Sunday, September 25, 2005 10:24 AM

Hand Evaluation – Balancing ( Trapping & Vul )

PITBULLS:

A wise Bridge player says that “anybody can bray like a jackass”. What he meant by that is that bidding for the sake of bidding takes no particular skill. Trapping imparts discipline on a partnership in that you prevent disasters your way while not rescuing the opponents their way. There are two more factors to consider in your decision to trap other than “playing the vulnerability” which is the number one consideration. One is how many HCP’s in their suit & overall you hold , the other is the seat position of the opponents opening bid. Do not forget that trapping puts pressure on partner in the balancing chair so quite often she puts the green card on the table. When this action( partner passing ) is acceptable to you, your trap was correct regardless of HCP’s. Of course the more HCP’s you have , the chances of her coming up with a balance decreases. When I am in the 19+ range , I usually try to manufacture a bid rather than trap , as partner will not balance with the 6-9 HCP’s needed for game.

Seat position is an interesting angle on trapping. If they are opening in 3^rd chair they may be doing some “ tactical bidding” . On the flip side you know partner is a passed hand so you should have an idea whether they are going to “talk you out of” a game. From my own experience , I usually try to “get in there” immediately with big hands after a 3^rd seat opener. The fact that partner is a passed hand makes your decision to trap with intermediate hands safer though. It’s obvious that you do not have to stick your neck out vul when partner is a passed hand, given the chance of game your way decreasing.

Stan Cabay gave me a hand to consider when discussing trapping strategy so let’s bid it with a number of vulnerability & position scenarios. ♠AQJ ♥x ♦AQxxx ♣KQxx , they are open 1♦ vul in any position & you are not vul . This is a clear cut pass because when we have enough to make game , the vul set will compensate. So why take the chance of hearing partner leap in hearts ? You are equal vulnerability & they open 1♦ in 1^st and 2^nd chair. Let’s give them their 13 HCP for the opener so you have 18 HCP. There is only 9 HCP left divided between two hands. Partners share is 4 ½ so that is not enough for game. I pass with this hand rather than manufacturing a bid just due to safety reasons. I see no reason to rescue them with 5 of their suit & change a plus to a minus.

When they open in 3^rd seat , the math is different . As the 3^rd seat opener may be lighter , there are more HCP’s to go around & fall into partners hand. I manufacture a bid of a 1NT overcall & apologize if partners heart contract is unsuccessful . Trapping quite often comes down to just using your abacus during the bidding. How many HCP’s can partner reasonably expect to have ? This should be enough to guide your decision whether to take action with big hands. With intermediate hands , trapping is safer as there are enough HCP’s floating around to enable partner to balance. Trapping is probability based so you are going to get burned once in a while. Of course , by bidding you can get burned quite badly also. You trap a lot less in the match point game as partials are so important & disciplined bidding is not. In IMP’s , discipline is very important to established partnerships. Having what you say you have is important for the proper care & feeding of partner and team mates.

Here is another difficult “trapping” decision that happened recently involving 3rd seat. Everybody vul , in 3^rd seat the infamous Ray Grace opened 2♥. Your hand is ♠void ♥AKxxx ♦KQxx ♣AQxx so do you trap ? If you could guarantee that partner would re-open with a double with any hand on this auction, a pass would be nice. Back to reality though , the auction would probably be passed out. I would leap to 3NT with this hand as a “bidding the table” bid. LHO is a passed hand & RHO has just pre-empted . If there ever was a bid invented that denies the unbid major , a leap to 3NT is it. Partner virtually never pulls 3NT unless she has slam on her mind. If they were vul & us not , I would pass and let nature take its course.

My partner had a huge 20 HCP hand with ♥KQJ109 of hearts. Ton Gandolfo opened a weak 2♥ in front of him vul vrs nv. This is an easy pass as we were nv & Tom was vul . I do not have enough to re-open but since I do not have enough to bid , 3NT fails our way. 2♥ down 4 vul takes the sting out of the 3NT going down though. Look at the vulnerability , as bidding is predicated on that part of the game of Bridge.

In a recent IMP game , a few players made “silly decisions” & forgot to look at the vulnerability . ♠Q10 ♥AKxx ♦A10 ♣QJ1087 & LHO opened 1♣ . Overcalling 1NT is an anti-percentage silly bid as you just rescuing vul opponents nv. I passed & LHO passed but partner re-opened with a double which of course I converted. A SOS redoubled ensued & Chris Buchanan went for -1400 at the one level in 1♠ doubled ! . Overcalling 1NT on this particular vulnerability means only one thing to me , you just started playing Bridge yesterday.