Category Archives: Exercises: It’s Your Call

Value of a preempt

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Preempts are meant to disrupt opponents communications with enough tricks in hand to prevent disaster. A good example occurred yesterday. Here is your hand vulnerable vs  not vulnerable:

preempt1

When you preempt it’s necessary to count your tricks. When vulnerable you want to be within 3 tricks of making your bid, within 4 tricks when not vulnerable. It looks like you have 4 tricks in spades and one and one-half in diamonds for five and one-half tricks. That’s too few vulnerable to bid three spades. Open the hand two spades, and you are within the requisite margin of safety. The only downside is that your partner is likely to lead an unhelpful spade if LHO buys the contract.

Bottom line when preempting with a weak hand: count tricks rather than points, and stay within the margin of safety (three tricks vul, four tricks not vul).

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A Competitive Auction

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You pass in 1st seat holding this weak hand (unfavorable vul).

Oct6c

LHO passes, partner opens one diamond in 3rd seat, RHO passes, and you respond one spade. LHO now overcalls two clubs, partner rebids two diamonds, and RHO bids three clubs. It’s your turn. Bidding summary:

Oct6d

What do you do?

You sure hate to miss a possible heart fit. But your shortness in diamonds suggests a worrisome misfit. Should you go ahead and venture a bid of three hearts? If you do partner will know that you are at least 5-4 in the majors.

You have three clubs, so inference is that partner is short in clubs. Partner has promised at least six diamonds. Holding one club and six diamonds, partner has room for six cards in the majors. With that reasonable likelihood, it’s a good idea for you to compete with three hearts.

 

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Preempts by Responder

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Your partner opens the bidding one diamond in 3rd seat. RHO passes. What do you do with this hand?

unit3

Before you answer, tell me the minimum number of hearts that are held by the opponents. If you answered nine hearts minimum, good for you. You’ve used the following clues:

  • Partner has at most four hearts (partner would have opened one heart with five).
  • You are void.
  • 13 hearts minus the maximum of four hearts on your side leaves the opponents with a minimum of nine hearts on their side.

Do you think it would be a good idea to impede their ability to find their heart fit?

You can do this is with a preemptive raise to three diamonds. 90 percent of the time your partner will have opened with four or more diamonds. This jump raise is known as an “inverted minor raise.” On your convention card you and parter agree to switch the meanings of the simple raise and the jump raise. By making the jump (rather than the single) raise, opponents will be hard pressed to find their heart fit at the three level.

Here is what your convention card looks like when you and partner agree to play inverted minors:

inverted minor

Note that the double raise is weak and alertable. Also, the alertable single raise shows 10+HCP and no four card major.

Usually the double raise promises at least 5-card support for the opened minor, so it’s a bit riskier if you do it with only four. When the suit is diamonds you will end up with having an 8-card fit or better 90 percent of the time. I would roll the dice on this example and jump to three diamonds.

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Handling Interference

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Update Below

Lot’s of interesting hands in today’s Unit Game. Here is one for you:

unit1

You are in 4th seat (favorable vul), and your partner opens one diamond. RHO overcalls two spades. What is your call?

First, how good is your hand in context of the auction so far? Singleton spade is a nice feature. You have three card support for partner’s suit, including two honors. You have five clubs, including King-Queen touching honors. I suggest it’s worth 11 or 12 points. Don’t you think you should bid? If so, what’s your call?

My recommendation tomorrow.

My recommendation: This is a perfect hand for a negative double. You promise at least four hearts and have clubs. Also, you would be happy if partner rebids her diamond suit.

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Balancing in Direct Seat

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In 2nd seat (none vul.) you hold:

balance1

RHO opens the bidding one club, taking away your opening bid. You wisely (in my view) decide to pass and await developments. LHO responds one heart, partner passes and RHO raises to two hearts. It’s your turn. Is it time for you to come into the auction? If so, what’s your bid?

It sounds like the opponents have found a heart fit of at least eight cards. That means your partner will have at most a doubleton in hearts, leaving at least 11 spaces in partner’s hand that can contain spades. Mike Lawrence gaves us the insight that you likely have a spade fit (because of the distributional value implied by your three little hearts!). You should pre-balance by bidding two spades. You likely have a fit, you’re only at the two level, and your high cards in the minors look like they are working.

Here is an earlier post in which I did not quite satisfy the logic for balancing in direct seat.

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Good Bid, Partner!

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I was sitting South and opened this minimum hand one heart in 1st seat:

good bid

Opponents were silent. My partner responded two clubs and my rebid was two diamonds.

Partner then jumped to three hearts, showing 3-card heart support and a slam invitational hand. My next bid was four hearts with my minimum.

Partner was still interested in slam and bid 4NT (Roman Keycard Blackwood 14-30). I bid five spades showing two key cards plus the trump queen. Partner then put me in a contract of six hearts.

