Bidding Quiz                                        19th December, 2007

 

                                   Click here for print-formatted version of the Bidding Quiz

 

 

                                                    Board 2      Dealer East        N-S Vul

 

 

Partner’s rebid showed 12-14 HCP’s and West has just 9, with no Aces and no Tens.  Is that enough for a game-try?  Absolutely, this hand has all sorts of plus features:

-         There’s a 5^th trump

-         There’s a singleton

-         There’s a 4-card fit in Partner’s first suit

-         Although we would not normally be overly impressed with the three Jacks, these are all well-placed, two of them working with a King, and the third in Partner’s suit.

So, definitely worth a game-try, and which one will depend on the partnership methods.  Playing a purely natural style, West might try 3♣ (forcing one round) or 3♥.

 

 

                                                    Board 4      Dealer West       Both Vul

 

 

Are you going to sell out to 2♥ here?  The vulnerability is a deterrent, of course, but we’d balance anyway.  There’s a good chance that 2♠ or 3♦ will be a safe spot and defending against 2♥ is unlikely to be worth many matchpoints.

 

To illustrate the methods available for getting into the auction, let’s look at 4 hands:

Hand A            Hand B            Hand C            Hand D

♠ AT752          ♠ K6                ♠ AT7              ♠ AT75

♥ T42              ♥ T42              ♥ T4                 ♥ T42

♦ KT9              ♦ KT95            ♦ KT95            ♦ KT95

♣ K6                ♣ AT75           ♣ K643            ♣ K6

 

What would you do if you held Hand A?  The answer is that you don’t hold this hand, you would have bid 1♠ immediately over 1♥.  Because of the failure to make that overcall, there is a strong presumption that South does not have 5 Spades.  It’s not a complete certainty, perhaps South has a rotten 5-card suit and a marginal hand, but the odds are that South does not have more than 4 Spades in this auction.

 

How about Hand B?  That’s a 2NT bid, saying “Pick a minor, Partner”.  There’s not much point in using 2NT here as a natural bid.

 

Hand C is also straightforward, it’s a Takeout Double, showing something in all of the unbid suits.  Partner will pick a suit, or with, for example, 2-3-4-4 shape, will bid 2NT telling Partner to pick a minor.  Is that 3-card Spade suit a deterrent to the Double?  Not at all, some might even say it’s essential, as we shall now see.

 

This is South’s actual hand.  Anyone for a 2♠ bid?  Yes, indeed, if South is unlikely to have 5 Spades, then 2♠ can be safely bid with just four.  North will usually pass this with 3 (or more) Spades, or else bid 3♣ or 3♦ with a strong preference for that minor, or else bid 2NT, which, yet again, is pick-a-minor.

 

 

Boards 5 & 7

Several balanced hands this week provided opportunities for hand evaluation as well as just point-counting.  Please see Board 29 where we take a look at all of them.

 

 

                                                    Board 9      Dealer North       E-W Vul

 

 

Partner’s 2NT shows Heart support and game-going values.  At this point all that North cares about is the A♦ and the A♠.  But regular Roman Key Card won’t be helpful, because if Partner shows 2 Key Cards that might include the useless A♣.  So, if N-S are playing that exotic variation of Roman Key Card known as Exclusion Key Card, a majestic leap to 5♣ says “Tell me about your Key Cards, but exclude the A♣”.

 

Back to the opening bid.  Do you agree with it?  It would be hard to argue if North started out that 2-loser hand with a 2♣ opening bid, and this will work out better on the actual hand as Partner, with 3 Aces and a King, will no doubt charge into the better-scoring 7NT.

 

 

                                                    Board 15      Dealer South       N-S Vul

 

 

It’s hardly necessary to mention that planning a big penalty against 1♠ is unrealistic.  We have a big Club fit with Partner, so even if we pass and then also pass Partner’s balancing Double, surely West, who seems to have not many black cards, will find a way to escape into a red suit.

