"Bob's Lesson notes and Other Ramblings"

[bobh2]

*********Comments on opening 1NT**************

 

I know we all think we know what a 1NT bid looks like, but maybe we ought do some thinking about that. Below are some thoughts about what kind of hands fit into that "box" and some that don't.

 

First, assuming standard, we are playing a 15-17 opening 1NT range.

 

(an aside: there are a lot of hands that standard bidding is geared to this range. A jump rebid is that exact range. A jump raise of a response is that exact range. The reason why these semi-power bids have that exact range is that that exact range is hard to deal with. I guess I would call that range a "lesser" power bid, and reverses or jump shifts "big power bids". You might think of these bids as an opening hand with about a King better than a normal opener. )

 

Second, we need to talk about patterns for the opening 1NT.

 

The "no-brainer" patterns are 4333 and 4432. There is only one posssible exception to either of these and I'll cover it in "Exceptions" below. So, 15-17 and those patterns, with one possible exception, open 1NT. If your agreements are in place, pard has an easy time. Bidding over an opening nt is "bread-and-butter" bidding and should never come unwound.

 

Other patterns are more open to question. The first thing we ought to do is understand that an opening nt implies some sort of "balanced hand" and some hands are semi-balanced, and we ought to discuss those to see if they fit in that box.

 

The next most balanced hand is the 5332 pattern. This is easy if the 5 card suit is a minor, just shut your eyes and open 1NT with 15-17. Again, pard should have no problem bidding his hand opposite this. The problem comes when the 5 card suit is a major. A common question: "Should I open with the major or with 1NT?" This is one of those bridge questions that can get a good arguement started at the pub after the game. Many people will take either side and give you a ton of reasons why they are right. Here's my thinking: If you have a 5332 pattern with spades, you can easily open 1S and over 1n, bid 2n to define this. Over a 2/1, you can raise or bid 3NT with ease. No real problem on the rebid. So, I recommend that a 5332 pattern with 5 spades be opened 1S. Hearts are simply different. The same thing works, over a 1N response, you could bid 2N, and over a 2/1, you could raise or bid 3N. All the same. What is different is if you open 1H and pard responds 1S. You cannot rebid 1N....that shows 12-14. It seems silly to rebid a 3 card suit...I just won't do it. You are a heart short to jump rebid. You cannot bid 2N...that shows 18-19. The point is, you don't have any bid over 1H-p-1S-p-? that makes any sense whatsoever. To avoid this trap, I open 1NT on 5332 patterns when the 5 card suit is hearts. This is as good of a solution for as good a reason as I know.

 

The next most balanced hand is a 5422 pattern. This exact pattern is called "the stepchild" pattern, because it can be a suit hand or a nt hand. No certain home (thus "stepchild). When should you open this 1NT and when not? Here are my recommendations:

1. When the 5 card suit is a major, bid it as a suit hand, regardless of the relative strengths of the suits.

2. When the 5 card suit is a minor, look at the location of the high cards. If a majority of your high card points are in the suits, this hand will bid and play better as a "suit" hand, but if about half of your values are in the doubletons, it will bid (and probably play) better as a NT hand. Think about it this way, if your doubletons are weak, your suits will be strong and probably will do better bid as a suit hand.

 

This is certainly open to debate, but I have been doing this for a long, long time and cannot remember when it got me in trouble.

 

The next most balanced hand is 6322. If the defination of "balanced" is not having a singleton or void, this qualifies. The good news is that if you have a very good 6 card suit, you can jump rebid it and pard will know what's up. The bad news is when your 6 card suit isn't very good but you have a bunch of points, say, 15-17. No matter what happens (stayman, transfer), your pard shouldn't be upset since you do have at least two in every suit and your points are within the 15-17 "box". He'd be a lot more upset if you jump rebid a cheesy suit and he bid to a slam that got beat by trump honors. I would open 1NT on this pattern if my 6 card suit isn't close to solid.

 

The only other "balanced hand" is a 7222 pattern, and no, not a good idea to open that 1N. Yes, I would be tempted if I had this hand....Kx Kx AQxxxxx Kx. If you open that 1N and it turns out wrong, your pard will complain for a month.

 

There are a couple of "odd" situations we ought to address, just to cover all the bases:

 

This hand: AQxx KQxx Axx xx.

I have an opinion, and I am not sure what percentage of the expert community shares it with me. So, just assume this is my opinion, not necessarily "middle-of-the-road" standard. I think this hand is so major oriented that opening 1N is not best. If pard has either 4333 (which he will not bid stayman on), or a 4432 pattern with not enough points to move, you miss the 4-4 major fit when you should be playing it, enough that opening 1NT is, on the long haul, counterproductive. Just my opinion.

 

The other "odd" situation concerns opening 1N with a stiff A or stiff K. This stirs up the discussion pot a lot, it seems. There was a big debate in the Forums about this, and the point was made that Bob Hamman (if you don't know who he is, you might ought to read some on the history of bridge...If I remember right, Bob held the #1 world ranking longer than any other player in history) has been known to do it on a stiff K and so have a lot of other players a lot better than I. Maybe this is a thing you have to think about and make up your mind if there are times when you should do it, a reasonable position, or maybe you should make up your mind that it will always make you uncomfortable and just not do it. It's always a little uncomfortable to me to take a position counter to players of that level, but I am uncomfortable with that and I dont' think I'll ever be, so for me, I just won't do it. Moreover, for my students, I feel even more strongly that you shouldn't, either. I think us mortals should perhaps rein in our creativity and try to keep pard comfortable as well as ourselves.

 

Last comment:

 

All of you know I try to teach you to bid on "evaluated points". What you will find is that high card point count is very accurate in NT bidding. Of course, more controls compared to having your points in Q's and J's is a factor, but that factor lessens if playing NT. That's a real big thing in suit bidding. There is one common thing that does make a re-evaluation necessary, perhaps. That is the presence of a 5 card suit. Point count cannot properly evaluate that, so I suggest that if you have 17 good working points and a pretty decent suit, your best evaluation might be a point up, and bid that hand like an 18-19 point hand. I think you'll find that, if you do, the accuracy will increase enough to be noticable. The same thing applies to a 14 high card point hand with a 5 card suit. If your hand is a "super" 14 and has a 5 card suit, open it 1NT. It will play like a 15-16 point hand.

