S2000magic

Usually the opening leader will lead his longest suit, and if it's 5 cards or longer he may be able to set you if he can take all the long cards in that suit. In that case, LHO (left-hand opponent, the opening leader) is most likely the dangerous hand, and RHO (right-hand opponent) is the safe hand. You would like to hold up your stopper until the RHO is out of cards in LHO's suit. After that, if you have a choice which direction to finesse, you finesse toward RHO and through LHO; for example, if dummy has ♠ A J 6 4 and you hold ♠ K 10 7 3 you would take your ♠K, then lead toward dummy, planning to finesse the ♠J. Sometimes, it's more complicated, usually when you cannot afford to hold up. Let's say that you're in 3NT, LHO opens the ♥6, dummy has ♥ 9 8 4 and you hold ♥ K J 3. You play the ♥9 from dummy, RHO plays the ♥10, and you win the ♥J. Now, RHO is the dangerous hand: if he wins a trick, he might lead a heart through your ♥ K 3 to LHO's (presumed) ♥ A Q x x, and you'll lose four more heart tricks. But LHO is the safe hand: if he wins a trick he has to lead a different suit or else let you win the ♥K. (If LHO leads hearts, your ♥K is safe no matter who holds the ♥A.) In this case, with the spades shown above, you would lead low to the ♠A, then finesse the ♠10, making sure that RHO cannot gain the lead. On each hand, you should ask yourself, "If RHO wins a trick, can he make a lead that will hurt me? If LHO wins a trick, can he make a lead that will hurt me?" If the answer to either question is, "No," then you play so that only that safe opponent can win a trick, and his dangerous partner cannot. Sometimes you don't have a choice. If you're missing an ace in a suit you have to establish, then all you can do is hold up as long as you can in LHO's long suit, then lead from the suit you want to establish and hope that RHO has the A. If so, you're fine; if not, LHO will win the A and take his long card tricks - Oh, well! Here are two simple hands, playing in 3NT: Dummy ♠ A J 6 4 ♥ 9 8 4 ♦ A Q 3 ♣ K 5 4 Declarer ♠ K 10 7 3 ♥ A 7 3 ♦ K 9 2 ♣ A 9 8 LHO opens ♥5, dummy plays ♥8, RHO ♥10, and declarer ♥3. If the opponent's hearts are 4-3, you're OK: you can lose 3 heart tricks and the ♠Q and still win 9 tricks. If they're 5-2, you could lose 4 heart tricks and the ♠Q, so you hold up your ♥A. RHO returns the ♥7 and now you can win your ♥A; if the hearts are 5-2, RHO is now out of hearts. LHO is dangerous, RHO is safe. You take the ♠K and finesse the ♠J. If it wins, you have 9 tricks (and 10 if the spades split 3-2); if it loses, you still have 9 tricks (3 spades, 1 heart, 3 diamonds, 2 clubs). If RHO has another heart to lead, you'll lose at most the ♠Q and 3 heart tricks. Dummy ♠ A J 6 4 ♥ 9 8 4 ♦ A Q 3 ♣ K 5 4 Declarer ♠ K 10 7 3 ♥ K J 3 ♦ K 9 2 ♣ A 9 8 LHO opens ♥5, dummy plays ♥8, RHO ♥10, and declarer ♥J. Here, you cannot afford to hold up, because RHO could lead through your ♥ K J to LHO's (possible) ♥ A Q x x. This time, RHO is dangerous, and LHO is safe. You take the ♠A and finesse the ♠10. If it wins, you have 9 tricks (and 10 if the spades split 3-2); if it loses, you still have 9 tricks (3 spades, 1 heart, 3 diamonds, 2 clubs). If LHO leads another heart, you'll win your ♥K.

MPs, solid partner, W v R, RHO deals and you hold: ♠ 9 7 ♥ 9 6 3 ♦ A J 5 2 ♣ K 10 7 5 The bidding: (P) - P - (1♥) - P (1♠) - P - (2♣) - P (2♥) - P - (4♥) - P (P) - P Partner opens ♦10 (standard leads), and dummy puts down: ♠ A J 6 5 ♥ 10 4 ♦ 8 7 6 4 3 ♣ J 8 Dummy follows with the ♦3, you win the ♦A, declarer drops the ♦K. Where do you go from here?

MPs, W v W, strong partner, opponents listed as Experts, LHO deals and you hold: ♠ A J 10 8 6 ♥ J 10 4 ♦ 9 8 7 2 ♣ 2 The bidding so far: (1♠) - 2♦ - (Dbl) - 3♦ (3♥) - 4♦ - (P) - ? Do you bid game, or leave it in 4♦? How close is the decision?

MPs, W v W, solid partner, unknown opponents, RHO deals, and you hold: ♠ K 7 6 ♥ A Q 8 3 2 ♦ 10 2 ♣ J 8 3 The bidding is: (P) - P - (1♦) - P (1♠) - P - (2♦) - P (P) - ? So, do you balance with 2♥, pass it out, or try something else? Is it close, or is it obvious?

I respectfully disagree with you. Beginners can bid this slam without the aid of splinters, and to do so will help sharpen their "bridge thinking". What opener should have done was to consider that slam was possible even if responder had a minimum, and likely if responder had a bit more than a minimum. I agree wholeheartedly. Alas, I had neither choice: partner was opener. I would agree with you that those would have been sinsible options if I had been opener and partner responder, although I'd probably have bid 3♦, then 4NT over whatever partner bid (I hope 3♥ in this case).

Wouldn't be the first time.

