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Bidding Quiz 3rd October, 2007
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Board 1 Dealer North None Vul
This is not a hand that we would open in 1st or 2nd seat, those 4-4 11-counts are just not enough. But, in 3rd seat, there’s a lot to be said for saying something, provided that we have a reason to bid. We cannot see a good reason to open 1♣, that’s unlikely to help us to compete for the contract and may well get Partner off to a disastrous lead. A pointless bid in our opinion. Even playing 5-card majors, we would open this (in third seat) with 1♠ for two reasons: - Getting Spades into the auction gives us a good chance to push the opponents up to the 3-level. - If we end up defending and Partner is on lead, we’d love a Spade lead.
Board 2
♠ Q ♠ AKT95 ♥ QJ75 ♥ AKT4 ♦ AKQJ3 ♦ 8 ♣ KJT ♣ A87
North South 1♠ 2♦ 2♥ 3♥ ??
Let’s say that 2♦ was game-forcing. In that case, North’s raise to 3♥ was not only forcing, but also stronger than a direct 4♥. Yes, it’s the Principle of Fast Arrival in action. At this point in the proceedings, with both partners in possession of substantial extras, somebody eventually needs to assume control and guide this auction into the right slam. Who should be taking charge here? Remember, the goal is to get to 7NT with confidence.
We’ll start by looking at the South hand. Suppose that she takes charge with a 4NT Roman Key Card inquiry. West will show one Key Card (let’s say with 5♣, 1430 responses), and now South can try 5♦, the Queen Ask. North responds 6♣, confirming possession of the Q♥ and also showing the K♣. What next? Good question! North has not learned too much, has she? Look at all of North’s undisclosed treasures … the running Diamond suit … the J♥ (useful against 4-1 trump breaks) … and the Q♠. It’s hard for South to visualize 13 No Trump tricks.
OK, how do things work if North takes charge? Pretty well! Let’s say that South cue-bids (over 3♥) with 4♣ and then North tries Roman Key Card. South responds 5♣ showing 1 or 4 Key Cards, then the King Ask (5NT for most pairs) unveils the K♠. At this point, South has shown all of her values and North can easily count at least 13 tricks in No Trump.
Yes, North must take charge here, she is the one with the intangible values that won’t come to light in a routine Roman Key Card auction if Partner is the one who is doing the asking.
Board 5 Dealer North N-S Vul
West’s 2♠ bid was Fourth Suit Forcing, artificial and game-forcing. Back on Board 2 we encountered a “Principal of Fast Arrival” situation, whereby, after the (game-forcing) auction begins 1♠ 2♦, 2♥, a raise to 3♥ is stronger than a jump to 4♥. This is a common style of bidding, and the logic is that the slow and cheaper auction provides more space for slam investigation.
On to the actual East hand on Board 5. Here, there is no fit, and East is about to make a No Trump bid. Most partnerships do not play Fast Arrival in this situation … 2NT is a minimum No Trump bid, and 3NT is a No Trump bid with extras.
Of course, if 3NT shows extras, then the question becomes “Why did East not open 1NT?” The answer invariably is that he is short in Responder’s suit.
Board 9 Dealer North E-W Vul
West is just about good enough to insist on game, and the question is how? The two options are: - A simple raise to 4♠ - A Splinter raise to 4♣, showing Club shortness
This one looks easy to us, we normally avoid splintering with a singleton Ace or King, it paints a misleading picture for Partner. When we splinter we are asking “How do you like your hand opposite this shortness?” and Partner will assume that the shortness is a small card (or a void). Opposite a singleton Deuce a holding of KQJx is rather poor, a wastage of values, and with this holding we would be discouraged from pursuing a slam. But, opposite a singleton Ace, that KQJx holding is rather fine. The conclusion is that a bid of 4♠ is more descriptive than the Splinter.
Board 13 Dealer North Both Vul
First of all, let us suppose that we are in first seat here. Now, would you preempt with 3♦? No, it is not enough, even vulnerable. Or 4♦? Some might, and sometimes that will work out fine, but we hate to go past 3NT, and we also don’t favor high-level preempts with an outside Ace. So, our own preference, in first or second seat, would be to open 1♦.
On to the actual situation. Same hand, but in third seat. Now, we would preempt, all the way up to 4♦. Opposite a passed hand, the likelihood of a preempt is greatly increased, the odds are strongly in favor of the opponents holding the bulk of the points, so why not let them start guessing at the 4-level?
Board 14 Dealer East None Vul
What are the parameters for Partner’s preemptive 3♠? Let’s assume that he has nothing substantial outside, so we’ll focus on the trump suit. Which of these Spade holdings is possible for Partner’s 3♠? - AKxxxx(x)? Definitely not! This is a 2♠ bid, opposite an opening bid this is a hand that should be bidding constructively. - JT9xxxx? Yes, this is allowable, at least in our style. - Axxxxxx or Kxxxxxx (with or without the Jack)? Also possible.
So, we can give up on 7♠, in which case the only question is whether to take a shot at 6♠ or to settle for 5♠. We’d guess to bid 6♠, there seem to be more possible hands where Partner has a high Spade card. But, it’s a guess and as such could well be wrong.
Exclusion Blackwood Footnote Suppose that North had passed 3♠. Now what would you call? How about a majestic leap to 5♣? Yes, it’s Exclusion Key Card Blackwood. Perfect! Partner will tell us if he has a high Spade and that is all we need to know. But, make sure that, if you play Exclusion, you have the responses down pat. Most partnerships use 1430 responses to Roman Key Card Blackwood, but there is a good argument for playing 3014 responses to Exclusion. As always, the best set of responses is the one that Partner is also playing.
