Saturday, January 20, 2007 4:48 AM

Hand Evaluation – Suits ( 2nd Fits )

PITBULLS:

One of the advantages of describing all balanced hands with a NT bid , is your opening bid must be a natural suit. The 5 card major system forces us to open 3 card minor suits with balanced hands. This restriction gets in the way of natural bidding. However , if you always rebid NT with these hands ( except for a simple raise of partner’s major at the two level) , all is well. In other words , your minor opening must be 5 long if your rebid is a major at the one level or a jump raise of partners major to the 3 level.

One of the bids that really gets clarified with this understanding is the jump raise of a major or even a minor after a 1♣ opener.. My partners will never make a jump raise to game of my major response with a balanced hand. They will bid 2NT to describe the balanced hand first & then support later. A jump raise to the 3 level is impossible with a balanced hand as 1NT would have been opened initially . This approach is good for many reasons. One advantage is that you identify the hand type immediately ( balanced ) . Another is that you prevent jumping to game with good hands thereby pre-empting responder, the 3^rd advantage is that you identify the original suit as natural with at least 5 cards in length when you keep the bidding at the 3 level. This is an added understanding for all jump raises now. Natural bidding at its finest.

When you have found a 4-4 major fit sometimes when the trump holding is not too robust , a slam in the minor is a better alternative. Here is an excellent auction from a Spingold. The opener had ♠x ♥A10xx ♦KJx ♣AKxxx , opened 1♣. Partner responded 1♥ , they bid 3♥ ( not quite strong enough for a 3♠ splinter ) . Partner held ♠AQxx ♥Kxxx ♦Q ♣Q10xx so Q bid 3♠. Partner Q bid 4♣ so responder from the bidding , knows that partners clubs are 5 or longer from the jump raise inference. Partner cannot have a 3 or 4 card club suit on this auction or she would have bid NT first instead of supporting . Responder , knowing that they have a minimum 9 card fit in clubs, bid 6♣ & not 6♥. This worked out beautifully as the heart losers were discarded on the diamonds & +1370 resulted. It was sweeter still when the opponents were in 6♥ going down at the other table.

Your overall bidding system dictates how easy it is to find a 2^nd fit after you have found a 4-4 fit. Quite often you can offer a choice of contracts at the 6 level. In some instances like this one , you know you have a good minor fit when partner raises your major. This understanding comes from keeping all balanced hands in the NT family.