I'd be inclined to bid 4♥: if partner has as little as 2 small hearts and the ♣K or ♦K we'll make game (barring a 5-1 heart split). That doesn't seem too far a stretch: with 8 hearts out his fair share is 2-2/3, and even if his only honor is, say, the ♠A we still make it if the opening lead is a spade (not everyone leads partner's minor suit). Furthermore, I wouldn't expect partner to raise 3♥ to 4♥ holding only 2 small hearts and the ♣K or ♦K .

Oops. ;)

Got it. (You switched seats there; it took me a moment to catch up.) So, opener's 4♦ guarantees heart support? (Remember, it's not a splinter.)

If you're bidding 4NT after 4♦, why not bid 4NT directly? What will you learn by allowing responder to bid 4♥ or 4♠?

That's a pretty good 6♥: the ♥QJ will fall 78% of the time; only 22% of the time will trumps split 3-0.

4♦ meaning . . . what, exactly? And what do you see as the continuation to 6♥?

To the partner I had on Monday, that sequence doesn't mean anything: he would never bid 4♦ in that situation. If your point is that this is a silly set of circumstances, I would agree if the opening bidder were an experienced player, but disagree if the opening bidder were a beginner. Please assume that he is a beginner. That's your choice to make, of course. It's fortunate for beginning players that there are experienced players who are willing to partner with them despite their shortcomings. This partner is quite good enough to decipher that on reflection; that's different from being able to come up with an appropriate bid on the fly, and worlds different from concluding that the jump cuebid shows a singleton, especially when we explicitly chose not to play splinters.

This principle is quite valuable when opening the bidding with one-of-a-suit, or responding to a one-of-a-suit opening, because there is the possibility that your partner will be short in one or both of your suits, and you want to make it as easy as possible to find a playable trump suit. When partner has shown a balanced hand (as with a 1NT opening bid), this principle is much less valuable, because you are (essentially) assured of a fit for one of your suits. Lesh's idea of responding 3♥ to a 1NT opener with a game-forcing 5-5 in the majors is sound. If opener has 3+ ♥, he will raise to 4♥. If opener has only 2 ♥, he can bid 2♠ with 3+ ♠, and responder can raise to 4♠ (or bid 3NT if he decides to). If opener is 2-2 in the majors (unlikely, but not impossible), he can rebid 3NT, whereupon responder can decide whether he wants to play in 3NT, or 4-of-a-major on a known 5-2 fit. If responder starts with 3♠, and opener bids 4♠, responder cannot choose to play in 3NT; if opener rebids 3NT, responder risks bidding 4♥ and finding opener with 2-2 in the majors. These are rare occurrences, but Lesh's approach can handle them at essentially no cost.

Notice that I referred to him as the local expert, not my local expert; the wording wasn't chosen arbitrarily. ;) That's fine if your partnership employs splinters (which, of course, I would have preferred). Alas, ours didn't.

North's hand is worth one bid; he shot his bolt with 1♥. He should pass 3♣. A 2NT rebid by South describes his strength and spread-out honors accurately, and his distribution somewhat accurately, but the problem with it is exactly what we see on this hand: no way to get to dummy because of the honor doubletons in the red suits. Because of that, I think that 3♣ is a better rebid than 2NT.

I agree: this looks like a 1♥ opener to me.

You're a physic! ;)

I think that the key to this hand is that it is worth only one response, so a raise to 2♥ is perfect. Strengthen it a bit, to, say, ♠ A J 9 8 7 ♥ Q 6 5 ♦ 5 4 ♣ A 7 6 and it's worth two responses (without forcing to game); 1♠ followed by 3♥ (or, perhaps, 2NT, if opener rebids 2♦) would be appropriate.

I agree that it's too strong to splinter, and that without the interference I'd jump to 2♠ then hope to jump to 4♥. I also agree that 3♦ now doesn't imply a heart fit. As it is, however, is opener's (non-jump) 2♠ forcing?

No, alas. This partner is fairly good, but it will take a while for him to learn to use splinters. (Amongst other problems, I'm the only partner of his who seems to know about them, so he has the difficulty of keeping different sets of agreements straight.) Yup. They do; however, none of them were my partner on this hand. The expert to whom I referred is one whose opinion we asked during a break between rounds.

Standard American, no splinters, basic RKCB. Opener holds: ♠ A Q 10 2 ♥ A K 6 2 ♦ 2 ♣ K Q 9 8 Responder holds: ♠ 9 4 ♥ Q 10 9 8 7 4 ♦ Q 8 3 ♣ A 7 The bidding starts: 1♣ - (P) - 1♥ - 2♦ ? How do you continue to 6♥? (For what it's worth, the local club expert said that if opener cuebids 3♦ now, responder should assume a heart fit.)

This is an interesting coincidence: I was playing Monday evening with a semi-regular partner about whose experience I'm learning bit-by-bit. After this auction by the opponents: 1♣ - 1♥ - 1NT - 3NT I held ♥ A K J 6 2 and some other bits behind the incipient dummy, but didn't double because I wasn't sure that partner would have taken it as lead-directing. It turns out he would have, and the heart lead would have set 3NT; it made without the heart lead.

I was about to say the ♥J, but the idea of keeping a guard against a possible squeeze is intriguing. Oh, well! LHO bid hearts and I'm not going to get the lead again, so . . . caution to the wind: ♥J.

Another possibility would be a hand where you would have liked to have opened 5♥ as a preempt (but opened only 4♥ because a 5♥ opening isn't a preempt), but which has a reasonable amount of defense against 4♠. In that case, the auction could go: 4♥ - (4♠) - Pass - (Pass) Dbl. Partner can sit for the double if he's OK with defending, and can pull to 5♥ if he's not.