Board 15 Dealer South N-S Vul
We can think of no fewer than four different plans that East might reasonably select: (a) Transfer to Spades and then invite game with 2NT … not ideal with shortness in Diamonds. (b) Transfer to Spades and then bid 3NT … yes, the hand is a toss-up between bidding game and merely inviting, no Aces, but some nice fillers. (c) Transfer to Spades and invite game with 3♠ … normally this shows a 6-card suit, but the fillers are good enough for a 5-2 fit to be playable opposite honor doubleton, and at least this approach suggests suit play. (d) Transfer to Spades and force to game with 3♣ … we’d normally have a better hand for this sequence, but this also has the benefit of suggesting suit play.
Our own preference is for the last one, but you’ll no doubt get differing opinions if you ask around. Which method works in real life? Partner holds ♠ 654 ♥ AQJ ♦ Q32 ♣ AK75. This square 16-count is a marginal acceptance to any game invitation, and with 3 small trumps and no ruffing value he’s likely to favor No Trump if we transfer to Spades and rebid No Trump. Methods (c) and (d) work better as it happens, getting the partnership to a Spade contract. No Trump makes 8 tricks, and Spades probably 10.
Board 16 Dealer West E-W Vul
North does not have much in the way of HCP’s, but with that nice 5-5 shape in the unbid suits opposite a bidding Partner she can hardly pass here. Yes, it’s another Responsive Double situation, characterized by opponents bidding and raising and Partner having taken some action. We’d normally have a little more in the HCP department, but the distribution provides adequate compensation.
Board 18 Dealer East N-S Vul
How do you play 3NT in this situation? Here are three possibilities, only one of which is relevant to the actual hand: - A raise to 4♥, with 5-card support and an outside trick, something like ♠ 6 ♥ KT653 ♦ 9854 ♣ K98. The purpose here is to preempt the auction but also to warn Partner that we have some defense (which she would not expect if we bid 3♠ directly. - Three-card Heart support, 13-15 HCP’s, square hand, side-suits all stopped. - Two-card Heart support, 13-15 HCP’s, balanced hand.
If we were playing the third method, then 3NT would be our bid, we see no point in introducing that feeble Club suit when we have a more descriptive alternative available.
If we were playing another method, then this is a 2♣ bid, followed by a minimum No Trump rebid.
Board 22 Dealer East E-W Vul
It seems likely that we have game here, presumably in No Trump, but perhaps we can do better by defending 1♠ doubled. The vulnerability is in favor of defending, we’ll need 8 tricks on defense to beat our own game. We’d say that is quite likely but far from certain, and we’d gamble with a Pass here.
On the actual hand, it turns out that we cannot make game (Partner has a quacky 5-count), but that 1♠ doubled goes down two with good defense. But even beating it only one would be a good result.
Board 24 Dealer West None Vul
How about that 1NT bid? No doubt East would have preferred to bid some number of Clubs, but many pairs do not have one available, with a 2/1 showing a stronger hand and 3♣ being a Bergen Raise. The solution is to bid a Forcing 1NT, and then, hopefully to be able to bid 3♣ later in the auction. 3♣ here shows at least a 6-card suit, here our 7th Club makes up for the slight shortage of HCP’s.
Boards 26 & 27 On both these boards there was an opening bid of 1NT and Responder found himself looking at an 8-count. Which of these two hands is worth an invitation?
Board 26 (South) Board 27 (East) ♠ T3 ♠ J9873 ♥ Q843 ♥ T3 ♦ JT ♦ AQJ ♣ AJ963 ♣ 843
The first 8-count is worth an invitation, there are some useful intermediates, a 5-card suit, and the 9♣ is a particularly nice card. So, we’d try for the 4-4 Heart fit, and then invite game.
The second 8-count is not worth an invitation in our opinion. Almost all the points are in a 3-card suit, and the 5-2-3-3 shape is also unappealing. Just not good enough. On the actual deal, Partner had 3 Spades and a 17-count, but 4♠ is still down one.
Board 29 Dealer North Both Vul
The first question is “What does that 4♥ mean?” Surely, a very good Heart suit, and not a particularly good hand otherwise. How good? We’d say that AKQxxx does not qualify, that suit has a likely slow loser opposite a singleton. No, a more suitable holding would be AKQJxx or KQJTxxx, both of which can play opposite shortness with no slow loser.
Let’s assume that Partner is on the same wavelength. Now what? Looks like a pretty simple Roman Key Card bid to us, after which Partner shows two Key Card with the Q♥. Clearly, we belong in 6♣ or 6♥, but which? It seems likely that 6♣ will be the safer contract (the odds are that that is a better fit) but, hey, this is matchpoints, we’d be greedy and go for the better-scoring Heart slam.
Board 31 Dealer South N-S Vul
North’s 2♠ was Michaels, showing Hearts and a minor. Here we’d bid 4♠ showing this kind of hand, preemptive with little or no defense. If we had a real 4♠ bid, one with game-going high-card values, we would cue-bid their Heart suit on the way to game, letting Partner know that we are serious about 4♠ and that this is our hand. In fact, if we had the same shape and a better hand, we could try a 4♥ splinter, too.
OK, we preempt with 4♠, then North (on our right) comes back in with 5♣. Do we have anything to say, maybe based on that nice Heart void? Absolutely not, that would be inconsistent with our previous preempt, now we must remain silent and let Partner make the decision.
Board 31 Dealer South N-S Vul
East’s 4♠ was preemptive, and here we are, Red vs White, with a lovely 6-5 hand. Do we bid? It’s really just a guess, and we’d guess to bid 5♣, taking that “Six-five, come alive” advice. This could work out quite horribly if Partner is broke and fitless, but, on the other hand, we couldn’t bear to defend 4♠ when there might even be a slam our way.
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