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Bidding Quiz 7th November, 2007
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Board 2 Dealer East N-S Vul
The first question is “What are your methods opposite a 1NT overcall?” Simplest, most common, and quite effective, is to use the same system that you play opposite a 1NT opening bid. Let’s assume that this is the agreement here.
The second question is “What are your methods when they interfere over your 1NT opening (or overcall)?” Before we answer that, let’s look at our hand as North. We have no game aspirations here, but would like to compete to 3♥. Next imagine a stronger hand where we would like to offer Partner a choice between 3NT and 4♥, let’s say we have only 5 Hearts and around 9+ HCP’s. Needless to say, it would not make much sense to use the same 3♥ bid here for both hands.
That’s where Lebensohl comes in, using that method we have two ways of bidding 3♥:
North East South West North East South West 1♦ 1NT 2♠ 1♦ 1NT 2♠ 3♥ 2NT Pass 3♣ Pass 3♥
In the first sequence, 3♥ is forcing, offering a choice of games. In the second sequence, North gets to 3♥ via a 2NT relay (the 3♣ response was forced), and that sequence is weak. Needless to say, the featured hand would invoke the second sequence.
Board 3 Dealer South E-W Vul
This has been a recurring Wednesday Game theme in recent weeks, here it is again. Here’s the logic: - South’s 2♥ cue-bid shows Spade support and at least invitational values. - The N-S auction is forced to at least 2♠ by that 2♥ cue-bid. - The Double gives North some additional options, such as Redouble (should show extras and defensive potential) and Pass (showing ambivalence or extra offense). - So, in the circumstances, we would suggest that a hasty retreat to 2♠ shows minimum values. It’s a logical extension of the Principal of Fast Arrival.
Board 3 Dealer South E-W Vul
Partner’s Double shows extra values rather than showing good Hearts. We may have only one HCP, but, with our nice 5-5 distribution and that lovely singleton in the enemy suit, we would like to compete to the three-level. What’s the best way to do this?
Obviously we want to offer Partner a choice between the minors, but not with a Double, that would show values and presumably some defense. The solution is to bid 2NT. This cannot be natural, due to the failure to bid 1NT on the previous round, so it’s the perfect bid here, showing the unbid suits and a hand that was not good enough to make a Negative Double on the previous round of bidding.
Board 7 Dealer South Both Vul
Do you approve of a Weak 2♠ bid here? Thousands wouldn’t, no doubt mentioning the fact that the Spade suit is rather weak, the HCP’s are minimum, and the vulnerability is red. All true, but we like the bid anyway, being egged on by the Spade fillers and the nice 6-4 shape. Notwithstanding the paucity of HCP’s and the moderate strength of the long suit, this hand has decent trick-taking power.
Board 12 Dealer West N-S Vul
Anyone for Michaels? Not us, it’s OK to use Michaels with a 6-5 hand, but perhaps not a good idea when the major is 6 cards and the second suit is a 5-card minor. In these circumstances we’d like to give more emphasis to the 6-card major, after all we only need a doubleton from Partner to have a viable major fit.
However, switch those black suit and we would use Michaels. Then, if the opposition competed in Hearts and Partner remained silent, we would be prepared to bid up to 4♣, showing a hand with good playing strength and presumably a 6th Club.
Board 13 Dealer North Both Vul
What’s your choice here? Here are some possibilities: - 2♥? If we are not going to support Spades directly, then we’ll make a 2/1 bid. As Hearts is our longest suit, should we bid them here? No, Partner will expect 5 and we’ll be in a pickle if Partner raises to 3♥. Does he have 4-card suit (in which case, perhaps the 4-4 Hearts will play better than the 5-3 Spades)? Or does he have 3 Hearts (in which case we’d rather be in Spade)? No, the basic rule in these situations is that, if you have to do some fudging, better to do it in a minor suit. - 2NT? Assuming that you use this bid as a game-forcing Spade raise (aka Jacoby) is this a good choice? Many players insist that this bid requires 4-card support, but we are not against using it with 3 when we have a hand that wants to take control of the auction. Is this such a hand? Almost, but the fly in the ointment is our 4-card Heart suit, Partner might have ♠ KQJ75, ♥ KQJ8, ♠ A7, ♣ 54, in which case we’d like to be in 7♥ (doesn’t need Diamond finesse), but we’ll never get there by supporting Spades immediately. - 2♣? If 2NT is not to your taste, then the best choice is 2♣, creating a force and, of course, planning to support Spades next. But this is not ideal, either, suppose that the auction goes 1♠ 2♣, 2♠ 3♠, 4♠. We don’t like to pass, then again we don’t have safety at the 5-level either. Similarly if, as on the actual deal, the auction commences: 1♠ 2♣, 2♥ 3♥, 4♥.
