Saturday, July 26, 2008 6:35 pm

 

Hand Evaluation – Partnership ( Bidding )

 

PITBULLS:

 

          Bidding in Bridge is defined as describing your hand pattern & HCP range to partner so that a joint partnership decision can be made on the final contract. You have ♠Ax ♥A1098 ♦Kxxxx ♣xx . LHO opens 1♠ everybody vulnerable & partner doubles . They bid 2♠ alerted as weak so you could make a responsive double . Although the double describes the more defensive nature of your hand ( 2 1/2 quick tricks ), it does not turn on forcing passes. A Q bid forces to game & shows your two suits  & HCP's. A leap to 4♥ of course is silly on a 4 card suit as it neither describes your suit nor HCP's to partner. Partner could have any number of hands for her T/O double so 7♦ might be cold for all you know. There are also opponents lurking with the boss suit so describing your hand the best you can will assist partner. Describing your hand to partner is of course important , but even more so when anticipating that opponents might bid again. So you Q bid 3♠ & they bid 4♠. Forcing passes have been turned on so partner will double with all minimums & defensive hands. Partner's pass in forcing pass theory says she wants you to bid. You do not just bid your own hand with forcing passes but also partners known intentions. You bid 5♦ & they take the push to 5♠ so this gets doubled. Partner leads the ♦A which gets ruffed . Declarer leads a spade & you win your Ace & switch to a club before your ♥A is knocked out. You win 15 IMPS as your partners were allowed to play 4♠ for +620 at the other table.

 

             When the opponents open 1NT , strong two suiters are very difficult to bid. If you play a toy , partner may pass you before game is reached when you hold a strong hand. . A double of 1NT with a strong 2 suiter is discouraged for many reasons. One , if partner passes with scattered values they still may make 1NTx  based on their suit.. Partner may pass 1NT X where you have game in one of your two suits as partner will not know if her HCP's fit your two suits. If partner does bid & you bid , partner will think you have a one suited hand & bid accordingly. Anyway , doubling 1NT with a strong two suiter usually eliminates partner from the decision making. Experts , over the years  , have invented a bid to show a strong 2 suiter after a 1NT opener & that is 2NT. Even if you are playing a toy which describes specific two suiters , a 2NT bid still shows any strong two suiter.

 

             How do you find your fit after a 2NT overcall ? Only a few simple basic rules. 3♣ is scrambling saying we are not going to game from responder’s perspective. 3♦ is game forcing by responder with a tolerance for diamonds . 3NT is also a  Q bid saying we are going to game but I do not have diamonds.  Kiz Fung had a nice two suiter & they opened 1NT. ♠Ax ♥QJ10xx ♦x ♣AQJ98  so she bids 2NT. I bid 3♣ so all pass & that is the correct spot. I held ♠Kxx ♥xxx ♦QJx ♣10xxx . Give me a slightly better hand ♠Kxx ♥Kxx ♦QJx ♣10xxx so I bid 3♦ saying let’s start the scramble but we are on a game force. Kiz bids 3♥ so I bid 4♥ which allows us to get to our cold vulnerable game.

 

             Scrambling should be familiar to you for finding a fit. Some play the scrambling 2♣ or the scrambling 2NT. All it means is both sides bid their suits up the line until a fit is found. Quite often scrambling is assisted by the opponents penalty doubles ! A 2NT bid has gained acceptance in Bridge as a two suiter. After a 1NT auction , 2NT serves that purpose reasonably well since you are forcing the auction to the 3 level , you must have a good hand. Bridge is a partnership game so include partner in your bidding.