 

Since we are discussing opening 1NT hand, perhaps a simple clarification might be a good thing. This has to do with what it takes to raise 1N to 2N. Here's my recommendations:

 

Raising 1N to 2N with flat hands and 8 highs is not a useful thing. This was taught when the norm for an opening 1N was 16-18, and nobody ever bothered to correct this in the beginning books, so everybody does it and wonders why they don't make those "tight" games. Let me point out....if pard has a 17 point hand with a pretty decent 5 card suit he wouldn't have opened 1N (see above). If he has 17 flat opposite your 8 flat, he is going to have to be lucky to make, I wouldn't bet on making. If he has 16 with a 5 card suit and accepts, you are working on 24 highs, and it's gonna be close. If he upgrades his 15 plus a 5 card suit, and you have 8, you are simply taking "the short end of the stick". Don't raise 1N to 2N on 8 flat. It is not productive in the long run.

 

9 high cards or 8 with a 5 card suit is a better invitational raise. It's still close, but now you are usually at worst a coin-flip. That is worth a shot.

 

9 with a 5 card suit is not an invitational hand. Jam it into game and see if pard can make it. Pard probably will, 75% of the time.

 

That's it for NT hands and their raises. See you next time.

 

Bob Holmes

 

******POST NO REPLIES, PLEASE....THIS IS NOT THE PLACE.....THIS IS FOR STUDENTS TO "QUICK READ" CONCEPTS....OR TO PICK UP NOTES FOR CLASSES/LECTURES....IF YOU WANT TO DEBATE...GRIN...ANY TIME! SEND ME AN EMAIL AT bob@spectrumpest.com OR FIND ME ON BBO...ALWAYS WILLING TO SET UP A CHAT ROOM, ROUND UP A GROUP OF STUDENTS AND GO AT IT! THE STUDENTS WILL PROFIT, REGARDLESS OF ANYTHING ELSE IF THEY LISTEN. IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION, SEE ME ON BBO.**************************

[bobh2]

************BIDDING MINORS OVER PARTNER'S OPENING 1N BID******************

 

This is one of the area of bidding that you can make as complicated as you have the capacity for memory-work and patience for. (The other primary area is "Responses over 2C Openers"). Eddie Kantar said that a bad agreement is better than no agreement at all, and I say that there is so much to learn about the bidding game that a functional, simple agreement is a ton better than blowing up hands because you cannot remember all the sequences you agreed on or havent had time to discuss. In the interest of just having a functional agreement, that will cover most of the minor hands, here is what I played for a long, long time and still do over the big nt openers. It is called MINOR SUIT STAYMAN, MSS, for short.

 

1. to sign off in a minor, bid stayman and then either pass the 2D response, or bid your minor at the 3 level.

2. to invite in a minor, with a good suit (two of the top three) but nothing else, jump to 3 of the minor. Example: xx xxx xx AQxxxx. Pard can pass, a playable spot (and has the added chance of ripping off the opponent's major partscore...heh, heh) or bid game with exactly one honor in your suit, all of the other suits stopped, including 3 outside tricks. Example: AKx Jt9x Axxx Kx ----open 1NT and over 3c, bid 3N.

3. with a 6 card minor and a little better hand, shut your eyes and bid 3N. Example: xx xxx xx AKJtxx. On the good days, you make those.

4. with a game forcing minor hand, a one-suiter or two-suiter, bid 2S. Opener will either bid 2N without a 4 card minor, or 3D or 3D with a 4- or 5-card minor.

 

This method does not handle 5+5+weak minor hands or the specific game-forcing pattern of (1345, 1354, 3145, 3145) well. There are methods that do, if you have time to discuss those methods and want to commit to the memory work. Having several decades experience using MSS, I can assure you, I never felt deprived not being able to bid these two types of hands pinpoint accurately. On the 5+5+ weak minor hands, just pass 1N. This is a danger hand anyway...if the opponents find out that they have a double major fit and all of the rest of the high cards, this might be one of those very rare hands where your side opens 1N and the opponents have a major game. If the opponents double your partner at 1N, run. The other hard-to-deal-with pattern, 3-1 in the majors, 5-4 in the minors, game forcing? With game strength only, shut your eyes and bid 3N. When slam is possible, bid 2S. If pard bids 2N, showing no 4 card minor, bid 3N and quit or 4N Quantitative. If pard bids a minor, move toward slam (see below). This recommendation will handle, reasonably accurately, about 95% of the hands that I don't think MSS handles well. This will work plenty good until you have the need for a notebook for your bidding system and a regular partner who you play with constantly. There is simply a limit on the need for pure science for normal people (those who are trying to play well, and reasonably accurately, compared to the "I-have-nothing-else-to-think-about-and-want-to-complicate-my-life" crowd, which line I personally, have been known to cross.

 

THE KEY TO THE MATTER:

 

A 2S, in response to an opening 1NT opener, says exactly:

 

I have a game forcing hand and am interested in either one minor or both minors.

 

Opener's responsibilities are simple: Bid 2N with no 4 or 5 card minor, or bid a 4 card minor at the 3 level. With both, just like stayman, bid 3c, the lower, first. With 54 in the minors (a rare 1N bid), bid the 5 card suit. This is easy, and that's all opener has to do.

 

Responder's next bid:

 

This is really all the memory work you have to do to use MSS. Simplified, responder's second bid will tell opener what kind of hand responder holds...either a one suiter or a two suiter. Responder merely bids his own minor, as cheaply as possible to define a one suiter. Very simple. If Responder has a two-suiter, over any response by opener, Responder bids his short major at the 3-level. Sorta like a splinter bid. That's all there is to the memory work. No, it does not matter what response opener made. Responder just takes one of those two actions. Nothing else.

 

What happens a lot is that opener bids 3N, because that looks right. Other times, opener Q bids. Other times opener does not Q bid, but raises to game. You see, opener and responder both, know the fit, and opener takes normal bridge action. (Q=I like my hand for controls, Raise, but no Q, I dont' like my hand much and I am worried about NT, or cheapest NT=I have stuff stopped). This is more complicated to write about than actually bid, so examples follow:

 

1N-2S-2N (no 4 or 5 card minor by opener)

 

1N-2S-3C (I have 4 or more clubs, maybe D, too)

 

1N-2S-3D (I have 4 or 5 D, but not clubs)

 

NEXT STEP:

 

1N-2S-2N-3C or 3D by responder (I have a game forcing 6-card minor and this is it)

 

1N-2S-2N-3H or 3S (I have a game forcing double minor hand, and I am short in the suit I just bid)

 

1N-2S-3C-4C (I have a game forcing Club hand and it's nice to hear you have 4 card support)

 

1N-2S-3C-3D (I have a game forcing Diamond hand, one suiter)

 

1N-2S-3C-3H (I have a game forcing 5+5+ minor hand, with a stiff heart, it seems we have a huge trump fit...how does my stiff heart sit with you?)

