Saturday, January 20, 2007 4:48 AM

Hand Evaluation – Suits ( 2nd Fits )

PITBULLS:

One of the advantages of describing all balanced hands with a NT bid , is your opening minor bid must be a natural suit when a major suit rebid. The 5 card major system forces us to open 3 card minor suits with balanced hands. This restriction gets in the way of natural bidding. However , when you always rebid NT with these hands ( except for a simple raise of partner’s major at the two level) , all is well. In other words , your minor opening must be 5 long when your rebid is a major at the one level or a jump raise of partners major to the 3 level or game level.

One of the bids that really gets clarified with this understanding is the jump raise of a major or even a minor after a 1♣ opener.. My partners will never make a jump raise to game or the 3 level of my major response with a balanced hand. They will bid 2NT to describe the balanced hand first & support later. A jump raise to the 3 level is impossible with a balanced hand as 1NT would have been opened initially in most cases or the 2NT jump covers the stronger hands. This approach is good for many reasons. One advantage is that you identify the hand type immediately ( balanced ) . Another is that you prevent jumping to game with good hands thereby pre-empting responder, the 3^rd advantage is that you identify the original suit as natural with at least 5 cards in length when you up the bidding to the 3 level. This is an added understanding for all jump raises now. Natural bidding at its finest showing distribution.

Gone is the standard ambiguity with a jump raise showing either a good 14 with a stiff or a flat 19 HCP. A jump raise now shows distribution with the pattern identified by the 2^nd round of bidding. This “pattern” information to partner pays dividends in reaching the correct game, slam or grand slam. This natural bidding allows alternative slams to be bid after you have discovered your 4-4 major fit !

When you have found a 4-4 major fit sometimes when the trump holding is not too robust , a slam in the minor is a better alternative. Here is an excellent auction from a Spingold. The opener had ♠x ♥A10xx ♦KJx ♣AKxxx , opened 1♣. Partner responded 1♥ , they bid 3♥ ( not quite strong enough for a 3♠ splinter ) . Partner held ♠AQxx ♥Kxxx ♦Q ♣Q10xx so Q bid 3♠. Partner Q bid 4♣ so responder from the bidding , knows that partners clubs are 5 or longer from the jump raise inference. Partner cannot have a 3 or 4 card club suit on this auction or she would have bid NT first instead of supporting . Responder , knowing that they have a minimum 9 card fit in clubs, bid 6♣ & not 6♥. This sent the message to partner that the trump holding was probably weak so I am offering you a choice of slams. This worked out beautifully as the heart losers were discarded on the diamonds & +1370 resulted. It was sweeter still when the opponents were in 6♥ going down at the other table.

Your overall bidding system dictates how easy it is to find a 2^nd fit after you have found a 4-4 fit. Quite often you can offer a choice of contracts at the 6 level. In some instances like this one , you know you have a good minor fit when partner raises your major. This understanding comes from keeping all balanced hands in the NT family initially. The importance of knowing that partner has a minor suit when she rebids a major at the one level or a jump raise at the 3 level cannot be underestimated. The only time the raise could be a balanced hand is at the 2 level. Nothing we can do about that except play weak NT’s L