Left hand opponent led the ace of spades and this was my dummy:

my dummy

Recall my hand:

good bid

At trick two LHO made the excellent shift to the seven of clubs. Should I play her for the king of clubs? She is putting me to an early guess! I decided I cannot make the contract without finessing for the king of clubs, so I put in the queen and it won. From there it was a matter of setting up dummy’s clubs for a diamond pitch or two (being careful not to get overruffed).

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Standard Use of a Cue Bid

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Your partner opens the bidding with one spade in 2nd seat. Right hand opponent interferes with a Michaels cue bid of two spades (showing at least 5-5 in hearts and an unknown minor). You hold:

bid3

You have a nice spade raise, but the overcall has robbed you of bidding space (a nice feature of Michaels). How are you going to cope? You could bid three spades or three diamonds.

Instead I suggest you cue bid three hearts (hearts is RHO’s known suit). By doing that, you convey to opener that you have trump support and at least the values for a limit raise.

Bottom line: Cue bid of an opponent’s overcalled suit promises an invitational raise or better in your partner’s opened suit (usually a major). Since it has become standard practice for most players, the cue bid is not alertable in this situation. Notice also that it reserves the direct raise to three of partner’s major to show eight to a bad 10 points — very helpful to partner in deciding whether to press on to game.

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It’s Your Call

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You are in 4th seat (vul vs not vul) and player on your right opens one Spade. What action are you going to take with this unbalanced hand?

bid2

You could pass, but that doesn’t seem right with all that playing strength (those little spot cards are going to take tricks in a minor suit contract). You could overcall two diamonds, planning to bid clubs at your next turn. That’s what I did.

Also, I could have made an unusual notrump overcall of 2NT, promiising at least 5-5 in the minors (two lower unbid suits). What would you do?

I will follow up on this problem tomorrow.

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What’s Your Call?

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You are in 4th seat (both vul) and player on your right opens one club! What action are you going to take with this nice hand?

bid1

It sure looks like passing is a bad idea this time. But a double will surely elicit an advance in hearts, and that’s not what you want to hear. You cannot overcall two clubs, because partner would interpret that as Michaels. How about an overcall in one of your two 4-card suits?

Rate the following alternatives for your action:

  1. Make an overcall of one diamond
  2. Make an overcall of one spade
  3. Make a takeout double
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Yesterday’s Game and Lesson

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Hi, all:

We had another fun discussion of opening bids at yesterday’s lesson. I follow that up here with a post mortem on the game itself. It’s all about opening bids. Enjoy.

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Four Hands on Bidding

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See my updates for each hand below

Here are four hands from Sunday. 1st hand is from board 11:

You are South as dealer and pick up this hand with only 4 points, but it has 11 cards in the majors!

south11

You pass, hoping that partner has something.

The bidding goes:

bid11

How do you plan to advance your side of the auction from here?

Harry’s recommendation: your diamond void is a nice feature. Plan on bidding your majors in natural order, meaning the longer suit (hearts) first. A four point hand suddenly looks like a game force.

2nd hand is from board 16:

As dealer (vul. vs nonvul.) you pick up the following hand:

south16

You and partner are playing preemptive weak twos in the 5-10 HCP range. What is your call?

Harry’s recommendation: It looks overly optimistic to think your spade suit is going to provide the necessary 4 tricks vulnerable.  Pass!

3rd hand is from board 22:

Your right-hand opponent deals and opens the bidding one heart. What is your call holding?

hand22

Harry’s recommendation: Overcall one Spade. This hand is too good to pass, and your three little hearts make it more likely that partner will have a fit for you in spades. (HT: Mike Lawrence)

4th hand is from board 24:

As dealer you open the bidding one heart (none vul.) holding:

hand24

After two passes, right-hand opponent overcalls two clubs. You know your partner has fewer than six points. What do you say next to describe your huge hand?

Harry’s recommendation: Two alternatives here. With some of my partners I would cue bid three clubs. With others (who prefer to “bid where you live”) I would jump to three hearts to describe my big hand.

 

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Another bidding problem from Sunday

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See update below

Your partner opens the bidding one diamond in second seat. RHO passes and you respond one heart holding:

hand11

Partner’s rebid is two clubs and it’s back to you. Don’t you have a game forcing hand with your nice 14 points? Your call?

Please respond in the comments. I will post my recommendation Wednesday evening.

Update: This is a perfect example of the opportunity to use 4th suit forcing to game. Bid two spades. Partners next bid should help guide you to the right spot.

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Bidding problem

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Here is an interesting bidding situation from Sunday.

Your hand:

bid1

Your partner opens one heart in second seat. RHO overcalls two spades! What do you do? Give it a little thought before you scroll down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pass! You have a misfit with partner, and opponents are in trouble. This situation is similar to our earlier discussion here. Jim Cheney will be happy that you are waiting for partner to make a reopening double.