Board 14 Dealer East None Vul
We have enough to go to game, but how do we proceed? Normally, when we don’t have a fit and the opponents are bidding two suits, we cue-bid the enemy suit that we do have something in, hoping that Partner can look after the other enemy suit and bid 3NT. Alas, here we don’t have either of the opponents’ suits stopped, and are somewhat stuck for a bid. We can think of only two reasonable alternatives, namely 4♥ or 3♦: - It may seem rather strange to insist on Hearts as trumps when we have just a 5-card suit, but with all those high trumps even a 5-1 fit is likely to play quite well. But Partner will expect more trumps, of course, and may mistakenly bid again if the opponents bid 4♠. - Suppose next that we bid 3♦ and Partner bids 3NT. Do we leave it there and hope that they don’t cash too many Diamonds? Or do we bid 4♥, perhaps leading Partner to think that 3♦ was actually a slam try for Hearts?
Neither of the suggested actions is satisfactory, so you choose. On the actual deal, Partner had 3-card Heart support and AKxxxx in Clubs, and it was natural enough for him to rebid the Clubs. But the hand is a good commercial for Support Doubles. Using this fine convention, East would have doubled 1♠ to show 3-card support, and West would bid 4♥ with no problem whatsoever.
Board 19 Dealer South E-W Vul
We generally like to reserve our 5-card Weak Two adventures for White vs Red situations, but this one seems too good to resist. We’d hate to pass and hear LHO’s 1NT get raised to 3NT, because, in our experience, Partner never, ever leads our suit. So, surely it’s best to help him out and tell him what we’ve got, in some ways bidding 2♥ here is a smaller lie than passing.
Boards 25, 26 and 28
Do you play Walsh-style responses to a 1♣ opening bid? Using this popular method, Responder will bypass his Diamond suit in favor of a 4-card major, unless he has game-going values. In this week’s set we had three potential examples in quick succession. Here is Responder’s hand on those three deals (opposite a 1♣ opening):
North East East Board 25 Board 26 Board 28 ♠ T732 ♠ T98 ♠ JT86 ♥ 9 ♥ 75 ♥ K ♦ KQ54 ♦ AT54 ♦ AJ532 ♣ J862 ♣ A743 ♣ T74
Let’s start with Board 26. Here, East does not have a 4-card major, and so a Walsh-style player would have the same choice as s “standard” player, namely whether to respond 1♦ or 1NT (surely the former, No Trump is likely to play better from Partner’s side). However, Opener, who, on the actual hand, happens to be 3-4-2-4, will have no reason to bid his Hearts (over 1♦), because, if Responder has Hearts, he also has game-going values, in which case any 4-4 Heart fit can be found later. So, Opener rebids 1NT. It’s a common theme in Walsh bidding that the auction is less revealing to the opponents, as is the case here.
Now, Board 25 and 28. On both these boards Walsh players would bid their modest Spade suit in preference to the better Diamond suit. Remember, they need game-going values to bid 1♦ when holding a 4-card major.
For the most part, Walsh and non-Walsh auctions end up in the same contract, but the Walsh auction is less informative than the standard auction, as was the case in all three of the auctions above. And that can only make life more difficult for the opponents.