 

1N-2S-3D-4C (I have a big one-suiter in clubs)

 

NOTE: Every time, regardless of the second bid by opener, responder either showed the one-suiter by bidding the suit or the two suiter by bidding the short major. Every time. (And yes, if you have 5+5+ in two suits, you have to have a short suit)

 

At this point, both partners know what kind of hand responder has and have a good chance, using q bids with good hands, or slowing down by not q bidding, to arrive at a good level.

 

This is all there is to it. This set up takes the pain out of minor bidding over opening NT hands. My regular students will drill with me on this, I have hands already set up for this for the partnership bidding rooms. If you want practice this, see me on BBO.

 

Bob Holmes

 

******POST NO REPLIES, PLEASE....THIS IS NOT THE PLACE.....THIS IS FOR STUDENTS TO "QUICK READ" CONCEPTS....OR TO PICK UP NOTES FOR CLASSES/LECTURES....IF YOU WANT TO DEBATE...GRIN...ANY TIME! SEND ME AN EMAIL AT bob@spectrumpest.com OR FIND ME ON BBO...ALWAYS WILLING TO SET UP A CHAT ROOM, ROUND UP A GROUP OF STUDENTS AND GO AT IT! THE STUDENTS WILL PROFIT, REGARDLESS OF ANYTHING ELSE IF THEY LISTEN. IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION, SEE ME ON BBO.**************************

[bobh2]

******************DIRECT RAISES OF MAJOR OPENINGS****************************

by Bob Holmes

 

Assuming the object of what I work on (currently, anyway) is to bring bridge players from somewhere in the intermediate stage to a good solid advanced level, I keep putting these notes here. I honestly believe that if you play what I propose (along with good hand evaluation...dig through here, notes on that, too), you will find yourself bidding solidly and accurately in the areas I get to cover. Here are my recommendations concerning direct major raises...one of the "bread-and-butter" parts of bidding at bridge.

 

First, the ranges:

1Major-2Major=6-9 (essentially in high card points)

1Major-3Major=good 10-bad 12(essentially in high card points, but there are factors...)

1Major-? When you want to make a game forcing raise.

1. Splinter bids-game force

2.Jacoby 2N-game force

3. A good long side suit and game strength

 

The 6-9 Raise:

 

This is easy to define and game tries over this are worked in detail in another paper on this site...I suggest you read it. The 1-2 raise in a major is fairly simple...it promises at least 3 card support and at least 6 points at the bottom end. (Yes there is one exception I think is right, and that is if you have 3 card support and an Ace) Other than that, I strongly recommend having some discipline and passing with 4 or 5 points. On the top end, the maximium is 9 highs, with another exception. With a very balanced 10 points, and mostly in Queens and Jacks, I recommend downgrading that to count as 9 and bid 2 of the major, not a limit raise. (See the papers on hand evaluation).

 

The "good 10 to bad 12" Raise.

 

People play limit raises with different ranges, all along in here. I use this range and I think most do, because it accomodates what is a normal minimium opening bid....12-14. If you play a good 12 is the normal minimium, this range for a "limit raise" works well. As opener, if your partner bids, say 3S over your 1S opening bid, you pass only with a not shapely, minimium, and bid game with any excuse....a singleton, all control cards, 13 or 14 points...any excuse. If your partner is disciplined about having a good 10 to bad 12 for the bid and you pass if you have to, but bid game if there is a reason, you'll make a high percentage of these games. Limit raises are not much science...just good evaluation by both sides.

 

The "Game forcing Major Raises"

 

The idea here is to have all of the types of hands you might want to make a game forcing raise on covered. You will find that there are basically 3 types: one, a hand with a very short suit, 4 card support, and game going values, two, a flat hand with game going values and support, and three, a hand that contains a good 5 card side suit as well as support and game values. Every hand will fall into those three catagories, the hands you know you want to play game in partner's opened major.

 

So, let's explore them.

 

SPLINTER RAISES:

 

This is the simplest to define and to work with. Splinters get a lot more complex used in multi-bid auctions, but we are talking about direct and immediate major raises.

 

The technical defination of a splinter bid is "an unnecessary jump", "unnecessary" relating to the concept of being forcing. If you play strong jump shifts, an easy example, 1s-3d would be forcing, so 1s-4d is "unnecessary", therefore a splinter. As far as the direct bids over an opening major, you also could define it as a "double jump shift".

 

What it means is: "Partner, I have a game forcing hand, and the primary thing in my hand is that I have a short suit (the one I just bid) and I have enough trumps to ruff losers/score tricks here".

 

A classic example: Over a 1s opener: Axxx x KQxx Axxx Your partner opens 1S, pass, you bid 4H. Your partner can almost paint a picture of your hand. The thinking method to evaluate further is "THE THIRTY POINT DECK", and you will find how to use that in another paper I have written, concerning short suit game tries over 1s-2s. It's here posted, and you'll just have to poke around, but that method works with short suit game tries, and splinters, as well.

 

The only other thing I want to point out is: Again, people use various ranges for splinters. My thoughts are: Using the hand above....you have no idea if the short heart is helpful or harmful to your partner's hand. If not helpful, in order to go plus on this hand, you still are going to have to have a full opener to make game. If you restrict the bottom end of your splinter bids to being a full opener, you go plus even if the singleton/void is not real good, and you have to draw the bottom line somewhere so that partner can properly evaluate his hand. I suggest "A full opener, 4 card support, and the short suit is a bonus". Last thing: Is there a top limit on splinters? No. Your partner will cooperate or not, if you have a huge hand, you can now just start q bidding or keycard asking....so there is no reason to think you cannot use a splinter with a huge hand to glean information.

 

JACOBY 2NT: (The flat forcing raise)

 

Most of the game forcing raises of your partner's opened Major will be of this variety. It will look flattish (not singletons or voids) and won't have a good, long side suit. The "thrust" of this type of hand will be trump support and enough points to play in game. What you have just encountered is the classic Jacoby 2N bid. The mechanics are: 1Major-p-2N. This replaces the ancient natural 2N response which showed roughly 12-14 highs and denied support. I would estimate that in the US, virtually everybody but real system addicts play this bid, and due to online bridge and the heavy American influence, most of the rest of the world does too. As close as anything gets, Jacoby 2N seems to be "standard".

