Friday, July 14, 2006 5:55 AM

Hand Evaluation - Forcing pass ( Refinement )

PITBULLS:

One of the worst bidding faults in Bridge is “bidding your hand again”. You have announced your hand to partner , she has heard you , but you bid the same hand over again anyways. D.S.I.P. competitive double & forcing pass theory allows you to bid your hand again legitimately. You make a T/O double , an opening bid , or an overcall but a competitive auction ensues. You compete by making a D.S.I.P. competitive double. This is in effect a refinement of your previous bid. You show defense with a good hand rather than just what was expected with your previous action. When you just bid again , you are competing so you are probably showing the same values that you have shown already.

Forcing pass theory also allows you to refine your previous bid. Tonight I held ♠AJ109 ♥K1098 ♦J ♣ KQ98 , vul vrs nv I opened 1♣ . They overcalled 1♦ , partner made a negative double & they showed a limit raise by Q bidding 2♣. I liked my singleton in their suit , so I Q bid 2♦ & partner jumped to 4♥ vulnerable. They now decided to sacrifice in 5♦ against our vul game. So what is your forcing pass decision ?

Forcing pass theory has given you a chance to refine your previous Q bid. Do you have a minimum Q bid , an average Q bid or a rock Q bid ? When you had ♠AJ109 ♥AK109 ♦J ♣KQ98 , you have a 6♥ bid. Partner jumped to game opposite your invite , you have a gorgeous hand. Alternately you could pass & pull in an effort to get to 7♥. OK say you have an intermediate Q bid . ♠AJ109 ♥KQ98 ♦J ♣KQ98 so after a 5♦ bid I would make a forcing pass to “refine” my previous Q bid. I passed with the original hand rather than making a double. I should double 5♦ saying that I am minimum for my previous Q bid action. partner would pass so we collect our +500. With my pass , partner took the push , misguessed the trump queen & went down one for a 12 IMP loss.

Forcing pass theory is using the opponents to describe your hand again when the opponents are making your life miserable. Do not forgot the double when you are at the bottom of your range for your previous bidding !

Checking the scores , we would have lost 4 IMPS anyway if I had made the correct bid of a double. Much better than a 12 IMP loss though . L