 

Another possibility is a 1NT response.  Sure, we have the enemy Spades stopped (four times, no less!), but our hand is woefully lacking in the red suits, and quite distributional.  So we’d cue-bid 2♠, showing values and Club support.

 

                                                    Board 16      Dealer West       E-W Vul

 

 

Here’s another one of those 4-card overcall situations.  That Spade suit is worth bidding if only for the lead, and our length in RHO’s suit suggest that the hand will play quite well even if Partner supports us on a 3-card suit.  Remember the logic here is that LHO and Partner are both likely to be short in Diamonds, and that the good news is that Partner will be in the overruffing position.

 

On the actual deal, the 4-card overcall works out well.  South has a weak hand and 5 Spades and will take a profitable “white versus red” 4♠ sacrifice.  Without the 4-card overcall, N-S won’t even get into the auction.

 

 

Board 18

♠ Q75              ♠ KJ

♥ AQ               ♥ T942

♦ QT653          ♦ 2

♣ Q65             ♣ KT7432

 

West    North   East     South

                        Pass    1♠

Pass    1NT     Pass    2♥

Pass    2♠        Pass    Pass

Pass

 

That’s a nice cozy 2♠ contract for N-S and the question to be asked is “Where were E-W for the duration of the auction?”  They have 9 or 10 tricks in Clubs and yet they never got into the auction, surely someone should have said something.

 

Let’s start with West.  With 12 HCP’s he has the stronger hand, and he might have bid 2♦ over 1♠.  But, let’s face it, that’s not such a great suit, and, with all those Queens and that dull distribution, it’s far removed from being a sound two-level overcall.  We think that West’s Passes were all just fine.

 

How about East?  That first Pass was fine, no reason to preempt with such a rotten suit and a 4-card major.  But that second Pass was distinctly feeble, surely East should be in there with a 2♣ bid.  Why is 2♣ OK here, but 2♦ by the stronger West hand was not?

-         East is already a passed hand

-         East has a six-card suit

-         East has exciting distribution

 

 

                                                    Board 19      Dealer South       E-W Vul

 

 

We’ve already shown a weak hand with our initial Pass, and now our hand has suddenly got better with the emergence of a 9-card Spade fit.  West’s 2♠ cue-bid showed values and presumably Heart support.  What next?

 

Clearly we will now be competing to 3♠, and we have two ways of doing that.  We can bid 3♠ directly, or we can pass now and bid 3♠ the next time around.  It’s surely logical that the direct 3♠ would be stronger than the balancing 3♠, and our own choice would be to take the weaker course of action, by passing initially and then coming back in later.  The danger of a direct 3♠ is that Partner might expect a bit more and might take us to a hopeless game.

 

Of course, there is a danger to passing initially and backing in later with 3♠.  Yes, indeed, it won’t be possible to bid 3♠ if the opponents bid 4♥.  In that case, we’ll bid 4♠.  Somewhat unilateral, that much we’ll agree, our hope is that 4♠ is a good sacrifice.

 

 

                                                    Board 20      Dealer West       Both Vul

 

 

We would feel compelled to get that Club suit into the auction right away, and there are a couple of reasons why we prefer 1♣ to 3♣ … it passes the Rule of Twenty and there’s a 4-card major.  Our 2♣ rebid was routine, but then what does Partner’s 2♦ mean?  Obviously a decent hand, and if we had a Diamond stop we would no doubt be bidding 2NT at this point.  As we don’t have a full Diamond stopper we might as well bid something that we do have, namely Hearts.

 

OK, now we’ve reached the point of the problem, which is “What does Partner’s 3♦ mean?”  It’s possible that Partner has slam aspirations, we don’t know for sure what he is up to.  But we do know that, having denied a full Diamond stopper already, we should now feel free to show a half-stopper.  So, 3NT is our bid here.

 

Yes, 3NT is so much better played from the West side, as Partner’s hand is: ♠ AK64, ♥ AJ9, ♦ A75, ♣ 862.  Protecting the Q♦ from the opening lead makes for a second Diamond stopper, and gives Declarer the timing to set up the Club suit.  However, justice was not served on the actual board because the A♣ was in the hand with the short Diamonds, so that those pairs who played 3NT from the wrong (East) side survived the experience.  Nonetheless, well done to those E-W pairs who managed to right-side this one.

