Mentoring session report and update

[paulg]

Following my 2-hour marathon session yesterday, I have posted the hands - originals and what happened when we played them - on a web page I've developed at:

 

http://www.pooh-corner.demon.co.uk/paul/bbo/

 

All feedback is welcome, either directly to me or to Maureen (hallway). We already know that 2 hours is too long, so future sessions will be limited to 60 minutes.

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In terms of the items that came up last night, I think there were two comments that I would highlight that have a major impact on bidding "style".

 

Both of these points seek to help solve the problem of defining opener's hand better in terms of strength. One of the big problems in bidding is when both hands have reasonable values but neither has been able to show whether they are minimum, maximum or somewhere in between. These two points help to do that.

 

1) Balanced hands should either open or rebid notrumps (if no big fit)

 

There are two consequences that I can think of playing this style:

 

a) Opener's rebid

 

With a hand such as AT98 32 AK3 QJ32, having opened 1C and partner responds 1H, you rebid 1NT to show 12-14 balanced rather than showing your 4-card spade suit.

 

With a hand such as AQ2 K543 K32 QJ2, having opened 1C you will rebid 1NT over a 1D response.

 

The consequence of this is that if opener does rebid a major you must have an unbalanced hand! So after a 1C opener, and a 1H response, if opener rebids 1S then he must have 4+ spades and 5+ clubs unless he holds precisely 4144 hand. For example a 4225 hand. If this is not clear, then try and find a hand that doesn't hold this shape and think how you would bid it.

 

B) Responder's initial bid

 

So if opener is going to bypass a 4-card major when balanced, then the responder needs to bear this in mind with his initial response. For example, suppose opener opens 1C, what do you think you should respond with the following hands:

 

A: KQ32 T9 Q9542 65

 

B: KQ32 T9 AKQ32 65

 

C: KQ32 K432 43 432

 

D: AJ432 KQ43 32 32

 

Maybe we should have a poll as many experts would have different opinions :)

 

2) The other highlight was opener's rebids after the auction started 1D-2C

 

I said that you need extra values to introduce a 4-card major at this point. Again this helps to limit the hand, so your options over 1D-2C are:

 

2D - minimum, no extra values, not a balanced minimum

2H/S - natural, 4+ card suit, not balanced (as in point (1)), extra values

2NT - 12-14 balanced

3C - natural raise, non-forcing

3D - natural, good single-suited hand, forcing

3H/S - what do you think?

3NT - 18-19 balanced

 

The 2H/S bids here are known as a reverse. There are more examples, including the 1D-1NT-2H auction we had, at

 

http://www.prairienet.org/bridge/rev.htm

 

Best wishes,

 

Paul

[luis]

1) :-)) hehe, your first point it's funny, seems like you are not aware of the zillion posts we've posted and read about this subject. I guess the Walshians vrs notWalshians debate will just start over again after this post :-). I'm not good at driving directions but I'm sure Ben will post a list of links to other threads where this has been discussed with a lot, sometimes too much, detail.

 

2) The 1d-2c auction is unfriendly in SAYC that's why I strongly advocate to play 1d-2c as game forcing with Kokish responses. Even if you don't play 2/1 it won't hurt to play 1d-2c as forcing to game.

Kokish responses after 1d-2c (gf) are:

2d = 5+ diamonds, mandatory rebid with 5+ diamonds can have 4M

2M = 4 cards and then 4 diamonds, balanced hand

3c = 4 card support

2N = none of the above, so 3343 exactly

 

This sequences simplify a lot the auction so I really recommend the treatment to intermediate players that can agree to play this with their pds.

[easy]

1) :-)) hehe, your first point it's funny, seems like you are not aware of the zillion posts we've posted and read about this subject. I guess the Walshians vrs notWalshians debate will just start over again after this post :-). I'm not good at driving directions but I'm sure Ben will post a list of links to other threads where this has been discussed with a lot, sometimes too much, detail.

 

2) The 1d-2c auction is unfriendly in SAYC that's why I strongly advocate to play 1d-2c as game forcing with Kokish responses. Even if you don't play 2/1 it won't hurt to play 1d-2c as forcing to game.

Kokish responses after 1d-2c (gf) are:

2d = 5+ diamonds, mandatory rebid with 5+ diamonds can have 4M

2M = 4 cards and then 4 diamonds, balanced hand

3c = 4 card support

2N = none of the above, so 3343 exactly

 

This sequences simplify a lot the auction so I really recommend the treatment to intermediate players that can agree to play this with their pds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

as i understand it kokish is slightly different than as described above

 

1d 2c

2d 5+ diamonds may hold a 4 card major

2H 4-4-4-1

2S Big club raise

2n balanced minimum

3C bad club raise

3D Solid diamond suit

3M splinter for clubs

3n balanced 18-19

 

 

Comments anyone?

[flytoox]

yes, i think easy is correct in pointing out 2h after 1d-2c shows 4441 hand. This can be found in the workbook on 2/1 by lawrence. He also discussed the ad and disadvantage of playing 1d-2c as gf. I personally prefer to play it as invitational only. Rebid of responder should be able to tell it is gf or invitational only.