 

There are a set of responses that opener's hand falls into...the exact same kind of hands we are discussing in this paper. Flat hands, hands with a short suit, and hands with a good, long side suit. (I told you all hands, once a fit is established, can be defined this way). This means that opener is going to define his hand, and responder is essentially in control. Here are the opener's rebids that are in normal use today:

 

1. Opener rebids a good, long suit at the 4 level

2. Failing to have that, opener bids a short suit at the 3 level

3. if Opener has neither of those, meaning a semi-flat hand, he bids the following:

a. with a minimium, 4 of the Major

b. with 17 or more, 3 of the Major

c. with the "middle" hand, 15-16, 3N

 

Several comments: Notice that the first responsibility is to show a side source of tricks. This is of primary importance to slam bidding, even more so than the short suit, due to the concept of "a source of tricks". I suggest the same evaluation method over this bid as we use with long suit game tries (see the paper on game tries over majors). The second responsibility, failing to have a side source of tricks is the short suit response. Responder will evaluate and bid his hand with that information in mind. I suggest using the concept of "The Thirty Point Deck" here (read the paper here concerning short suit game tries). Notice that both bids are distribution-showing. This is a key factor since the 2N bidder will not have much in the way of distribution, and in fact, will hold, at the most, a 5422 pattern, and probably not even that distributional. An important note: the two distributional responses are completely unknown from a standpoint of high card strength, other than the opener considered his hand good enough to open. Responder can find that out by initiating a q bidding auction if he is interested.

 

If opener has a "flat" hand, without a good side 5+ card suit, or without shortness, he reverts to a three-step response system, outlined above. This works reasonably well since high card point count functions fairly well when both hands are balanced....and on these auctions, they are.

 

That is the way Jacoby 2N works, and the paths of logic I think best to put the information received to work. There is one issue that needs to be addressed, though. I get the same blank question from virtually everybody and I get it all the time. "You use Jacoby 2NT with only 3 trumps?"

 

Evidently, everybody who teaches falls into little lines on this, like ants or worse, lemmings. It would be a rarity, I suppose, for someone to actually think about what they teach. In the interest of clarity of thought and some help for the newer players who are sooooooo trusting thinking they are being taught "the right way", here's a path down Logic Lane.

 

1. Having a 9 card trump fit is nice. It helps the play of the hand in a number of ways. The most obvious is the responder (we'll call him that for ease of discussion) having 4 trumps and a short suit. Less obvious is that the absolute need for middle trump honors (and even spot cards in trumps) is lessened and sometimes by a lot. Another bonus is that declarer can play the hand on a dummy reversal line, ruffing in hand, and using dummy's trumps to pull trumps.

 

All that said, the smaller bonuses are just that, smaller. The big bonus, the capacity for ruffs, disappears when playing Jacoby 2N, since Jacoby 2N is used on flat hands. As flat as 4333 patterns. (another small bonus, but the operative word is small...4th round ruffs).

 

Note that with the bid incentive gone, requiring 4 cards for the bid is of only marginal value. With deference to Marty Bergen and his attachment to 9 card fits, all of standard bidding is geared to 5 card majors...and why is that? Because this enables partner to freely support with 3 cards...which means that the partnership has a seriously playable fit...8 cards total. Through your own experience, you will know that only rarely, when a partnership holds an 8 card fit in a major, it is better to play NT. Jacoby 2N was originally designed to steer the partnership to these 8 card fits...5 in opener's hand and 3 in responder's. This convention has stood the test of time because it works and the reason it works is that the flat hand has no screaming need for a 4th trump. Sure, 9 is more "comfy" but just not a big deal. So why worry about it, one way or the other? The answer to that is, you haven't asked the right question. The right Question is, "What does requiring 4 trumps for Jacoby 2N do to the rest of your bidding....what is the cost of that?"

 

I my opinion, the gain is minimiumal, as I have stated...a little, but not a lot. On the other hand, what you lose is a huge, huge loss. If you have been following along and have thought about all of this, you should realize that sometimes responder is the guy with the "source of tricks" and opener needs to know that. The easiest type of hand to play and perhaps the hardest to bid, for slam is when the partnership holds a 5-3 (or 5-4) trump fit that scores 5 tricks, a good long side suit that scores 5 more tricks, and the two side aces. We have addressed this within the Jacoby 2N bid, by the response of a new suit at the 4 level when the second suit is held by opener. How do we address this when responder has that side source of tricks?

 

If you require the responder to have 4 trumps in support to use Jacoby 2N, you just can't cover this hand. Why? Because to make a 3 card forcing raise in a major, you have to bid a 2/1 on a potentially scruffy 4 card suit and then raise the major to some degree or another. Your partner learns quickly not to count on that 2/1 bid as anything else. On the other hand...if you have the Jacoby 2N only require three for support (we have already discussed that, and determined that there is not huge advantage in making Jacoby 2N promise 4), you can restrict the auction of 1Major-2 bid, any suit by responder-next bid, then a strong raise in the Major to mean a good, long side suit and a source of tricks. This is just critical to accurate slam bidding to be able to handle this kind of hand. Let me give you a couple of comparative examples:

 

1S-2c-2d-3S...assuming 3s is forcing...what kind of hand does responder have? Answer: Either Axx KJxx Kx Axxx....or Axx xxx Kx AKJxx. Almost the same hand, with exactly the same high cards, but....not the same playing strength by a long shot. Here is the bottom line on this logic path: If you require 4 trumps for Jacoby 2N, you have to bid each of these hands exactly the same way. If you only require 3 trumps, you bid 2N on the first hand and a 2/1 on the second hand. Think of this this way, hand #1, above has 15 fairly good points, but is going to need at least 17 from pard to make a slam. Hand #2 needs something like KQxxx Axx Ax Qxx (a 15 count) to make a GRAND slam. All because of the good, long side suit. You have to be able to bid these, and this is what you lose requiring 4 trumps for Jacoby 2N. It is just not worth the price you have to pay.

 

And, now, the last of the "direct game forcing Major raise auctions":

 

2/1, FOLLOWED BY A RAISE TO THE THREE LEVEL OF THE OPENED MAJOR:

 

We are talking about any of the following auctions: 1S-2C-2D-3S 1S-2C-2S-3S 1S-2C-2N-3S

 

The point of all of those auctions is that responder bid to the two level, and on his next bid, bid the opened major at the 3 level...and more to the point, it was clearly not a "forced preference". This auction is, if you haven't thought about it, sorta strange. As a practical matter, assuming you open "good 12's" and make 2/1's on "good 10's or better", you almost never pass this 3 of the major bid. Why? It's technically, in standard, not forcing! Er....the practicality of the matter is that you usually make game. I haven't seen someone I consider a good player pass that bid in a decade, maybe longer. (Maybe 3 or 4 decades....lol). So, does it stand to reason, that if this never gets passed, you might as well make it forcing? It does to me.

