Saturday, June 21, 2003 4:34 AM

PITBULLS:

Some interesting hands came up in the Penticton CNTC that falls under the category of hand evaluation . I will mention 3 hand evaluation decisions that cost 13 , 14 , & 17 IMPS respectively.

You hold a 13 HCP hand with 6 clubs and in accordance with your system you open 2♣ vul . NV LHO overcalls 2♠ and partner bids 3♠ which shows a limit raise or better in clubs . You have Qxx in spades so you try 3NT . Partner is still slamish so he Q bids 4♥ and RHO decides to enter the fray with 4♠ . Now what ? This is a vul Q bidding auction so you obviously own the hand so should forcing pass principles still apply ? My own opinion is why not as there is no rule that the auction must be over and the opponents sacrifice before the theory applies . The opponents early interference has given you an opportunity to pass some information to partner . A double should say no slam interest as we may be off two quick spade tricks or I have a totally unsuitable minimum . A pass says I have a spade control and still interested and of course a Q bid would be a maximum with a spade control . You pass and partner leaps to 6♣ and the opponents cash two spades -13 IMPS .

The next hand you hold

A	Q	A	Q
Q		K	J
x		x	x
		x
		x
		x

You open 1♦ and partner bids 1♥ . You bid 2NT which in your methods shows 15- 18 HCP and may hold a stiff heart . Partner bids 3♦ which is an asking bid in hearts . Here is where hand evaluation comes in . Is a stiff Queen a stiff heart ? If partner has AKJ10x of hearts that gives him a solid suit . AKJxxx or AKJxxxx the queen solidifies the suit . The question now arises is the Queen equivalent to two or 3 small hearts . In my opinion a stiff Queen is equivalent to 3 small . You show a singleton heart and partner “knows” that he has a certain trump loser and gets cold feat in bidding a heart slam . Lose 14 IMPS .

The last hand involves Tom Gandolfo and myself where Tom shines in hand evaluation. He holds

x	x	K	Q
	x	Q	J
		J	x
		9	x
		x
		x

And hears me open 2♣ vul . Tom bids 3♦ and I bid 3NT . Here is where the auction took a drastic turn at the other table . The 3♦ bidder felt he was “all in” and passed 3NT. Tom evaluated his hand quite differently and a classic KCB auction ensued . Tom bid 4♣ and I bid 4♦ . Tom now started on the KCB trail with 4NT and I bid 5♣ showing 1 or 4 Aces. Tom now made a specific king ask of 5NT which I responded 6♣ which is my lowest ranking king . Tom can now count 12 tricks in NT and if I have a major suit king he can claim before the opening lead . He now bids 6♥ which says bid 7 if you have the heart king . I had the spade king so I bid 6 spades. Tom now bids 7NT and could have tabled his hand before the opening lead !! We won 17 IMPS as Tom bid the grand and they just bid game at the other table.