Thursday, June 21, 2007 4:11 PM

Hand Evaluation –Balances ( High Levels )

PITBULLS:

There is a saying in Bridge , bid your own hand ! This means that you do not bid on hope that partner fills your suit or has the required HCP’s & hand to make your bid successful. This is not partnership bidding. You announce your own hand & let the partnership judge the final contract. Balancing at low levels is slightly different in that you are bidding partners hand due to the action or non action of the opponents. Balancing at high levels is back to bidding your hand again. Why , because the level is so high , there can be horrendous disasters when you make single handed gambles. These are the single handed gambles that ruin partnerships.

Just because they have pre-empted at the 3 level does not give you license to crawl in at that level with a poor hand. The reasoning that they are weak so I can be weak is fallacious. You are still bidding your hand to your partner as in a partnership game so partner will place the final contract. I was appalled by the discussion around the following hand. The auction goes 4♠ nv vrs vul opponents & around to the re-opening position with this hand. ♠x ♥J10x ♦A10xxxx ♣Axx . Do you take any action ? The biggest plus with this hand is the singleton spade but the strength of the diamond suit is not good. A 5♦ bid is a singlehanded gamble & not bidding your own hand. This was the bid that the players said they would make. Not me . If I am going to make a singlehanded gamble with this hand , I will re-open with a double hoping partner had spades or HCP’s. The worst disaster I may incur is –590 as opposed to the telephone #’s the 5♦ bidders could go for. You do not gamble at the 5 level vul vrs not in the vain hope that partner fills in your suit. Stakes too high for “taking a shot”.

Just because the biding is up at the 4 or 5 level does not mean you abandon Bridge principles. Controls or quick tricks still describe a defensive hand as opposed to an offensive hand. My partner held this hand in the balancing spot ♦x ♥J10x ♦AQx ♣AKxxxx & they opened 4♠ nv vrs nv. Your defensive tricks are 3 ½ quick tricks & you are short in spades. A double stands out as opposed to an offensive bid like 5♣ which says partner I do not hold defensive cards but a suit for offensive purposes. As you do not play a double of 4♠ as penalty directly , you are protecting partner also. 4♠X is teetering on +800 your way. Quick tricks equals a double , distribution equals bidding. My partner balanced 5♣ going down when we had a huge plus coming our way. Describing your HCP’s ( quick tricks ) goes a long way to describing your whole hand.

Bridge bidding is not defined as misdescribing your hand hoping that partner fills in the holes , bidding is describing your own hand. Otherwise , Bridge bidding would be just singlehanded gambling , nothing more , nothing less. Leave those bids to Chris & Ray , you should bid your own hand. Poker is you vrs the table but Bridge requires a partner. Respect the level in which you are bidding as well as the vulnerability & partner. There is way more room at this level to tumble a great distance when your single handed heroics fail.