 

I am convinced that this single auction was the leading reason why 2/1-style became so popular. People could make a 2/1 and have time to investigate slam below the 5 level. The most likely situation for that use was when responder had a good suit, game forcing values, and support for the opened suit. This is a tweak for standard bidders that not only should be done, but should have been part of the bidding system at invention. Another thought...if I am playing standard with an unknown expert, I am going to bid my hand this way, even without discussion. What if it gets passed? Not going to happen. Nobody passes those. See what I mean?

 

Once you determine that making that little "fix" to standard is the right thing to do, you simply now can use that specific auction to communicate to partner that you have at least three of his suit, at least a full opener, and most important, a good 5+ card side suit, a "source of tricks" if you will. But in order to do that, you need to make up your mind that having Jacoby 2N only require 3 cards for support (see above). If you make this auction on either Axxx of Clubs or AKJxx of Clubs, your partner will never know and never know what to do, for sure. (Have you noticed a recurring theme? Jacoby 2N should only require 3 trumps for support).

 

There you have it, all three types of game forcing major raises. If you want your game bidding dead accurate, adopt this thinking. It's as close as I know how to get to expert thinking anyhow, and if you were to sit down with any expert worthy of the name, and handled majors this way, that expert would feel right at home....very comfortable.

 

Bob

[bobh2]

***********SLAM BIDDING TECHNIQUES**************

by Bob Holmes

 

There are a lot of intricate techniques one uses bidding slams. I will, as time goes by, dig into them, but we will start with the ones you just have to know first.

 

When do I use Blackwood (Gerber)?

 

This is the very first thing anybody ought to learn about bidding slams. People get told, "You ought to ask for Aces there, but nobody explains about why. This should help.

 

#1....The very most important thing...and I want you to understand this and remember it like the names of your children: Blackwood is NOT a slam bidding tool. (I know....blink?...what?). Blackwood is a tool that is designed to keep you out of BAD slams...those missing 2 Aces. If you understand this, you have hopped the first big hurdle towards bidding slams at bridge. Before Blackwood, all the old guys just knew that they had a lot of hand, their pard had a lot of hand, so they bid slams. Bang, bang...two aces cashing....down one. All conventions are invented to solve problems and this was a big one. It is named after Easly Blackwood, who may or may not have invented it to stop this.

 

#2....How to think when considering using Blackwood:

 

Get in your mind that Blackwood is an "anti-slam" tool. This means that if you are thinking about using it, you have to be thinking, "I am pretty positive we have a slam and I am going to bid it". With that mindset, you check on aces and if you have enough, you bid the slam. Sometimes you are right, even. You do not say, "I think maybe perhaps we have a slam and if we have enough aces, I guess I'll try it". If you intend to be any good at the game, you will adopt this thinking.

 

#3....Responses to Blackwood:

 

The old set of responses (0 or 4, 1,2,3) work just fine. Roman keycard works even better. Read Eddie Kantar's 4th edition on RKC for information...I suggest it.

 

#4...Points to think about:

 

If you ask for Aces, get a response, and ask for Kings, you are no longer on a small slam hunt, you are looking for a grand slam. You are guaranteeing all of the Aces, and if you are playing KeyCard, not only do you have all of the aces, you have all of the trumps, too. Why is this concept important? If pard has a good hand, you have a good hand, and you have taken control of the auction by asking for aces, and now ask for Kings.....and pard has a source of tricks he hasnt had time to show...like AKQJxx of a side suit, he should be able to count on you having all of the aces, and he should know you just dont need Kings...you can pitch trash on his huge suit. He can bid the grand over your King ask. This is why 5N guarantees all of the Aces.

 

#5...on of the easiest ways to blow up a good hand is to get to slam off a cashing AK. To help this nasty situation, a good rule of thumb. If you have a suit that is not headed by an A or a King, do not use Blackwood. Keep q bidding if you want to bid more.

 

QUE BIDDING PRINCIPLES:

 

There are two types of Que (Q) bids. One would think they would have different names because of the potential confusion, but they don't. One type is a Q bid in competitative bidding, where your bid your opponent's suit for whatever reason. These are usually bids designed to get to game. We are not dealing with that type here. We are discussing the other type of Q bids, the ones used on slam hunts.

 

First, understand that the key factors in slam bidding are: Trump fits, short suits, controls, and tricks. "Controls" refer to Aces and Kings outside the trump suit, and that is what Q bids are all about.

 

Q bids tell controls. They also convey more message than that, by implication. Example:

 

1S-p-3S-p-4C

 

This is a classic, simple Q bid. Using old methods (we will discuss that), that 4C bid says, in the language of bridge, translated to English, "I heard and understand what your 3S bid meant. My hand is powerful enough to think we might have a slam. I have the A of Clubs and interest going higher."

 

Let's pursue that auction. Now: 1S-p-3S-p-4C-4S. In English, 4S says, "I hear you, I am glad you have extra values, but I don't". Whatever 3S meant, the responder is on the bottom. And, no, the responder didn't deny a red suit A, just denied any extras. The point is, the failure to q bid when it was available either says "I don't have it" or I am minimium for my bidding so far. There are going to be times when you know partner has to have a control/A to q bid, but he skips it. He is telling you he's on bottom. Not decent, on bottom.

 

On the other hand, 1S-p-3S-p-4C-p-4D. Responder heard his partner attest to extra values of one degree or another, and now, he is showing at least solid values. Not necessarily anything wonderful, but good values or better, and of course the A of D.

 

To keep on going, on the same auction: 1S-p-3S-p-4C-p-4D-4S. Opener has q bid once then run back to the trump suit. He probably has about a King better than his dead minimium. He showed that with the first Q bid, and now he's outta gas. All depends on responder now. If responder has no more to say, the auction ends. If responder has enough to think that knowing what he knows, they still might have a slam, he now takes a push with another q bid.

 

1S-p-3S-p-4C-p-4D-4S-p-5H...a good example

 

If opener takes a second q bid, he's even stronger....like this:

 

1S-p-3S-p-4C-p-4D-4H.

 

All of this is not nearly as hard as it looks. All you have to understand is that once trumps are established, a new suit shows a side A and is showing some interest in slam. Retreats to the trump suit by either side define a minimium. This works on the same concept as a lower auction: 1s-2s-3d. That is a game try of some kind or another, and a q bid is a slam try, same idea.

 

Last area for discussion here:

 

Q bids that show Aces or that show either Aces or Kings.

