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Rule-breaking?

It’s time to revisit one of the initial guidelines we learnt about responding to our partner’s 1-level opening suit bid. What as South would you think about the following situation? It is your turn to bid. Would you?

 

Remember what you learnt in your first set of lessons? When your partner opens 1 of a suit, you need a minimum 6hcp to respond. With less, you should pass.

 

So, it may seem obvious to pass as South here….though, is it? What is partner’s hand like? It could contain 6 diamonds and say 16 high card points and were you to make a bid, your partner will jump to 3…and you would wish you had passed 1, far easier for your partner to make.

Yet, there is another, perhaps even more common type of hand our partner could hold since we open the lower of 2 x 4-card suits. Even if your partner held 5 diamonds and any other 4-card suit, you are likely to be better and certainly no worse-off by bidding.   If partner had 4, even 5, diamonds, then unless we were saved with a bid from West, our partner would be left struggling in a 4-0 or 5-0  trump fit with about half the high-cards in the pack and would probably record a negative score.

There is no guarantee that bidding will produce a plus score. However, even if your partner’s second bid was in no-trumps, you are likely to be better off in no-trumps than in diamonds.

Indeed, were partner rebid 1NT over your 1 bid, you would bid a second time, either 2 or 2 to try and find a better fit…not just one bid therefore, but two by your hand with just 4 hcp!

Had you just 1 or 2 hcp, then regretfully, you would probably have to pass but your actual hand would be rather useful if partner had 4 cards in either major or in clubs. Let’s look at the actual four hands which could be typical of the lay-out:

 

You may say it was lucky that North’s spades were so good and the diamonds relatively poor. Yet make the spades K and 3 small cards and the diamonds AKJ10 and you may lose just one spade and one club trick along with K if the finesse failed. 

On the above diagrammed deal, say West led a club against 4, South can win, play 2 rounds of spades and take a successful heart finesse. They will lose just a heart and a club trick, 11 tricks while those who passed 1 watched their partner struggle in that contract. West, above, would not save them. 

This deal occurred in the Round of 16 of the New Zealand Open Teams. 12 of the tables saw North-South reach and make game in spades. 2 tables, rather strangely, played in 2 making overtricks. 2 North players played in 1 and failed in that contract.

The above proved a spectacular success for bidding. North-South may not always be so fortunate. What then is the dividing line between bidding and passing? South would be more likely to pass 1 with say 4 hcp if they had 2 or 3 diamonds. As stated, with only a couple of hcp, they are very likely to pass whatever their shape. However, if by bidding you have a reasonable expectation of improving the final contract for your side…and you have 4 or 5 hcp, then bidding seems to be a good idea.

 

One other side effect of bidding on very weak hands, especially not vulnerable, is that your side may make it harder for the opponents to enter the auction when they have a makeable contract.

Yet, if your hand was 8753  9654  43   973 or the like, get out the pass card very quickly. Not an auction you want to take any further!

So, be a rule-breaker with the right hand.

Richard Solomon 

 

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