Monday,
October 06, 2003 11:40 PM
6-5 Come Alive
PITBULLS:
Every
Bridge player knows the playing potential of a 6-5 hand . You “come alive” with
this distribution and bid. You are usually rewarded if partner has a fit for one
of the suits. Using the rule of 20 , 6-5’s can be opened with as little as 10
HCP so that you can “fire the first shot” . Some 6-5’s present a problem though
with standard bidding . These hands have the 5 card suit as a higher ranking
suit then the longer one. A reverse is defined as an Ace above an opener or
better so reversing with an 11 HCP
hand is misleading to partner . There are four possible solutions :
1.
Distort your distribution
and treat the hand as a 5-5 by opener the higher ranking suit first.
2.
Open your 6 card suit and
rebid it thereby concealing your 5 card suit.
3.
Reverse anyway and since
you use Lebensohl you can stop below game
4. Define a bid for these hands as a Jump Shift Reverse
The number
one option is the most popular remedy but it has the obvious disadvantage in
missing your main fit with the 6 card suit . The 2Nd option also
misleads partner. Opening a suit and rebidding it is supposed to show a one
suited hand . You have 2 suits so this is a bad distortion. Option 3 is very
bad . You can not bid a 10 HCP hand and an 18 HCP hand the same way and have
partner make an intelligent decision.
The last
option is an intriguing solution to the problem popularized by Karen
Walker http://www.prairienet.org/bridge/jumprev.htm . She advocates defining these
6-5 hands with an almost idle bid : a jump shift reverse . In Edmonton , a jump
shift reverse is a splinter for partners suit .Fanatical splinter users only
play Karen’s jump shift reverse when partner responds a NT . You therefore
always have to open your longer suit first and if partner does not bid a NT or
bids a 2/1 then your 5 card suit gets ignored . My opinion is the splinter is
not worth the aggravation. Showing 2 suits is more valuable then a splinter
which can be shown at the 4 level anyway .
1♦-P-1♠-P
4♥-P-4♠ This sequence can
be the heart splinter .
I
like Karen’s treatment for these hands . The bid is pre-emptive as well as being very descriptive.
1♣-P-1NT-P
3♦
x x KQJ10x AQ1098x
Bringing
the auction this high so fast help jam out the opponents majors and with the
right hand you can get to a magical 5 of a minor game.
By
following the link above to Karen’s site she gives example of how to respond to
these bids. There is an obvious 4th suit bid that you can use as
responder. Karen advocates using the 4th suit as a slam try in the 1st
suit and Blackwood keys off the second suit.
I held KQJ10x AK10xxx x x and got to the wrong major suit
game . if you distort your hand by opening 1♠ and partner bids 1NT and
you rebid 2♥ you
muddy the waters. Partner pictures a 5-4 hand . If I was playing this toy at
the time , the auction would go
1♥-P-1NT-P
3♠-P
This bid is
non forcing so partner can pass 3S or with hearts lets try a shot at game. If I
opened a heart and bid and rebid spades to show my 6-5 , I would be at the 3
level anyway. This bid gets it all over with in one bid and describes the HCP
range . I like it !!