Monday, March 06, 2006 3:02 AM

Hand Evaluation – Partnership ( Ignoring Partner )

PITBULLS:

            Bridge is a partnership game . The most common & serious Bridge mistakes involves taking partner out of the decision making process. Unilateral decisions are deadly in the game of Bridge. Bad , inaccurate bidding & forgetting that Bridge is a partnership game are the causes. Another serious Bridge mistake is not respecting a good partner who is disciplined. Good players are disciplined with respect to vulnerability & generally should be trusted. Believe your own partner before the opponents , when things do not add up. Partner is on your side. Not respecting a good partner really insults him.

Here is an auction where Perry Khakar chose to believe his vulnerable partner rather than the nv opponents. Lucille Barton opened 1♠ nv , Perry passed & Lee pre-empted to 4♠. I vulnerable bid 4NT which shows a two suiter. Lucille doubled & Perry had 11 HCP !!!  ♠Jx ♥Qx ♦QJxxx ♣AJxx so trusting his vul partner he XX’d to turn on forcing passes. I bid 5♦ & since I bypassed the club suit , I showed a powerful two suiter in the reds. Lucille bid 5♠ as they did at the other table. Perry has a tough decision whether or not to bid slam but its IMPS so he chose to double & take his plus. The Gartaganis at the table chose to try for their slam & went -200 in 6♦x. Perry is now on lead against 5♠ doubled . He knows that partner has an almost completely red hand with 6 or 7 diamonds so he knows a ♦ lead is futile. Perry leads the ♥queen & Lucille tries the ♥K from the board . I won , cash the ♥J & lead the ♥ deuce. Perry ruffs & lays down the ♣Ace looking at 4 small clubs on the board. I follow with the ♣Q so Perry gives me a club ruff. Lucille has nowhere to put her club loser so Perry collects +800 & a nice 14 IMP pickup. Bridge is a partnership game so respecting partner pays big dividends. Perry knew that partner was pushing him to the 5 level vul vrs not so with 11 unannounced  HCP’s , their side obviously owned the auction. Perry believed his own partner !!!

Here are some examples from a recent tournament that underline the importance of inviting partner to the party. You have ♠xxx ♥K109xx ♦K109 ♣xx , the auction goes 1NT-2♠-3♥-?    . 3♥ is a forcing bid & this is a competitive auction. Partner is vul & bid 2♠ which in your system shows spades with a minor. When we do not own the auction,  so D.S.I.P. competitive double theory applies. When you double , you saying you have defense & want to compete to 3♠ so obviously that bid is out. Do not ( never ) double forcing bids for penalty ! This can only help the opponents. They now bid 3NT so around to you. Since you did not make a D.S.I.P. double during the auction, a double of 3NT cannot be for a spade lead as you had a chance to compete in spades. A double should mean that cards are sitting wrong for them & they just cannot make the contract. 3NT X is a carnage as partner holds ♠QJ109x ♥Q ♦xxx ♣AKJx for his bid. They were seriously overbidding so you trust partner for his vulnerable bidding. +1100 is possible as the 3♥ bidder held a flat 7 HCP for his forcing bid.

            Converting for penalty with the wrong type of hand undermines partnership bidding. ♠Ax ♥KJx ♦Kxxx ♣Jxxx , the NV opponents open a weak 2♠ with  your side vulnerable. They now interfere with 3♠ , partner makes a T/O double. What do you bid ? Partners hand is the great unknown as the non vul opponents can have virtually nothing . Converting for penalty with the wrong type of hand takes partner out of the picture. You have 12 HCPs that are unannounced during this auction. How do you describe them ? The vulnerability dictates that you bid. You bid 3NT not so much as you want to play it there but to keep the bidding open & announce values. Partner could hold ♠x ♥AQ10xx ♦AQxxx ♣Ax so a vulnerable grand slam in the reds is possible. You do not convert for penalty just because you have HCP’s & no clear cut good bid. This is partially due to your decision being so unilaterally final for the partnership. A pass after a T/O double is a descriptive bid saying that with my horrible duplication of value , we can not make anything our way especially on this vulnerability. Partner pulling 3NT to 4 of the minor is a slam try as you do not pull 3NT from a position of weakness.

            A tormentee held this hand against us. ♠AKQJxxxx ♥x ♦Ax ♣Kx , with equal vulnerability partner opened 1♥ & I bid a forcing 1NT. Doubling 1NT is a penalty orientated bid showing a huge hand. If 1NTX was left in , you know what to lead J . Anyway the tormentee decided to conceal her hand from her partner & pre-empt to 4♠. Since she did not double , an inference can be taken that all she has is spades with no outside cards. Partner bid 4NT & I bid 5♥ so now the Tormentee was trapped by her first bid. 5♥X is the place to play the contract has partner has J109x of trump ,Q1098 of clubs & Q10 of diamonds. The Tormentee bid 5♠ making up for the fact ( St Albert ) she should have doubled going in but this contract goes 1 down. Note how partner was removed from this auction by not doubling initially. When you double 1NT first & leap to 4♠ , you describe your hand to partner thereby bringing her into the decision making process. Partner now doubles 5♥ so you get a decent plus instead of a taking a shot minus.