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Heading to the frying pan? (it’s rather hot inside!)

Dealing with bridge hands that contain very few high-card points is part of the everyday lot of a bridge player. You would like to but cannot always pass. How about this situation?

 

You are playing Teams and you hope your opposition West has the same problem.

Our Panel did mainly what might seem obvious. Let’s hear from them:

Kris Wooles “4:  the weakest response I can muster. And yes it is horrible but my hand is what it is.”
Michael Cornell “4: can’t see a sensible alternative. Pass for -530 or -630? Partner is forcing me, pretty much , to bid at the 4 level.
Certainly, you will not lose the post-mortem by bidding.
Pam Livingston “4: Double is for take-out so I have to bid something. Pass is not an option.  Won't be surprised to hear partner take another bid.”
I am not sure what bid they can make to improve our score, unless they had a really strong single-suited red-suit hand. Mentioning that possibility is:

Bruce Anderson “4: pass is out of the question; the opening bid may not necessarily be garbage, so declarer could well have 7 spade tricks, particularly since partner did not bid 3NT showing a strong balanced hand with a spade stop. So, I am bidding my suits upwards in the hope partner fits clubs. It is possible that partner is too strong to  simply bid over 3 and will now emerge with 4. Good luck to him/her if that is so.

Andy Braithwaite “4: Yuk!  A snappy 4 from me and if doubled that gives partner an option of choosing a red suit if not suitable in clubs. Bidding is the only option as it looks like 3 would be cold based on my trump holding.”

Peter Newell :4: if partner had a strong balanced hand with a spade stopper they would very likely have bid 3NT. So, partner is either balanced with no stopper or unbalanced. While I don’t like bidding much with this collection, the likelihood is that South has 6-7 spade tricks, and typically double will have 1-2 tricks, so 3 may get close (if one is playing a pair known to pre-empt wildly then 3 may not be close and passing is more tempting). So, we don't stand to gain much score wise by passing, but partner could have a very good hand and we could make a contract. So, 4 nervously for me. Passing would be more tempting at Pairs or against aggressive pre-emptors.”

Stephen Blackstock “4: Not many good options here: 4NT for East's better minor is simply too much, and 4 will give East a horrible problem if he is say 2425. (The least said about pass by West the better). East may not be a classical T/O shape for his double. His choices have been very limited by the pre-empt. Of course, a double on 2425 is not attractive, but if he is very strong, what else is he to do? Similarly, he might be looking at five hearts and five of a minor. Hence it is much better to respond 4, as that allows East to try 4 if clubs is not what he wants to hear.”

Michael Ware “4: Not so hard. Partner makes a take-out double, so I bid my best suit. As it happens to be clubs, partner can correct to own suit at 4 level. i.e. 4 is better than 4.

Which leads us to 

Nigel Kearney “4: I usually bid the higher- ranking suit in response to a take-out double. Then if partner continues with 4 I can bid 5 next. If I start with 4 and partner bids 4, I won't know whether he has a slam try in clubs (and I should sign off in 5) or is just continuing to look for the best game, e.g. with a very strong 1453 shape (and I should bid 5).

That like everything else mentioned by the Panel is a possibility but so is that partner’s two suits might be clubs and hearts..and partner does not need to be very strong.

It is confession time and I did not fancy the prospect of being doubled vulnerable at the 4-level and decided to see if we, or partner, could beat 3. If not, then maybe -530 might be cheaper than what we were to incur at the 4-level. In a macabre way, I was right.

 

3 was to make 2 overtricks (-730) (the best the defence could do was lead a diamond restricting declarer to 10 tricks) while 4 was booked for -800, down 3, except that with K with the pre-emptor, there would be no double.

East had a choice of bids too. 3NT with those spades is an option though a diamond lead and spade switch would not leave East well placed. At the other table, South started with 1 and West did not have such problems, the auction finishing in a making 4.

I respect the Panel’s view that passing was wrong, certainly when I led a heart! I am just not quite so sure that bidding is a good alternative with passing still a chance of producing a plus East-West score whereas bidding could produce a big minus. Say East here chose 4 over your 4? North’s double would be heard throughout New Zealand!

Richard Solomon

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