Monday, March 21, 2005 4:55 AM

Hand Evaluation – Visualization ( Suits )

PITBULLS:

Benito Garazzo says Bridge is a game of suits . When you can convey the length of your suits accurately in bidding , you will be much better off. Patterns are an enumeration of all possible suit lengths in the game of Bridge adding up to 13. . There are 39 patterns in Bridge involving 13 cards . These 39 patterns vary from 4-4-3-2 to 13-0-0-0 . 39 happens to be divisible by the magic number 13 . For practical purposes there are only 20 patterns worth considering ( even 7 of these are relatively rare ) which are highlighted in bold in the table below.

4-3-3-3	6-4-3-0	9-2-1-1
4-4-3-2	7-3-2-1	9-2-2-0
5-3-3-2	6-5-1-1	9-3-1-0
4-4-4-1	7-3-3-0	7-6-0-0
5-4-2-2	7-4-1-1	8-5-0-0
5-4-3-1	6-5-2-0	9-4-0-0
6-3-2-2	7-4-2-0	10-1-1-1
6-3-3-1	8-2-2-1	10-2-1-0
5-4-4-0	8-3-1-1	10-3-0-0
5-5-2-1	8-3-2-0	11-1-1-0
6-4-2-1	6-6-1-0	11-2-0-0
7-2-2-2	7-5-1-0	12-1-0-0
5-5-3-0	8-4-1-0	13-0-0-0

The purpose of Bridge bidding is essentially describing which one of these patterns you have to partner so you can make a joint decision on the trick taking potential of your combined hands. There is a sub class of these patterns called the balanced or semi-balanced hands. These are all the patterns with a 5 card suit or less & no voids. You should always try to describe these hands with some number of NT. Do not worry if you have a 4 card major or two of them for that matter. When the hand is balanced , bid some number of NT. When you open a minor & rebid a major , you should always have at least 5 of the minor or else you would have rebid some number of NT.

When you make a 2/1 you should not have a balanced hand . The exception would be 5-3-3-2 or 5-4-2-2 as a 5 card suit is permissible. Avoid bidding a 4 card suit as a 2/1 , choosing some number of NT instead. Of course some hands “fall through the cracks” so you make the best lie.

Do not rebid 5 card suits either majors or minors unless you are really backed into a corner. Rebidding a suit should show 6 cards or longer so partner can start visualizing the patterns which include a 6 card suit.

Semi balanced hands are the 4-4-4-1 or 5-4-3-1 distributions. Do not be afraid to describe these hands with a NT bid if partner has bid your stiff. Quite often this is the best lie rather than lying about your distribution & length of your suits.

Bridge bidding starts off with an axiom of opening your longest suit first. Bidding and rebidding a 2^nd suit shows 5 . Reverses show longer length in the 1^st suit. These principles are an effort to describe your pattern to partner. When partner bids , start translating her bidding into patterns either as opener or responder. Quite often you will be able to “see” or visualize the correct contract.

When opponents enter the auction , take an educated guess on how many cards in their suit they convey during the auction. You have a 5-4-3-1 with 3 in their suit , there is a high probably of a stiff in partners hand. This assists you in competing.

I think bad bidding is when you do not give an accurate picture of your pattern to partner. Rebidding 5 cards are bad , opening a minor & rebidding a major with a balanced hand is bad , making a 2/1 with a 4 card suit is bad bidding . HCP’s assist you in bidding but the real objective of bidding is to describe your distribution thereby finding the best fits. Bidding , still another application of applying patterns !!

My partner held this hand ♠KJx ♥AQJ ♦10xx ♣Kxxx , I opened 1♣. He bid 2NT which in our system shows 13+ with a balanced hand . I bid 3♠ so what pattern am I showing ? I can be 6-4 in the blacks , 5-5 in the blacks or optionally 5-4 in the blacks. With Kxxx in the longer suit & KJx in the secondary suit & no HCP’s in diamonds , you start thinking slam. The best start would be a quiet 4♣ bid , the auction proceeds to 6♣ after that. Translating the bidding into patterns during the auction helps you visualize the best contract.

I open 1♥ & you decide to bid 1NT with your soft values & NT distribution . ♠Qxxx ♥xx ♦KQx ♣Axxx . Partner surprises you by reverse to 2♠. You decide to bid 3♣ & partner bids 4♣. Applying patterns during the bidding , partner has announced a 5-4-3-1 distribution. Your ♦KQ just got obliterated opposite partners know singleton diamond. You try 4♦ anyway which gets doubled so now you know the ♦KQ is really useless so you sign off in 4♠. Partner has ♠A109x ♥AKQxx ♦J ♣KQx a nice 19 HCP reverse so by applying patterns during the bidding you stay out of a no hoper 6♠ slam.