 

The old way was to q bid Aces first, then Kings. That's real clear, but has a problem..sometimes, you don't get to show all your values, you run out of room. People are slowly moving to what is called "Italian Q bids" or "King-value Q bids", meaning to q bid them up the line, regardless. The biggest reason for this movement is that it really saves space and you sometimes can show everything you have to partner. I tried these a long, long time ago and just terribly confused. I never knew what cards pard had. The increasing use of KeyCard has cleared up a lot of confusion. You can q bid at lower levels then check on "Aces" and get a wonderfully clear picture. I have a couple of suggestions about using this method, though.

 

First, if the q bidding starts on the 5 level, make sure your q bid is an Ace. This works for me pretty well, and I could be wrong, but I am easy to confuse.

 

Second, I have had people tell me wierd things like "if you bypass one suit, and q bid a higher one that your partner has bypassed too, you have to have a control in that suit". Do what??????? They may be right, and could explain that to me in a week or two, but this is too complicated. Keep your bidding straightforward so partner can understand it. Implied stuff, controls or suits or whatever...all it gets you is post-hand arguments. I have heard "Only a moron wouldn't know I had to have" or "How could you be so stupid?????". Enjoy the game, stay out of that stuff.

 

Much more to come on slam bidding.

 

Bob Holmes

[bobh2]

This note is from Kevin Hopton(samene on BBO), my systems engineer/computer guru. He has been kind enough to help a lot of people fix problems so they can listen to discussions while I am teaching. I have had to go to this, due to oncoming carpal tunnel syndrome, stemming from hours of rapid fire typing. My one-on-one lessons are open to everybody as long as you just sit and watch and not try to participate. My student-on-the-hot-seat and I are focusing on learning, and frankly, bridge requires full concentration. (My wife, daughter, and three dogs simply do not understand that but you should). I try to have time for questions when we end on these sessions, if you have questions, write them down and ask them then. I will try to have "open forum" lessons for both BIL and for I-ABC from time to time and if you want to hear what I have to say, you will need to deal with Skype, for now. (I am going to test "teamspeak" at jillybean's suggestion down the road, as well). This is fun and far faster than typing, and Skype is easy for most to load and use. If you have a problem with it, Kevin will help.

----- Original Message -----

From: khopton

To: bob holmes

Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2006 3:02 PM

Subject: Something to post regarding Skype

 

 

Bob,

I think it would be a good idea to post this with your 'ramblings.'

 

 

How to get set up to use Skype with Bob's lesson Skypecasts

 

First, check to see if your computer is running Windows XP, Windows 2000,

MacOS X or one of the versions of Linux listed on the Skype web site.

Those running Win98. Win98SE or Windows Millennium Edition may

encounter problems because those operating systems are not

officially supported by Skype. Some people have succeeded with Win98SE

but many have had problems.

 

You can listen to broadcasts without even having a microphone connected,

although some form of speakers is absolutely required so that you can hear

sound from your computer.

 

Second, go to www.Skype.com and download the version of Skype for your

computer's operating system. Do not download it from anywhere else as

older versions are still available and can be problematic.

 

After you have downloaded the Skype Setup program, run that program to

install Skype on your computer. This is usually where the Win98SE users

run into trouble. The installation program will ask you to create a username

and choose a password. Keep these as you will need them often and soon.

 

The Skype program should now be ready to work on your computer and you

should be able to call other people at this point if you know their Skype

usernames.

 

To connect to Bob's shared lessons, open your browser and go to

www.Skypecast.com. This is not the web site you downloaded the Skype

program from, it is a special site that automatically takes you to a secure

location for broadcasts. You should see a page that says "Find a Skypecast"

and has a field for searching below it. Enter "BobH2" in the search field and

click the search button next to it. This should take you to a list of currently

running broadcasts which, hopefully, includes one about bridge lessons.

 

The entry for Bob's broadcast will have a link to join and may require you to

login and then come back and hit Join again.

 

A window opens showing a waveform and then, once you are connected, it

shows the Skype usernames of all the broadcast participants. An icon to

the right of your name shows whether the moderator (Bob) has turned off

sound from your computer. This is common as during a broadcast it can

get very noisy when ten or more microphones are all open with their

accompanying background noise. If your microphone has been muted

by the moderator, the icon will have a line through it and an "Ask for

Microphone" button will be available if you want to ask to be heard. Generally,

you should type questions unless you have a special need to speak your

point.

 

 

Hope this helps people get started, especially when I don't happen to be online.

-Kevin

[bobh2]

A DIRECTION TOWARDS PLAYING THE HAND

 

When I got really serious about learning to play bridge, I started reading books. I found that there were few books that could really help me on bidding, but the books on card play were of tremendous help. I am firmly convinced now, that I was right then, and still right. There is still not much in the way of books on hand evaluation and offensive bidding that I would recommend, although a lot on conventions and gadgets, like Bergen's on his gadget over major openings. There are some exceptions like Lawrence's book on overcalls, a must read. Good bidding is learned by experience and perhaps training like I do with the drilling on BBO. However, I am also convinced that if you have enough books on dummy play on a desert island and can absorb them, you can make yourself into a very, very good declarer.

 

I did it more or less that way, and since it's the only way I know, maybe you can follow the same path. I read Watson's Play of the Hand, and others, then eventually read Clyde Love's book on Squeezes (the driest book in captivity) trying to learn about counting tricks, counting losers, counting opponent's hands down, when to pull trumps, when not to, entry management, all of that stuff. I got that down ok, and knew it was time to learn how to set up a squeeze and execute one, so I tackled Love on Squeezes. I spent most of a month, at night, after work, trying to absorb Love's concepts and it was a headache but a big help too. I am not sure there is an easier way to learn about squeezes...maybe it's one of those things where there is no shortcut???? I strongly recommend waiting on Love until you know you have to learn squeezes, then you'll have the necessary motivation to get all the way through it.

 

The real key, though, is practice. Practice at the table is ok, but requires you go back to every hand you play and see if you could have done better. This is kinda hard. I have a better path, faster and more accurate, and is the one I took. Once you learn most of the techniques from say, Watson's Play of the Hand, there are a ton of books that have play of the hand quizzes. The ones I really found useful have a hand displayed on one page, and tells you the bidding, then the opening lead or a trick or two, then says, "What now"? You do your best to figure out what to do, and when you have done all you can do, you flip the page and the author gives you an analysis. What I did with those is to put a date on the first page and put a + or a -, denoting if I got it right or not. When I went all the way through the book, I would put that book on a shelf and not look at it for a long time, maybe a year. I had to do that because I remember what I read pretty well. I would then get that book back out and start looking for minuses(-) and try the problem again. Lots of times, I would have learned the technique and/or my game had improved, and I'd get it right that time. Usually, I would still miss some, so....back on the shelf for another year. I kept looking for more quiz books, and there are a lot of them. After I had improved considerably, I attacked Reese's Master Play the same way. What a good book! That book really solidified my techniques, I think.

