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Bidding Quiz 5th March, 2008
Board 7 Dealer South Both Vul
Which of these two North sequences is the stronger? North East South West North East South West 1♣ Pass 1♣ Pass 1♥ Pass 1♠ Pass 1♥ Pass 1♠ Pass 3NT 2♦ Pass 3♣ Pass 3NT We’d say that the answer is “Neither”, North’s bidding is more about hand-type than anything else: - Left-Hand Auction: Jumping to 3NT here certainly denies much in the way of extra values, as with extra values a slower Fourth Suit Forcing auction would be appropriate, keeping slam in the picture. But, more to the point, 3NT shows a hand that is serious about playing in No Trump. Surely the bid shows at least two stops in the unbid suit, and additionally a hand that sees no reason to pursue alternative game contracts. - Right-Hand Auction: The Fourth Suit Forcing auction is ambiguous, North might have been seeking a Heart fit, or might have been keeping other options open, or might have been less certain that her hand should be Declarer in 3NT. So, which do you choose here? Our own choice would be 3NT. We have a highly suitable Diamond holding, and it’s unlikely that we’ll want to play this in Hearts. And there’s the possibility that the hand needs to be played from the North side, namely to protect that Spade holding. Just because Partner bid Spades does not mean that she has the K♠, and a lead through the AQ♠ could be awkward. We see no reason to mess around with a 4th suit bid, we’d just go straight to 3NT. On the actual hand, 3NT from the North side makes 11 tricks (an endplay against East is needed to get the 11th), but from the South side, if West can find the inspired Spade lead, it will be only 9 tricks.
Board 8 Dealer West None Vul
Do you have any methods here? If not, then consider the actual hand (let’s call that Hand A) and also this one: Hand B ♠ A42 ♥ KJ9 ♦ T82 ♣ K976 Hand A is just below invitational strength, whereas Hand B is indeed good enough to invite game. How do you distinguish between the two? Playing standard methods it’s virtually impossible, and with Hand B you can either underbid with 3♣ or else overbid by cue-bidding 3♦. Not very satisfactory, eh?
No worries, help is at hand, via the Lebensohl convention. Follow the link for more on this, but the abbreviated version is: - Direct 3♣: Natural showing invitational values, our choice with Hand B. - 2NT Relays to 3♣: Our choice with Hand A, the plan being to pass 3♣.
Board 10 Dealer East Both Vul
Your editors have never been accused of shyness when it comes to preempting, but there are limits beyond which even we would prefer not to stray. Are you not tempted to toss in a 3♦ bid with that chunky suit? This is definitely a hand with which to be meek, here are three good reasons: - Only 6 Diamonds - No distribution - Vulnerable On the actual hand, the unmeek shall inherit -1100! Let that be a lesson them.
Board 10 Dealer East Both Vul
Thinking of passing? Perish the thought! There are three good reasons why East should go back to Hearts rather than languish in 2♣: - 5-2 fits generally play better than 4-3 fits - Majors score better than minors - East has a half-decent hand, just a tad short of game-invitational, and by bidding 2♥ he keeps the bidding open. West’s 2♣ is wide-ranging, he might have a pretty good hand, so game is far from out of the question.
OK, you bid 2♥ here and then Partner bids 2♠. What kind of a hand does Partner have? He clearly has 3-card support and Diamond shortness, probably 3=5=1=4 shape, and with that distribution one might expect an immediate raise to 2♠. Why did he bid 2♣ instead of 2♠? Because his hand was too good for a direct 2♠, it’s fair to assume that he has some extras. So, in the circumstances, after 2♠, East can do no less than go to game.
Board 11 Dealer South None Vul
North’s 3♠ showed a decent suit (at least 6 of them) and invitational values. What next? Are you thinking of escaping from 3♠ into 3NT? That’s really not a good idea, there seems to be virtually no chance that this contract will make, N-S just don’t have the values. The odds are that 3♠ will play better and it’s best to bail out now while the bailing out is still good.
For the record, 3♠ will be down one, and 3NT will be down two, maybe three.
