Mon 30th 1st Jeremy & Sean 60% 2nd Terje Lie & Svein 59%
Wed 1st 1st Terje Lie & Svein 62% 2nd Sigurd & Terry 58%
Fri 3rd 1st Michael C & Alan K 65% 2nd Sigurd & Janne 60%
Bidding Quiz Standard American bidding is assumed unless otherwise stated.
Hand A Hand B With Hand A partner
opens 1♦ and
what do you do?
♠ A2 ♠ AKQ62
♣ Q9765 ♣
Q873
Bidding Sequence Quiz
C 1♣ 1♠ dbl How
many points should the negative double show?
D pass 1♥ pass 2♥
pass pass dbl pass The double is a
take-out double in the pass-out seat.
2♠ 3♥ pass pass What sort of hand
does the 3♠ bid show?
3♠
E 1♠ pass 2NT pass 2NT is Jacoby, promising 4 card ♠ support. 3♦ shows shortage.
3♦ pass 4NT 4NT is RKCB, but for
♦’s, the last bid, or for ♠’s?
Bid out your shape Board 17 from Wednesday 25th May
Dealer: ♠ AKQ62 Table A
West ♥ 10 West North(B) East South
Love all ♦ AK7 pass 1♠ pass 2♥
♣
Q873 pass 3♠ (1) pass 4♠ (2)
pass 4NT (3) pass 5♦
♠ 1053 N ♠ 974 pass 5♠ all pass
♠ J8 pass 1♠ pass 2♥
♥
AKJ9862 pass 3♣ (1) pass 3♥
♦ J pass 3NT pass 4♥ (4)
♣ 1042 all pass
Table B: (1) This was the popular and fairly obvious answer
to question B. Game forcing and showing a good hand with five ♠’s and four ♣’s.
(3) It’s
easy for South now, partner has nine or ten black cards and presumably two ♦ stops for his NoTrump bid. That leaves probably just
one ♥
and so simply bidding the ♥ game is very clear.
And what happened? Especially with the bidding
at table B there was no reason for a ♣ lead and most chose a ♦. Twelve tricks when playing in ♥’s are then easy without need for the ♥ finesse. Playing in ♠’s it’s not so easy and even with a non-♣ lead 5♠ went -1.
The bottom lines:
-
Bid out your
shape and don’t fix trumps prematurely.
Dave’s Column
♠ 4 N West North East South
♠ A106
♥
J854
♦ K You are West, defending 4♠. Partner leads the ♦A, any ideas
♣ KJ763 how you can defeat the contract?
What ♦ do you play at
trick one?
Dave’s Column
Answer Board 21 from
Wednesday 1st
Dealer: ♠ KQJ973 Bidding
North ♥ Q109 West North East South
N-S vul ♦ 62 - 1♠ pass 2♣
♣
AQ 3♦ 3♠ 4♦ 4♠
all pass
♠ 4 N ♠ 852
♠ A106
♥
J854
♦ K
♣ KJ763
West saw that there were a couple of
possibilities to defeat 4♠. If East had the ♥K there might be a ♥ ruff for the defence. Also, if East had the ♥Q and the ♣A there might be two ♥ tricks and a ♣ trick coming.
West decided to give East some hints on how to
defend. How did he do that?
West played the ♦Q on the first trick. This is an unusual card
and is suit-preference asking for a ♥. A low ♥ from East then leads to one down.
If West had not signaled, it is not unlikely
that East would have switched to a ♣ or a trump and declarer would then take a lot
of tricks.
And what happened at the Pattaya bridge club? 4♠+2, 4♠+1, 4♠=, 4♠-1, 4♠-2 and 5♦*-1.
Dave’s 2nd
Column
West West North East South
♠ AJ8 - - 1♥ pass
2NT at (1) was forcing in their system. What should West bid at (2)?
Dave’s 2nd Column Answer Board
22 from Wednesday 1st June
Dealer: ♠ K10954 Book bidding
East ♥ K95 West North East South
E-W vul ♦ 106 - - 1♥ pass
♣
1032 2♣ pass 2♦ pass
2NT (1) pass 3♦ pass
♠ AJ8 N ♠ 2 ? (2)
♠ Q763
♥
A4
♦ J42
♣ Q954
This is an easy little problem that causes
more problems than it should. East opens 1♥ and West bids 2♣. East rebids 2♦ and West bids 2NT.
