Friday, February 11, 2005 5:11 AM

Hand Evaluation - Systemic ( 4-4 major fits )

PITBULLS:

It must be matchpoint paranoia that you must respond with a bad 4 card major. This fear of missing +140 instead of +120 gets negatively re-enforced way more often than not. Here is a pair against us tonight that shows this silliness in action. ♠xxxx ♥xx ♦KJx ♣AKJx Partner opens 1♦ so what is your response ? Say you have bought into the 4 card major silliness so you respond a spade ( which is what happened) now partner bids 2♦ so now what ? The player said she did not want to bid 3♣ because she did not want spade preference so she leapt to 5♦. This goes down & 3NT makes 4. Let’s back up & bid this hand properly by bidding 2♣ & showing where you live. If partner cannot bid spades , who cares about this suit ? 4-4 fits can be found via either side of the table ! Partner bids 2NT so you bid 3NT . A simple auction that gets complicated when you respond a non suit.

Partner opens a minor , you have a huge fit for her but you have a 4 card major. Forget about the 4 card major as it just complicates the auction. ♠Axxx ♥Ax ♦AKxxx ♣xx partner opens a diamond so make your systemic bid that shows your strong diamond raise. If 4 spades is the spot , perhaps you might get there from partners side but slam exploration is severely impeded when you start proceedings by ignoring your huge fit with partner. Same principle with this kind of hand , with interference. Q bid to show your fit rather than making a negative double to get your spades into the fray.

Garozzo says Bridge is a game of suits . You hold ♠K109x ♥x ♦KQJ10xx ♣Qx , partner opens 1♥ so what do you respond ? I do not like a spade as you may lose a beautiful 6 card suit which is exactly what happened. If you respond a spade , you have bought into the philosophy that Bridge is a game of HCP’s , not suits. Very non Italian of you !! The opponents responded a spade , Tom Gandolfo interfered with 2♣ & the opponent Q bid with 3♣ so I interfered with 5♣ which got doubled. The doubler wanted to warn partner that he only had a 4 card spade suit. Subsequently they went to 5♥ which makes +680 . 7♦ is a lay down but diamonds were not even mentioned in this auction ! The culprit is this silly urge to bid a 4 card spade suit which I will hereby refer to as the “matchpoint sickness”. Sometimes you must make the best lie. It’s not much of a stretch to bid 2♦ with this hand even though you play 2/1 forcing to game. You must give some value to a beautiful 6 card suit as suppressing these suits complicate auctions later on.

Same with pre-empting . If you have a systemic pre-empt do not let a 4 card major deter you. Partner opens a club , you have ♠xxxx ♥x ♦xxx ♣KQJxx make your system 3♣ bid if that is weak. If partner has the rare hand that 4♠ is cold so be it. The many other times by describing your hand . You may jam them out of a red suit game or find a 5♣ sacrifice or game early etc, etc.

When I have a hand that might prove difficult to bid , I take a chance & suppress a 4 card major after a heart opener. Think about it. The only time you might lose is if partner has a weak Flannery. If a stronger Flannery hand , partner is going to bid the spades anyway. I held ♠AQxx ♥void ♦J109x ♣KJxxx playing with Nancy. I decided that even if Nancy had 4 spades , 3NT might still be the better contract so I bid a forcing NT. Nancy bid 2♣ so now I was glad I bid 1NT going in because I had a chance of showing a strong club raise with a 2♠ bid. We ended up in 3NT for +690 which was a good result but a shaky 6♣ makes for +1370. I confused Nancy enough that she now knows how to show strong minor raises after a heart opener & a forcing NT J