Board 15 Dealer South N-S Vul
This is actually three problems in one. What would you bid as West if East’s call is (a) Double, (b) 2NT, (c) 3NT? - If East doubles: It’s obvious to bid some number of Spades. Not 2♠, of course, way too good for that. 3♠ or 4♠? 4♠ is tempting with that nice 6-4 shape, but Partner did only make a balancing Double, perhaps we should cut him a little slack and not be too aggressive. So, 3♠ here. - If East bids 2NT: In this case, West has enough for game, raising the question “Is this a Spade one-suiter or should we keep Hearts in the picture?” It looks like a one-suiter to us but we won’t argue the point, we’ll move on to the next question which is “What are your methods here?” Our suggestion is to play whatever you normally play when Partner opens 2NT. Perhaps not theoretically perfect, but simple, at least. - If East bids 3NT? Suggested methods here are Stayman and Transfers. So, take your pick, depending on how you evaluate those majors.
Board 17 Dealer North None Vul
Are you tempted to pass here, eagerly awaiting a reopening Double from Partner, which you can convert into a big, fat juicy penalty? Don’t be tempted! Here’s why: - E-W can probably make game, and it’s not that often that a one-level penalty beats that, at least not at equal vulnerability; - West has a Club fit with Partner and that seriously reduces the expectations of a profitable penalty. So, we would cue-bid 2♠. The end-result of that strategy will be to play in 3NT making 9 tricks. And 1♠ doubled? Down only one (maybe two), and that is not enough.
Board 18 Dealer East N-S Vul
North has a whopping 20-count, should she bid one more time? Game is not out of the question here, Partner might have ♦KQxxx, and that’s all North needs to make 9 tricks in No Trump. Well, yes, that’s assuming that the opponents cannot run 5 fast Clubs. With the high Clubs likely to be split between the opposing hands, and with Partner needing just the right cards, we would rate 3NT as unlikely to succeed. A cautious Pass is recommended.
Board 20 Dealer West Both Vul
It’s customary to explore the major fit before resorting to No Trump or the minors, but the caveat is that, when the hand is strong enough to force to game, it’s usually best to bid the long suit first. So, the simple question here is whether or not East should respond 2♣ (best suit first with a game-forcing hand) or 1♥ (majors first with a weaker hand). That’s a rather quacky hand, with too much wastage in the short suits, so this one looks like an obvious 1♥ bid to us.
OK, you bid 1♥, South interferes with 1♠, and now Partner leaps majestically to 4♥, typically showing 18-19 with 4-card support and a balanced hand. Is East’s 12-count worth further action? The bidding hasn’t changed the fact that this is a thoroughly miserable 12-count, it’s still quacky, with no extra trumps, no redeeming distribution, and those Spade honrs may well be quite useless. A disciplined Pass is required.
Board 22 Dealer East E-W Vul
You don’t have to have a 6-card suit to rebid two of a minor, but that’s the way it normally works out, with just 5 of them there is a strong tendency to rebid 1NT. Having said that, the Club suit is quite robust, and, if No Trump is the place to be, then surely it would be better played from Partner’s hand. South has no tenace positions and two worthless doubletons, such hands deserve to be Dummy. So if it belongs in No Trump then let Partner be the one to bid it.
Board 22 Dealer East E-W Vul
This hand belongs in game somewhere. Where exactly? We don’t know! A 5-3 Spade fit or 3NT or 5♣ are the obvious resting places, but no number of Spades, Clubs or No Trump is right here. Obviously not 2♠, that’s a weak hand. Nor 3♠, that’s only invitational, and would show 6 Spades. Not No Trump with that singleton Heart, either. No, this is a hand that needs to investigate, and the best way to do that is to bid 2♦. It’s probably alertable as “New Minor Forcing”, but even if you haven’t discussed this treatment with Partner it is clearly the right way to go, getting Partner to describe her hand further.
Board 25 Dealer North E-W Vul
Let us suppose that N-S are playing Inverted Minors, whereby a raise to 2♦ shows invitational values or better. That being the case, would you bid 2NT (showing 11-12) or 2NT with the South hand?