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It’s Your Call

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You are West and open the bidding with one heart (both vul). Here is your hand:

West hand

LHO (North) overcalls one spade, partner passes, and South (LHO) passes. Summary of bidding so far:

west bidding

It’s often a good idea to double in this situation, because partner may have made a trap pass with a good hand and good spades. In fact, Jim Cheney says, “it’s automatic”. You will never lose the heart suit unless partner passes your double for penalty.

However, you have a strong hand containing seven hearts. You would have to set the opponents down three for +800 to do better than your vulnerable game in hearts for +620. But if you can only make +140 part score in hearts, you would do better setting the opponents down one (+200) or down two (+500).

Is it best to rebid your hearts? If so, at what level? Or is it best to double? Your hand is too good to pass, so what is your bid? Double? Two hearts? Three hears? Four hearts?

Your thoughts in the comments, please.

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It’s Your Call

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See update below. You are sitting South (both vulnerable). West opens the bidding with one club. Partner (North) overcalls one heart and East passes. You have a nice hand:

Done1

What is your call? Please give me your thoughts in the comments.

Update: You have an opening hand and a known heart fit. Best is to bid two clubs showing your limit raise or better. Yes, you may also have a spade fit, but no reason to give the opponents additional information.

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Misbid these hands with me

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We had another fun discussion in yesterday morning’s lesson. Subject was the reasoning that led to two of my bidding errors from Sunday:

Exercise 1. It’s Your Call:

You are the dealer (favorable vulnerability) and open the bidding one diamond. LHO passes and your partner responds one spade. RHO passes and it’s your turn. Bidding so far:

error1

Here is the your hand (the hand I held):

error1a

 

How good is your hand in view of partner’s response? And what is your rebid? Give it some thought before scrolling down to read my reasoning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My thinking was that partner must have five spades. Why? There are 13 missing hearts in the other three hands, and partner would have responded one heart with 4-4 in the majors. But holding five spades and four hearts, partner would respond one spade. And partner would also respond one spade with 5-5 shape in the majors. Since opponents were silent at their first turn (did not overcall or preempt in hearts), I concluded there was an odds-on likelihood that partner had five or more spades. With the presumed 8-card or better spade fit and my big hand, I invited game in spades by leaping to three spades.

That was a mistake. “Odds-on” does not mean it’s a sure thing. I failed to allow for the possibility that partner held only four spades. Much better would have been to show my invitational hand by leaping to three diamonds. We could still find an 8-card spade fit (or better) as the auction progressed from there. There was no need for me to be in such a rush.

BTW, do you agree that my hand contained invitational values? How do you evaluate the hand?

Exercise 2. It’s Your Call:

Put yourself in my seat as West enjoying favorable vulnerability. North deals and opens the bidding one spade. East passes and South responds two spades. Bidding so far:

error2

Now it’s West’s turn. West holds:

error2a

The question is should you “balance in the direct seat”? That sounds contradictory (and it is), but it’s sometimes done when you deduce from the bidding that partner is unlikely to balance in the pass out seat. In this case you are worried that the bidding will die with North-South in two spades. Why are you worried?  You think they can make two spades, and you would like to push them up one level. But is it right to pre-balance with your hand by bidding three hearts at this point in the auction?

Give it some thought and then scroll down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made the mistake of bidding three hearts. It was way too aggressive without a known heart fit and much better hand, including decent strength in my 5-card heart suit. There is good guidance for balancing in direct seat on Wikipedia (looks like Larry Cohen probably authored most of it). You can prebalance at the two level if the auction in not higher than two hearts and you have a reasonable prospect of finding a fit. The link has a nice summary of when and why you should consider balancing.

 

 

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Exercises on Weak Twos and Responses

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Aloha, Bridge Players!

Here’s the second part of our August 14th bridge lesson, with a focus on Weak Two bidding.

First, you may be interested in reading some ACBL (that’s American Contract Bridge League) lessons about Weak Twos:

 

Exercise 3: It’s your call. Bidding so far:

20190814-3

You are South holding:

20190814-4

Your call?

Think of your answer before scrolling down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your partner has a weak hand, and you have a known 9-card fit in spades. Further the preempt by responding 3 spades. It’s unlikely that you have a game. You may or may not make 3 spades, but the idea is to make opponents decide at the 4-level! They have more strength than your side. Good job in making their bidding life difficult.

