Monday, July 10, 2006 6:08 AM

Hand Evaluation – Fast Arrival ( Abusing Splinters )

PITBULLS:

From my experience , splinters are the most abused bid in the world. You open 1♥ with ♠AKxx ♥AKxxx ♦x ♣Axx or ♠AKxx ♥AKxxx ♦x ♣xxx or ♠Axxx ♥AKxxxx ♦x ♣xx . Partner responds 1♠ so I have seen players splinter to 4♦ with all three of these hands. This is Bridge ambiguity at its worse. You hit partner with duplication of value in diamonds so the 1^st hand limps home. The 2^nd hand , you go two down vulnerable & the 3^rd hand you get doubled & go for 1100. You can not treat an 18 HCP hand the same as a 14 HCP hand or an 11 HCP hand. However, it is done all the time with splinters.

Goren was terribly wrong with his “more HCP’s you have the higher you bid” concept. As most players now know , the principle of fast arrival says just the opposite. You pre-empt partner up to the 4 level with good hands thereby robbing you of bidding room to explore for small & grand slams. My partners , Kiz , Tom & Ilya all play a multi-purpose 3♣ strong jump shift. There were many reasons for this bid but one is so that the leap to game in partners major can be fast arrival & show distribution. This prevents silly splinter bids with 11 HCP’s as in hand three. We all would leap to 4♠ with that hand. When we go down , maybe it’s their hand for a partial or game in the minors. Splinters are a good bid so do not let ambiguity destroy their usefulness.

The 1^st hand is a 4♦ splinter as you have enough to suggest slam. The 2^ND hand is a 3♠ jump , you can Q bid your diamond control later if partner is interested. Bidding 2♠ with the 3^rd hand although you have 11 HCP is sick bidding. Game is possible opposite Kxxxx of spades but you do not know. 4♠X opposite Jxxx of spades with KQJx of diamonds could be a horrible telephone number so you have an unbiddable hand. A splinter at the 4 level since you forced to game is a slam invite . When you jump to game with your 11 HCP , partner might not catch on by playing you for the Goren 19 HCP & go down in a slam. Distributional hands are built for jumping , not strong hands.

I dislike random splinters so much we have defined jump shift reverses to show two suits with a 6-5 rather than a splinter. This is a descriptive fun toy but it has a more sinister use. It prevents partners from abusing splinters. They feel if they have a singleton with a fit , they are obligated to show it regardless of strength for the appropriate level. Splinters give information to the enemy also. All of a sudden they find the trump lead , hold onto the correct suit and find correct shifts. Splinters should be slam tries for the most part, so keep them guessing with distributional weaker hands by leaping to game. Makes more sense to me.