In some methods (2/1) this 2NT bid is forcing to game. If you play that 2NT can
be passed it is correct for West to bid 3NT instead. Here West bids 2NT forcing
and East continues with 3♦.
What should West bid
now?
Some players never
get this kind of problem wrong and some never get it right. If you bid 3♥, you have got it
right.
Why is 3♥ correct when you
have such good stoppers in the black suits? The answer is that your stoppers
are good, but not that good. Your partner has ten or eleven red cards which
means he is short in one or both black suits. 3NT has no chance on a ♠ lead. If you bid 3♥, East will know you
have just two of them because you did not support over 2♦.
You may think that
East should keep bidding his suits but at some point in the auction he should
stop doing that. West could have a lousy hand for ♥’s or ♦’s and East has said
repeatedly that he has lots of red cards. Time to quit.
Terry’s comment. This is a great
advert for the 2/1 bidding system where 2NT at (1) is indeed game forcing and
the bidding ‘easy’. However, most at our club play that it shows +- 11 points
and is not forcing and so responder has to jump to 3NT. So the problem is not
valid unless playing 2/1.
The author does not
say what East should bid if West does indeed bid 3NT at (1). Without the extra
bidding space available when playing 2/1, East is on a complete guess. Dave
says that 4♦ is obvious with eleven red cards – but is it? Partner
has bid ♣’s and jumped to 3NT and, as the author says, “West could
have a lousy hand for ♥’s or ♦’s”. Give him ♠AQ8 ♥4 ♦Q9 ♣KQJ8763 or similar (quite
likely on the bidding) and 3NT will make ten tricks, probably twelve or
thirteen; but 4♥ makes only ten (or may go down) for a clear bottom. And
if West has a similar hand with say ♠KQx then 4♥ certainly goes down
with 3NT cold and probably making overtricks. In my (Terry) opinion it is not
at all obvious for East to bid 4♦ over a 3NT bid at
(1), partner may just need the ♥’s stopped and have
a totally unsuitable hand for either red suit. This is just one of the reasons
that the extra bidding space available with no unnecessary jumping makes 2/1
the most popular bidding system worldwide for intermediate+ level players. It
is so much easier to bid 3♦ over a forcing 2NT than it is to bid 4♦ over 3NT.
Current club championship standings
|
|
Gold Cup = Best 30 |
Silver Plate = Best 10 |
Bronze Medal = Best 5 |
|
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 |
1780.0 Janne Roos |
639.8 Per Andersson |
332.2 Per Andersson |
Bidding Quiz Answers
Hand A: Double, negative. In my style this shows 4 ♥’s, others play it as showing the two unbid suits. Either way this bid
is perfect. Note that this is a poor 8 count, but still easily more than enough
for the bid.
Hand B: 3♣, show your power and shape. 3♠ would be forcing
but it’s a poor choice when 3NT is very likely to be the best contract.
Bidding Sequence Quiz Answers
C 1♣ 1♠ dbl You
only need about 6+ points for this negative double. This is because you are not
forcing partner to the two level (he can bid 1NT), and if he does bid at the
two level you can pass.
D pass 1♥ pass 2♥ What
sort of hand does the 3♠ bid show? – I’m sorry, but I
pass pass dbl pass cannot envisage the
hand. Partner has balanced in the pass-out
2♠ 3♥ pass pass seat and succeeded
in pushing them up. This 3♠ bid is what I
3♠ call ‘hanging partner’ – he is
bidding your hand and has succeeded in pushing them up a level.
E 1♠ pass 2NT pass RKCB here is for ♠’s, the agreed trump suit. The key suit is the
3♦ pass 4NT last bid suit only if
no trump suit has been agreed. Note that I don’t really like jumping into RKCB,
I don’t know responder’s hand but it’s usually best to initiate a cuebid
sequence after the shortage bid before using RKCB.