It’s true that those major suits are not as robust as one might like for a 2NT bid, but the fact remains that Qx and Qxx are holdings that usually work better when the opponents must lead around to them rather than through them. For example Qx works better opposite Axx or Kxx, whereas Qxx works better opposite xxx or Ax (though less well opposite Kx). All in all, we’d like this hand to be declaring No Trump, if that is where the hand belongs, and our choice would be to bid 2NT directly.
Board 26 Dealer East Both Vul
Do you think that this hand justifies a slam try in Diamonds? We’d say that it is a tad short of that but we ask you to suspend disbelief and pretend that really is worth a slam try. Or, if you prefer, move that K♥ into the Diamond suit, in which case this hand is most certainly worth making a move.
That preamble was designed to probe for possible weaknesses in your minor suit slam bidding. Don’t have any? Excellent news, you can move right along to the next problem which happens to be about the majors and No Trump. For those who are left, let’s suppose that you decide the hand (or a suitably modified version thereof) is suitable for Roman Key Card. How do you invoke that estimable convention? - 4NT? That’s the option for many pairs, but it’s not a good one, all too often it gets the partnership too high, or else there is insufficient space for subsequent inquiries (such as the Queen or King Ask). - 4♦? That would be Minorwood, assuming that this auction qualifies. We would like to think that it does, the auction is game forcing and it is the 3rd time that the suit has bid, so Minorwood we say! - 4♥? If you didn’t like that Minorwood idea, then how about a 4♥ Redwood bid? It’s another way of invoking Roman Key Card, another way of checking controls while keeping things low. Now, let’s suppose that the Minorwood/Redwood bid elicited the wrong response, one which tells us that we have two missing Key Cards. Do we have to sign off in 5♦ while secretly wishing that we were in the better-scoring contract of 3NT? Actually, no! We can sign off in 4NT, another major benefit of Minorwood/Redwood. That is the end of the commercial, we are the editors and we approve this message.
Board 27 Dealer South None Vul
Do you overcall or Double? There’s nothing much wrong with overcalling 1♥ here, but it does run the risk of losing the Spade suit, especially if South takes action. So, our own choice would be to Double, being prepared to bid Hearts later if Partner did not bid Spades. Yes, doubling and then introducing a new suit shows a very good hand. Is this hand good enough for that? Just a tad light, but it’s close enough, we think. The Heart suit is good, we love the shape and Double looks like the best way to keep both majors in play.
Board 27 Dealer South None Vul
Partner has doubled and we have a 4-card major, so it seems normal enough to bid that major. Is it a 1♠ or a 2♠ bid? It’s somewhat borderline between the two, wouldn’t you say? But, in fact, we wouldn’t bid Spades at all! With that Diamond holding, 1NT looks right to us, showing 7-10 HCP’s, or thereabouts.
Board 29 Dealer North Both Vul
There’s no foolproof method for bidding freak hands, and it looks as if we will eventually get to 5♣, expecting to make it more often than not. Should we just up and bid 5♣ directly? Many would and it could well be the winning bid. But our own choice would be 3♣. Surely this will not get passed out, our distribution is so extreme that South or East must have something to say (famous last words!). By bidding more slowly there is the chance that we may get to a slam.
Board 32 Dealer West E-W Vul
In the absence of special methods we would guess to compete with 2♥ here, showing a weak hand (with strength, say 9 or 10+, we would Double). Of course, that gives up on the Spade suit, and there is a dizzying array of methods to get both majors into the auction. Here are three such methods: - Cappelletti: Some pairs play this after their overcall of 1NT, in which case 2♦ (showing the majors) will achieve the desired result. - Mitchell A: Other pairs use a gadget called Mitchell and this one comes in different flavors. In Flavor A, as we have dubbed it, bidding two of the other minor shows the majors. In this method, on the actual auction, that leaves 2♦ available as a competitive raise of Partner’s suit. - Mitchell B: The 1NT bidder usually has a good holding in Partner’s suit and for that reason some pairs use 2♦ here as showing the majors, reasoning that a natural raise of Partner’s minor is not particularly useful. That being the case, 2♣ would be available here as natural and weak. These are all reasonable treatments, so take your pick.
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