 

 

Board 21

Several balanced hands this week provided opportunities for hand evaluation as well as just point-counting.  Please see Board 29 where we take a look at all of them.

 

 

                                                    Board 22      Dealer East       E-W Vul

 

 

Even if your Weak Two range is 5-10, we’d consider this 10-count to be altogether too strong.  “Six-four, bid more” as the saying goes.  Also, there’s no wastage of the high cards whatsoever, everything is harmonious and working well.

 

                                                    Board 26      Dealer East       Both Vul

 

 

Only 10 HCP’s, but the values are all prime and there is that 5^th trump, so we would say that this hand is too good for a game-invitational raise.  We prefer a direct raise to 4♥ to be preemptive in nature, typically 5-card support with a singleton somewhere (though some might consider the singleton a luxury, especially at favorable vulnerability).  In that case, the obvious bid here is the Jacoby 2NT, showing support and game values.  This bid is not being made in pursuit of slam, merely to show a “real” raise to 4♥.

 

Actually, for Bergen players, there is another way.  You can bid 3♣ or 3♦ (whichever you use as the limit raise), and then, if Partner signs off in 3♥, you bid the game anyway.  This is a weaker sequence than going via Jacoby 2NT.

 

 

Boards 2, 5, 7, 21 and 29

This week’s hands gave us no fewer than 5 instances where a “no trumpish” hand had cause to consider upgrading or downgrading out of its HCP range.  Here they are:

 

Board 2           Board 5           Board 7           Board 21         Board 29

East                 East                 South               North               East

♠ T87              ♠ K72              ♠ AQ5             ♠ AJ                ♠ J872

♥ QT85           ♥ AJ                ♥ Q75             ♥ QT73           ♥ QJ6

♦ AJ                ♦ Q54              ♦ AQ62           ♦ J6                 ♦ AK8

♣ AKT5          ♣ AT763         ♣ J95              ♣ AQT82        ♣ AK7

 

On Board 2, East has 14 HCP’s.  Is it worth an upgrade to a 15-17 1NT?  We like those three Tens, and we like the fact that we have more Aces than Queens.  Anything not to like?  Not really, it looks like an excellent candidate for upgrading.

 

On Board 5, East has another 14-count.  Here the main plus point is the 5-card Club suit.  On the minus card, the filler situation is somewhat meager, just the T♣.  And the dangling Q♦ is another minus.  All things considered we would not upgrade this one, but it would not take much improvement for us us to change our mind.  For example, fortify those Clubs with the Nine and we would certainly open 1NT.

 

On Board 7, South has 15 HCP’s, but what a miserable collection!  This is a hand with no redeeming features.  It’s square, appallingly fillerless and quacky.  And it has a dangling Queen.  And it … well, we won’t beat this one to death, but we will say that, in our humble opinion, this is most certainly not a 15-17 1NT opening.  In fact, this 15-count is further from a 1NT opening than those two 14-counts above.  Many bridge players are quick to seize upon an excuse to upgrade their hand, and there’s something to be said for this optimistic approach.  There’s less eagerness to downgrade, though, but, once in a while, it really is the prudent thing to do.  This is such a case.

 

On Board 21, we are back to the more cheerful mode of upgrading.  North has 14 HCP’s and we’ll look at the minuses first.  That J♦ might be better employed if it were working with some other honors.  How about the Q♥, is that a so-called “dangling Queen”?  Not at all, it’s conjoined with a Ten, and has good playing potential.  And on the plus side?  A five-card suit and a couple of Tens, one of which is most usefully placed in our long suit.  That’s enough for us to open 1NT.

 

Finally, on Board 29, East has 18 HCP’s.  But what a terrible 18!  It’s square, no Tens, no Nines even, and the weakest suit is also the longest suit.  We suggest opening 1NT here.

 

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