Saturday, April 19, 2003 12:35 AM

Hand Evaluation - Partnership ( Rubber Bridge )

PITBULLS:

I come from a rubber Bridge background so I know of what I speak . Rubber bridge is a breeding ground for getting “bad partners” . If you assume that your partner in rubber Bridge knows what she/he is doing , you will be paying out money after the day is over . Out of survival interests , you commit every partnership sin imaginable . You “master mind” by making decisions unilaterally instead of giving partner their “partnership rights” . Slam bidding is done by a jump to 4NT , if YOU feel slam might be in the cards. You do not make delicate slam tries with lots of Q bidding because you do not trust partner anyway . You try to re-enforce this by platitudes like 4NT is always Blackwood , so that no confusion results with this strategy . You do not bid Grands unless you have 19 tricks as you are making money with your idiot partner in your cold six .

Penalty doubles are trump oriented in Rubber Bridge . You re-enforce this by uttering another platitude “never pull my penalty doubles” . This of course is nonsense as D.S.I.P. applies to a lot of penalty doubles. However , if you know that partner is going to fumble the ball with bad judgment anyway in penalty double situations , of course you do not gave partner a chance.

Conventions are kept to a basic minimum in rubber Bridge for two reasons . One is that it is too confusing to remember what everybody plays but the main reason ( in my mind anyway ) is that partners will misuse & forget the conventions . Keep it very simple with partners whom you do not trust their judgment in bidding situations.

Pre-empting in rubber bridge breaks a lot of rules of Bridge . The very basic premises of pre-empting is once you have pre-empted , partner is in charge so to bid again is extremely stupid . Say the auction goes 1♥ by partner , you have Axxxx of hearts with scattered values . You pre-empt to 4♥ , the opponents bid 4♠ so around to you again . Of course you can not bid again as partner heard your 4♥ bid so chose to defend . In rubber Bridge can you bid 5♥ ? I have seen it done a thousand times . Pre-empts are so bad in rubber Bridge , partner will open 4♥/4♠ with outside Aces and voids . Remembering this “tactic” , causes players to chase silly slams in case partner pre-empted with outside stuff so atrocious slam tries result.

Also rubber bridge players play “variable” jumps to 4 of a major . One time they will have outside stuff , the next hand maybe they will not . Forcing passes do not exist in rubber bridge because you must be disciplined & trust your partner. You cannot afford to make forcing passes in rubber bridge , because partner has never heard of the concept . Forcing passes in Rubber Bridge are you double with a trump stack & pass if you do not , period. Since forcing passes with their rules do not exist , you can play variable jumps to game . If the opponents bid again , the crap shoot is on !!

The play of the hand is also master minded . You may even bid 1♠ on ♠Kxxx ♥x ♦AKxxx ♣Kxx so that you play the major rather than bidding 2♦ which shows your HCP with your suit . You leap to game a lot especially 3NT, to keep partner from doing something silly like playing the hand. Playing with weak partners in rubber Bridge hurts your game with your established partner unless you are acutely aware of what you are doing . You must be able to convert your style playing with a strong partner.

Why am I bring all this up ? Is it bash Rubber Bridge day ? No , my intent is that in an established partnership this type of bidding is insulting . With your partner in IMPS , all of the above is reversed. You make joint decisions , 4NT is not always Blackwood , you pull doubles when appropriate , you bid 2♦ instead of 1 spade because partner plays as well as you do , you do not re pre-empt once you have bid 4♥ , you make forcing passes , you only jump around when appropriate . You have a lot of conventions , treatments , understandings and you have self discipline in bidding. Partner is not the 3^rd opponent but someone you can trust .

There are 3 types of Bridge : match points , rubber bridge and IMPS . You must know how to adapt and adjust your tactics to each type of game . You also must know how to adjust playing with a strong established partner instead of a random rubber bridge partner. I have seen IMPS played like match points which is very wrong . IMPS played like rubber Bridge is also very bad.

Do not get me wrong . I like rubber Bridge but it is a different game from IMPS as is , of course , Match Points. IMPS is the highest form of Bridge & is recognized as such in World Championships . It is for the best part , the true test of skill in Bridge so the form of Bridge good players enjoy the most .