 

Exercise 4. It’s your call. Bidding so far:

wk 2 bid

You are dealer as North (not vulnerable) holding:

wk w open

Think of your answer before scrolling down:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You are weak and have the right kind of a spade suit to open the bidding 2 spades. The problem is that you also have 4 hearts. Experts generally recommend passing in 1st or 2nd seat when you hold four of the other major. Here you don’t want to miss a game in hearts. Shortness in the minor suits is a real feature if you discover a heart fit, and your long suit may enable you to discard losers when it sets up. If your partner is a passed hand, however, it’s a good idea in 3rd seat to make bidding life difficult for the opponent in 4th seat by opening 2 spades.

 

 

 

 

 

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Bidding and Declarer Play Exercises

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Aloha, Bridge Players!

We had a nice group at this week’s Hilo Bridge Club lesson and we had a thoughtful discussion. Today’s post summarizes the main lesson pointers that resulted from two parts of discussion.

Exercise 1: It’s your call. Bidding so far:

20190814-1

You are East holding:

20190814-2

What does West’s 2♥ bid mean? Your call?

Think of your answer before scrolling down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have you discussed this situation with your partner? Are systems on as if you had opened 1NT? Your partner is captain of the hand. If partner’s 2♥ bid is natural, she wants to play it there and you should pass. If it’s a transfer to spades, you should bid 2 spades and await developments. Here is relevant portion of a convention card the way I like to play it, with Systems On:

ConventionCardNTOvercalls

 

Exercise 2. Declarer Play: Plan South’s play at trick one in 4♠ after the following auction:

20190814-7

West’s opening lead is the 8♣. Your plan?

20190814-8

Think about your plan and play to trick one before scrolling down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How many losers do you have? Possible losers are 2 spades, 2 hearts and a diamond for a total of five. You need to reduce the number of losers to three. Think about the bidding. What kind of a hand does East have? How about West? Specifically, who has the king of spades, the king and queen of hearts, the ace of diamonds? I am sure you have figured that out, so I leave the solution as an exercise for the reader. But please let me know if you are still puzzled. 

 

 

Here’s a good link to the basics of counting losers in a suit contract.

BTW, do you like North-South’s bidding?

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August 7 Bridge Lesson Recap – More Exercises!

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Aloha, Bridge Players!

Yesterday we went over two bidding exercises that we covered in last week’s bridge lesson. Today it’s on to the second set of exercises for last week’s lesson.

Exercise 3: It’s Your Call. The bidding so far.

20190807-05a

You are North holding:

20190807-06

What is the meaning of your partner’s Double and what is your rebid? Think of your answer before scrolling down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your partner promises at least 6 points and at least 4 hearts. That is the minimum necessary for a takeout double at the one level. You have a huge hand, valuing at 22 points in context of the known fit. Bid four hearts.

Exercise 4: Declarer Play. Plan South’s play at trick one in 3NT after the following auction:

20190807-07b

*Fourth suit forcing

Opening lead is 3♦. Your play?

20190807-08

Think about your play to trick 1 before scrolling down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Count your tricks in NT contract.

  • It looks like you have nine for sure: 3 spades, one heart, one diamond, and one club.
  • If the spades break 3-3 you will have 12 tricks. But you are going to need that ace of hearts as an entry to your remaining clubs. Go up with the ace of diamonds at trick one and run your nine sure tricks.
  • The danger of ducking at trick one (often recommended for NT contracts) is that opponents may shift to a heart, giving you a problem with your entry to clubs later in the hand.

Tomorrow’s another Bridge Day at the HBC in Kea’au. I hope to see you there!

Harry

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Let’s Get Rolling! August 7th Bridge Lesson Recap

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Aloha, Bridge Players!

I’ve just returned from the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) Summer Bridge Championship in Las Vegas. I completed the educational requirements to be considered a qualified bridge teacher, and now I’m back to teaching my weekly class at the Hilo Bridge Club (HBC) which I’ll be recapping here on the HBC blog. So let’s get rolling!

Today we’ll have two exercises based on last Wednesday’s class, and tomorrow we’ll have two more.

Exercise 1: It’s Your Call. The bidding so far: ;

20190807-01a

You are South holding:

20190807-02

What is your bid? Think of your answer before scrolling down to see the answer.

 

 

 

 

This is an exercise in recognizing a negative double situation. You have 7 points in context of the auction so far (the overcall promotes your K♠ and you have touching honors in clubs). Make the negative double in hopes of finding a 4-4 heart fit.

Exercise 2: It’s Your Call. The bidding so far.

20190807-03a

 

You are South holding:

20190807-04

What is your bid? Think of your answer before scrolling down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You have a nice hand in the context of the bidding so far. Your spade holding behind the opener is worth more than 6 points. You have touching honors in the club suit. This hand is worth an opening bid. But is it worth an overcall? I would overcall 2♣. Some may prefer a better club suit and would decide to pass.

Do not make a takeout double! Takeout double implies that you have at least 4 hearts and shortness in spades. And your hand is not big enough to double and then bid clubs.

See you tomorrow for two more exercises!

Harry

 

 

 

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