 

In the beginning, I found a lot of this type of book by Kantar. The key is to keep buying these books and keep hammering on them. Hand after hand, meanwhile, reading the books on techniques, and re-reading them. Persistance pays.

 

At the Las Vegas Regional, a guy I know showed up and had a huge display of bridge books. Thinking of all of you, I pulled up a chair, and started writing down titles. That list is below. I made a deal with him...in my student's interests. I told him that I would put any of you in touch with him via email and you could buy what you wanted. He has no way to accept credit cards, but if he gets a lot of response, I can probably get him to set up a PayPal account. If getting money to him gets to be a problem, let me know and I'll fix it.

 

Here is the list:

 

Watson's Play of the Hand

Declarer Play the Bergen Way

Monster Book of Declarer Play

 

These books should all have the techniques for declarer play in them.

 

The following books are quiz books, and was all that I had time to write down:

 

Test Your Play As Declarer(vol. 1 and 2)....Lukacs and Rubens

Test Your Bridge Play(vol. 1 and 2).......Kantar

 

When you get your declarer play up to speed, try Master Play, by Terrence Reese. Am not sure it is still in print.

 

I will try to add to this list as time goes by.

 

Bob Holmes (Bobh2 on BBO)

[bobh2]

*********NEW MINOR FORCING***********

 

When I "coach" in the partnership bidding rooms on BBO, one of the things I work hard on is New Minor Forcing (aka: NMF). The reason why is that it is a "bread-and-butter" auction, it comes up all the time. Example: 1ding-pass-1dong-pass-1N-pass-? What next? All the time.

 

I may have learned this wrong, but this is the way I know to play it, and having used it for decades and having put some thought into it, I am pretty comfortable that my students can learn it, and that if they play this with an unknown partner, they are not going to get into much trouble. Also, it seems to work well, a big plus for any gadget.

 

Like almost every "convention", I am sure NMF was invented after some smart bidding theorist messed up a hand, hated the result, and sat down and did some thinking. Here is what the problem is:

 

You have 5 spades, or 5 hearts, or maybe even 5 spades and 4 hearts. Your partner opens a minor, so you bid 1 spade, and he bids 1N. You can bid 2s, is easy, but if you have an invitational hand, what do you do? If you bid 3s as invitational, partner will reasonably expect you to have 6 spades with an invitational hand. So do you bid 2N? You may not have a NT hand. If you have a side singleton, you are asking for trouble. Maybe you can bid the other minor? Pard might think it's forcing, but what if you have 5-5 and a weak hand? Even worse, if pard opens a red suit, you respond 1 spade with 5, he rebids 1N, and you have 4 spades, as advertised, a singleton in the unbid red suit and 5 or even 6 clubs and 6 points? You know clubs is the place to play...how do you get your partner to quit bidding? With a regular partner, you can make some agreements, maybe, to cover all of this, but with a stranger? This is such a common auction, it ought to be easy, but it is not. Want another example? 1d-1s-1n-2n-3s (Opponents are silent). Is that 3s bid acceptance of the invite or not? Lots of problems needing lots of agreements.

 

The way to solve most of this is to play NMF. I will show you the positives, and let you know there is one negative, that is sorta solvable. The negative is that you cannot sign off at 2 of the unbid minor over a 1N rebid. Frankly, that is not much loss compared to the ease of handling all the rest of the hands, I think. See what you think when you have read the rest of this:

 

The first thing you need to understand is that NMF applies specifically to the common auction of 1minor-1major-1N. (We'll address another application later). Also, it is specifically invitational in strength (or could be better). NMF searches for major fits, that is it's prime purpose. Using NMF in these auctions allows jump rebids to be invitational, and allows a jump raise of the opened minor to be invitational as well. That is, as opposed to being forcing. This fits with good theory (which says, you ought to have a way to show a minium hand plus support...you ought to be able to invite...and you ought to be able to make a game force). There are specific responses that are not hard to remember, but you need to know what they mean, so let's look at some auctions:

 

1d-1s-1N...the base auction

1d-1s-1N-2c....NMF...invitational or better in strength, nothing about clubs, completely artificial

Responses by opener:

First responsibility is to show support:

Opener shows 3 card support with a minimium by bidding 2S

Opener shows 3 card support with a maximium by bidding 3S

(Note: Opener has "accepted" the invitation, and is showing spades)

Second Responsibility of Opener is to show 4 Hearts if he doesnt have 3 spades:

Opener bids 2H with 4 hearts and a minimium

Opener bids 3H with 4 hearts and a maximium

Third responsibility of Opener if he doesn't have either 3s or 4h:

Opener bids 2N with a minimium

Opener bids 3N with a maximium

 

Note that responder has dug out all possible major fits using this. As long as responder has an invitational hand, he also has the information he needs to decide to bid game or not.

 

This allows these auctions:

 

1d-1s-1n-2s, not forward going

1d-1s-1n-2h, not forward going

1d-1s-1n-3s, invitational, with specifically 6 spades

1d-1s-1n-2d, not forward going

Note that opening 1c does not change any of these auctions, except 2d is now the NMF

 

That is the basics of NMF. There are a few other auctions that need discussion.

 

Question: What if the auction goes 1H-1S-1NT-?

My suggestion: Play 2c as an invitational hand, and artificial. Again, you give up the natural bid to gain in major bidding accuracy. You already know opener has 5 hearts, and doesnt have 4 spades, but you can find a 5-3 spade fit, and find out if opener has a minimium or maximium, much the same way as listed above.

 

Question: How do you differentiate between a game forcing hand with 5/5 in the majors and an invitational hand with the same 5/5?

My suggestion: With a non-forward going hand, you bid 2H over the 1N rebid. Opener returns to spades with 3, knowing there is an 8 card fit. He passes with 2s and 3h, knowing that he might be playing a 4-3 fit, but also might be playing a 5-3 fit. Now, the other two? Under the theory that jumps are invites, not forces, I would play 1d-1s-1n-3h as invitational, only. This means that 1d-1s-1n-2c(NMF)-2N-3h is forcing. Note that you have two ways to show 5/5 in the majors, and it would be silly to have both auctions mean the same thing. So, you assign one to be invitational, one to be forcing. I suggest you discuss this with a regular partner.

