Sunday, September 25, 2005 10:24 AM
Trapping Part II
PITBULLS:
A
wise Bridge player says that “anybody can bray like a jackass”. What he meant
by that is that bidding for the sake of bidding takes no particular skill. Trapping imparts discipline on a partnership in that you
prevent disasters your way while
not rescuing the opponents their way.
There are two more factors to consider in your decision to trap. One is how many HCP’s you hold and the other is
the seat position of the opponents
opening bid. Do not forget that trapping puts pressure on partner in the
balancing chair and quite often she puts the green card on the table. if this
action is acceptable to you, your trap was correct regardless of HCP’s. Of
course the more HCP’s you have , the chances of her coming up with a balance decreases. If I am in the 19+
range , I usually try to manufacture a bid
rather than trap as partner will not balance with the 6-9 HCP’s needed for
game.
Seat
position is an interesting angle. If they are opening in 3rd chair
they may be doing some “ tactical
bidding” . On the flip side you know partner is a passed hand so you should
have an idea whether they are going to “talk you out of” a game. From my own
experience I usually try to “get in there” with big hands after a 3rd seat opener. The fact that
partner is a past hand makes your decision to trap with intermediate hands safer though. Its obvious that you do not
have to stick your neck out vul when partner is a passed hand,
given the chance of game decreasing.
Stan
Cabay gave me a hand to consider when discussing trapping strategy so lets bid it with a number of
vulnerability and position scenarios. AQJ x
AQxxx KQxx and they are open 1♦ vul in
any position and you are not vul . This is a clear cut pass because if
we have enough to make game , the vul set will compensate. So why take the
chance of hearing partner leap in hearts ? You are equal vulnerability and they open 1♦ in 1st and 2nd chair. Lets
give them their 13 HCP for the opener and you have 18 HCP. There is only 9 HCP
left divided between two hands. Partners share is 4 ½ so that is not enough for
game. I pass with this hand rather than manufacturing a bid just due to safety
reasons. I see no reason to rescue them with 5 of their suit and change a plus
to a minus.
If they open in 3rd seat , the math is
different . As the 3rd seat opener may
be lighter , there are more HCP’s to go around and fall into
partners hand. I manufacture a bid of a 1NT overcall and apologize if partners heart
contract is unsuccessful . Trapping quite
often comes down to just using your abacus during the bidding. How
many HCP’s can partner reasonably expect to have ? This should be enough to
guide your decision whether to take action with big hands. With intermediate
hands , trapping is safer as there are enough HCP’s floating around to enable
partner to balance. Trapping is probability
based and you are going to get burned once in a while. Of course by
bidding you can get burned quite badly also. You trap a lot less in the match
point game as partials are so important and disciplined bidding is not. In
IMP’s , discipline is very important to established partnerships. Having what
you say you have is important for the proper care and feeding of partner and team mates.
Here is another difficult “trapping” decision that
happened recently. Everybody vul and in 3rd seat the infamous Ray
Grace opened 2♥. Your hand is void
AKxxx KQxx AQxx so do you trap ?
if you could guarantee that partner would re-open with a double with any hand
on this auction, a pass would be nice. Back to reality though , the auction
would probably be passed out. I would leap to 3NT with this hand as a “bidding
the table” bid. LHO is a passed hand and RHO has just pre-empted . If there
ever was a bid invented that denies the unbid
major , a leap to 3NT is it. Partner virtually never pulls 3NT
unless she has slam on her mind.If they were vul and us not , I would pass and
let nature take its course.