Thursday, December 21, 2006 4:53 AM

Rescuing the Opponents

PITBULLS:

The opponents bid badly in the modern game. There never has been a shortage of bad bidders in the game of Bridge. Your system must be geared to showing hands with defense as opposed to soft values. Quick tricks are excellent for penalty doubles or converting doubles for penalty. It has been policy not to mention names in these articles if the Bridge results are not favourable. Therefore, I will refer to the person bidding in this article as LHO. OK , Perry & Debbie came to our table and LHO held ♠xxxxx ♥xx ♦AJxxx ♣A & opened 1♠ ! My partner passed & Debbie bid 1NT which I doubled . LHO bid 2♦ so what should my partner do with ♠AJ1098 ♥Qxx ♦x ♣Qxxx ? He has 9 HCP opposite my vul double so he can not pass. If the opponents passed 2♦ , so would I . Therefore , partner doubles saying we have the balance of power and most likely spades. Debbie bids 2♠ which gets doubled and LHO takes 3 tricks for down 5 doubled & +1100 for our side. The key to this auction was not rescuing the opponents when they were heading for trouble with the “modern” spade opener.

Very next hand , LHO and his partner could have got it all back. LHO held ♠AKJ10x ♥Kx ♦KJ987 ♣x 15 HCP in controls which adds defense measured in quick tricks to his otherwise offensive hand. My partner vul vrs vul opened 1♥ and this was passed around to LHO. This hand is best described with a double as it shows your defense if partner has a heart trap or otherwise. If partner pulls to 2♣ , you can bid 2♦ which universally shows a two suiter in spades & diamonds. Look what happens with a double. Partner has ♠xxx ♥AJ987 ♦x ♣KQJx and converts for penalty. Now around to me who has ♠Qxx ♥x ♦Q10xxx ♣xxxx so I bid 1NT as a rescue effort to a minor. This gets doubled and we end up in our best contract of 2♣X for –800 and a zero. This did not happen as LHO rescued us initially with a Michaels Q bid. Partner thought he had a weaker more distributional hand so she just bid 2♠ and played it there for +170. Everybody was in 4♠ or 3NT for +650 or +630 so we got another top.

When the opponents bid , there always is an element of risk. This risk is diminished if you rescue the opponents by bidding. Bad bidders get good results since the opponents rescue them time after time. This is the law of modern bidding . Make bad opening bids , bad pre-empts , bad doubles and bad overcalls as the opponents will be confused & rescue you anyway. This does not happen against expert opponents, so you should pick your spots carefully if you subscribe to “modern bidding”. The double is the most flexible bid in Bridge to counteract modern bidders as partner has some say to the proceedings. D.S.I.P. & Forcing pass theory are both based on not rescuing the opponents by making partnership decisions. The tool of choice – the red card.