Board 29 Dealer North Both Vul
It’s not much of a hand, and we are vulnerable to boot, but we would balance anyway, it rarely pays to go quietly when we have only two (or less) cards in their suit. Would you double or bid 2♥? Either might work, our own choice would be 2♥, we’d like to get our (so-called) 5-card major into the auction, and we are not sure that we really want to hear a Penalty Pass from Partner when we have such a poor hand. On the other hand, bidding 2♥ is not without risk, for example, Partner might make a disastrous Heart lead against the opponents’ Spade part-score. By all means argue about whether Double is better than 2♥, but at least let’s not pass here.
Board 29 Dealer North Both Vul
Partner has made a balancing Double (and, anyway, she’s a passed hand), but nonetheless we want to compete to the 3-level. What is the best way of doing that? Partner usually has 4 Hearts for her Double so there’s a good chance that 3♥ will be a good spot. But why take a chance when there is the possibility that 3♦ is our only 4-4 fit? The solution here is the Scrambling No Trump, whereby we bid 2NT, telling Partner that we have two places where we can play. Those two places are not necessarily the minors, here, with 3 unbid suits we can use the bid with Hearts and a minor also. On the actual hand, will bid 3♣, the one suit we did not want to hear. No problem, we simply bid 3♦ telling Partner “Try again, my suits are Diamonds and Hearts”.
Is there any rule to indicate when 2NT is being used for the purposes of scrambling? Well, one rule that can be used is that 2NT is always scrambling opposite a balancing Double of two of a major. But that’s not an all-inclusive rule, there are many other cases which don’t fit that description but where 2NT is obviously a scrambling bid (for example, see East’s hand on Board 3). This agreement works perfectly only when your “obvious” is always the same as your Partner’s “obvious”. Is it?
Board 30
North South ♠ J7543 ♠ KQT62 ♥ ♥ 43 ♦ KQ862 ♦ ♣ QJ7 ♣ AK9843
West North East South 3♦ 4♣ 4♥ Pass Pass 4♠ 5♥ 5♠ Pass Pass 6♥ ?? Pass ??
Looking at both hands, it’s plain to see that 6♠ is cold (unless the defense can engineer a Club ruff). Is there a realistic way of bidding this slam? Let’s say first that it’s usually not easy to bid a slam missing 3 Aces, all the more so as the auction had subsided in 5♠ moments earlier.
Ignoring those sobering thoughts for a moment, what does Pass (of 6♥) by North mean here? A common treatment in these high-level auctions is for that Pass to show a singleton or void in the enemy suit. If that is the agreement of N-S, the we would say that South might well consider bidding 6♠. Assuming that there is no slow Club loser, all that South needs from Partner is a Heart void, or the A♠ (and the promised Heart singleton). One of your editors thought that bidding 6♠ here was a reasonable gamble, the other one thought that it was quite far-fetched. You be the judge. Are you a buccaneer or a realist?
Board 32 Dealer West E-W Vul
Perhaps you are wondering why you didn’t bid 2NT on the previous round of bidding, and you have a good point, all the more so at this vulnerability. But the failure to do so gives us the third opportunity this week (see also East on Board 3 and South on Board 29) to investigate the Scrambling No Trump.
But, we are getting ahead of ourselves. The first point is that South, she of the feeble 7 HCP’s is not going to sell out to 2♠, not her, all the more so as she is non-vulnerable. Should she double, showing the unbid suits? We don’t like that, the danger is that Partner will expect a less distributional hand, and she may pass our Double, trying for a penalty when she would do better to compete.
Yes, of course, it’s a job for our good old friend, the Scrambling 2NT. 2NT cannot be natural considering our previous Pass. You could play it as just for the minors (notwithstanding the 1♣ opening bid), but a more flexible treatment is for 2NT to be scrambling into the best fit.
As far as Partner is concerned she will assume that there are 3 possible places to play. On the actual deal Partner has 3-4-3-3 distribution. She’ll bid 3♣, then when we bid 3♦ she’ll know that we have Diamonds and Hearts and will convert to 3♥.
Board 32 Dealer West E-W Vul
Yes, it’s a 1♥ overcall. Only 4 cards, of course, but, in our view, the suit is just too good to sit idly by.
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