Wednesday, October 01, 2003 12:20 AM

Hand Evaluation – Suits ( Splinters )

 

PITBULLS:

 

            Going against a long standing Edmonton tradition , I do not like splinters in competition. The first reason is frequency . Splinters need 4 card support or more and limit raise values . These hands are a lot less frequent then playing the bid as a natural  weak jump shift . The 2Nd reason is concealment in competition . Why help the opponents out with their opening leads , sacrificing and defense by describing your singleton ? The third reason is that you always have a Q bid of the opponents suit as a way of immediately describing your fit with partner. With slam tries you can always make a belated splinter or Q bid the singleton as a control later in the auction. The 4th reason is that Bridge is a game of suits ( like Garozzo says ) not a game of singletons. Preserving a jump as a weak suit describes your hand in one bid so you can get  to slams , games and sacrifices with ease. The bid also further defines your 2/1 in competition as stronger than these kind of hands

 

 Weak hands with a long suit , can easily get shut out by the opponents bidding. Some hands like ♠void ♥109x ♦xxx ♣KQJxxxx , partner opens 1♥ and they overcall 1♠ . Is  it not nice to bid 3♣ as a descriptive bid to put partner in the picture ? You can almost predict LHO will bid 4♠ looking at your void. If you pass or bid 2♥ partner will have no idea what to do over 4♠. If they bid 4♠ you can single handedly back in 5♣ but you are shooting dice. Partner has ♠AKx ♥AQxxx ♦Q10x ♣x  so just loves your 5♣ -500 pseudo sacrifice.  The culprit of course is concealing a nice long suit from partner when you had a chance to bid it.

 

            After a minor opening with a competitive auction it is silly to play splinters. You have a Q bid to describe those hands with a minor fit . Quite often you have a weak jump shift hand you would like to describe in one bid . Playing this treatment helps in interpreting 2/1 bids in competition as it eliminates a class of hands. A weak jump shift in competition is essentially a negative free bid so has many competitive advantages.

 

♠x ♥KQJ10xx ♦xxx ♣xxx            1♦-1♠-3♥        

 

Describes your hand in one fell swoop and is pre-emptive

 

♠x ♥xx ♦KJ1098xx ♣Q10x          1♥-1♠-3♦       

 

 Describes a weak diamond pre-empt . Now a 2/1 in diamonds has to be more healthy .

 

♠xxx ♥AKxx ♦x  ♣Jxxxx              1♥-1♠-2♠        

 

Why bid 3♦ as a splinter to help them with their  competitive decision , opening lead and defense ? You are chasing a rare slam with a “magical fit” is the only plus and you throw away the natural diamond WJS. Revealment vrs concealment in competitive auctions so put pressure on their defense.

 

          Splinters involve captaincy as you are telling partner that you have a singleton & a fit for her. She now controls the auction as she knows more about your hand than you do of hers. For this reason , do not splinter with a huge hand where it would be better if you captained this auction. How does partner know that you have such a huge hand ?  Splinters are fast arrival & waste bidding room so it’s better if they fall into a limited HCP range. Put an upper HCP limit on splinters. In a 2/1 auction , a splinter is a weak hand ( minimum ) since you are forced to game anyway.. With a strong hand take it slowly & use tools like serious 3NT , patterning out & Q bids to show your singleton. ♠KQ109x ♥Q109x ♦Ax ♣x . you open 1♠ , partner bids 2♥ so you splinter to 4♣. Partner is now captain of the auction knows that you have a minimum opener , 4 trump & a stiff club. She will now control the auction & place the contract. Add an Ace to the hand ♠AKQ109 ♥Q109x ♦Ax ♣x so it is now silly to splinter as you should be captain. You simply bid KCB & place the contract.

 

       Splinters are a fine tool when left alone. In competition,  the rules change. Having a Weak Jump Shift instead of a splinter in competition helps define your 2/1 structure in competition so allows you to get in there with your suit for pre-emptive or descriptive purposes. Negative free bids ( pre-emptive suits ) are hard to play against. Finding a secondary fit fast  and “showing where you live” helps for sacrificing purposes  also leaves you better placed to make decisions in competitive auctions.

 

            For those who want to know if partner has a splinter in competition they can use modified Mathe asking bids . Kokish game tries can be used in competition so a singleton is shown by those methods . Why show a splinter if partner is not interested in slam ? Partner has tools to ask for a singleton when he has ideas of bigger & better things...

 

1♥-1♠-2♠-P

2NT                       

 

 When partner is slamish , she can bid 2NT which can ask for a singleton after a Q bid.

 

Mathe used spades to ask for a singleton if hearts were trump and NT to ask when spades were trump . The “serious 3NT” allows you to show your singleton as a control

 

1♠-2♥-3♥-P

3NT                      

 

 I have slam aspirations , do you have a singleton or other control so we can investigate duplication of value ?

 

            A jump Q bid is still a splinter whether a minor or major has been opened . 1♥-1♠-3♠-P is obviously a game forcing heart hand with a stiff spade .

 

            Splinters or weak jump shifts as a passed hand are not a good idea. Fit showing jumps are far more useful and the structure allows you to ask for the singleton by using NT  if you are interested. You can modify Drury or 2NT to ask for the splinter with the appropriate hands.

 

            Splinters over a takeout double are O.K. This is because the opponents have shown the unbid suits so jumping in that suit as natural is not a good idea. This splinter can setup a useful defense as a lead director if they but the contract.

 

            To summarize , more and more bidding tools have ways of asking partner for a singleton . Why announce to the table that you have a singleton when it may be more helpful to the opponents ? Fit showing jumps have minimum NT to ask for singletons , Drury can be modified to ask for a singleton , Mathe asking bids ask for a singleton so preserve the immediate jump to show a natural weak jump shift. A singleton is just a control and can be bid later playing the Italian style of Q bidding.  Partnerships now have a piece of the negative free bid pie  strategy without actually playing them.