooses 3NT.  Now, what are your methods?  We suggest Transfers and Stayman even at this high level.  Now, South has a guess, and our own guess would be to play this one in 4♠.  It could be quite wrong, of course, it really is no more than a stab in the dark.

 

                                                    Board 32      Dealer West       E-W Vul

 

 

First reaction here is no doubt to raise Partner, but probably only to 2♠ considering our square hand and the vulnerability, it’s wise to hold back in these circumstances.  Are we all agreed then?  Actually, no!  We think that even 2♠ is too much, and here is why:

-         The opponents are in a forcing auction, it’s surely their hand

-         Our Heart holding is likely to be useless

-         Our Diamond holding looks more useful on defense than offense

-         We have no ruffing values, in fact we may have no tricks whatsoever for Partner

-         We do not want to encourage a Spade opening

 

Yes, we are all told to “support with support”, and no doubt our side could survive a 2♠ contract.  But, of course, the real danger is that Partner might compete to 3♠ or 4♠ and be most disappointed to receive our quite useless dummy.

 

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