 

Question: How do you retreat to the other minor and stay out of game?

My suggestion(and my thinking): The auction of 1d-1s-1n-3c or 1c-1s-1n-3d is available. You have two needs (sign-off and invitational). If you have a forcing hand, you can use NMF and bid the minor over any NT response. This is awkward over a 3N bid by opener, but can be done. You only have one auction for two needs. My thinking is that it is going be very rare you have an invitational hand that only is invitational in a minor, and cannot stand playing nt. Moreover, stretching to an 11 trick game is not a serious priority. So, I think you should give up on these auctions being invitational, and use them for sign-offs. It is not uncommon, especially over a 1 Diamond opener to hold: Jxxx x xx KQxxxx or Jxxx x x KQxxxxx. You have to bid, and you have to bid 1s. When partner bids 1N, you know you want to play clubs, no question, and at as low a level as you can. 2C is NMF, so you cannot bid that. I would play 1d-1s-1n-3c as a sign-off...to play right there. With the minors the other way around, it is far easier. The auction goes: 1c-1d-1n-2d. (I cant help it if you play 2/1, and you skip diamonds to bid a 4 card major, you will have to work that problem out yourself).

 

This is about the best I can do for you. This is a good tool, and one that seems to work well. I suggest you need to use this or something much like this. (I am certainly willing to listen to anybody who thinks I have some of this wrong, too...I like discussing bidding theory).

 

Bob Holmes

[bobh2]

***********POWER BIDS IN EXPLORATORY AUCTIONS******************

 

Jump Shifts by Opener:

 

These are the big hand bids in natural systems (standard and 2/1) that are just below 2C openers or maybe as good as some of the 2C openers. Basically, the jump shift denotes a hand that is about 19 (evaluated) points up, and usually is some kind of two suiter. A big percentage of good players don't like opening 2C on two suiters, so these can be very, very good hands, and certainly denote a game force. The risk of opening huge two suiters with a one bid is that the one bid can get passed out, but a lot of times, even if partner passes, your opponents (bless their aggressive, pointy little heads) will come to your rescue and bid. If you trust your partner to respond on any 6 points or more, it seems to help (grin).

 

I reserve jump shifts for freaks. I usually find other ways to bid big hands that are not so wildly distributional. Specifically, maybe this will help: If you are 5/5, you really need about 19, maybe 20, and if partner responds, you can jump shift, forcing to game. The top is just short of "game-in-hand". I recommend if you have game in hand, even with a two suiter, open 2c. It gets awkward with the two suiters, but you don't miss games.

 

Jump Shifts by Responder:

 

The old-fashioned strong jump shifts by responder are still played by a lot of exceptional players, Mike Lawrence heading the list, I think. He plays them as 16+ with a fine suit, usually 6 long. I think that that is part of the reason he doesn't seem to like Marty Bergen's major raise structure, because he has to give up the strong jump shifts.

 

Weak jump shifts are pretty common. You need to know how to handle them, because you will run into a large percentage of players who like them. Essentially, they show hands with long suits that are very weak, too weak to respond to an opening one bid. If you play all weak jump shifts, you might consider that a weak jump shift to the 3 level is "being out there" with a very bad hand, and you need to think about having a 7 card suit with some interior solidity (KJtxxxx) before you dive into the deep end.

 

My recommendations: I play Bergen with most partners, so the jumps to the 3 level are part of that system. I very strongly like weak jump shifts to the 2 level. I do not respond to a one level bid with less than 6 points (only exception is with a big major fit and "almost" enough values to raise, then, I raise, hoping my partner doesnt hand me my head for it). I do not like to pass, say, 1C with two small clubs and 6 hearts to the KJ, and nothing else. My shifty-eyed opponents seem to pass on that hand, when only a part-score is available and my partner takes about 3 tricks, meaning we lose about 400 vul on a partscore hand. Most irritating. My teammates aren't real appreciative of a 10 Imp loss on a partscore hand, either. So, I bid 2H and duck for cover. For now, I think that I will teach my students to play weak jump shifts all the way through and they can modify that as they choose, later. The rest of the story is, we can deal with the strong jump shifts with responder's reverses and 4th suit forcing.

 

Opener's Reverses:

 

Reverses are named that because the normal bidding bids a higher suit, then a lower one, facilitiating taking a preference at the same level. In a reverse, you open the bidding and after a response, you bid a higher ranking suit than the opened one, forcing partner to go up a level to make a preference to the first bid suit. Thus, a "reverse". Example: 1d-1s-2h Reverses are commonly 17+ in high cards, and all the way up to a 2C opener. There is an overlap with jump shifts in strength, and the reverse can also be wildly distributional, but on the bottom end, is generally a little less strong than a jump shift and can be a lot flatter. The first suit is always 5 or more, and the second suit is always shorter. The flattest pattern is a classic of 5422, with the 5 card suit being lower in rank and the first bid. The second suit of a reverse is "suspect", meaning that the reverse, being a power-showing bid, can be made on a three card suit, and I have even made them on 2 card suits. Responder should raise normally but he should be on his toes if the reverser rebids the first bid suit after a raise...probably, the second suit is not a "true" suit. This requires some "touch" and can get messy. A good reason to play this style is evident when you pick up a hand that is a one suiter, not quite good enough to open 2C and too good to jump rebid (about 15-17 points). You might have to reverse into almost anything to "force" the auction. No, partner cannot, repeat, cannot, pass a reverse. It is a 1 round force. A reminder: Reversing on a 5/5 pattern is not a good action. I strongly recommend that you either just make a simple rebid or make a jump shift. Reverses are supposed to be that the first suit is longer than the second.

 

There is something commonly called a "high reverse". It sorta fits the defination of a normal reverse in that you end up at the 3 level, but is a bit different. An example auction: 1s-2d-3c. Note that there were no jumps but the auction got to the 3 level real quick. This is commonly played that it shows extra values, but maybe not quite as much as a normal reverse...say, 15 or more in strength. It also is usually played that it shows a 5/5 pattern (or weirder). Because opener showed a 15+ hand and responder showed a 10+ hand by the 2/1 bid, it is a game force. If you use this tool, and most of the good players I know do, this can mean that 1s-2c-2s certainly doesn't have to show 6. It just says, "I couldn't find a better bid".

 

Responding to reverses can get messy. One of the reasons is that you sometimes don't find out what kind of hand opener has until the 3rd bid. The other reason is that without a very valuable tool, you are guess whether or not you belong in game. Here's why: Reverses can be as light as 17. One level responses can be as light as 6 high cards. That simply doesn't reach game. What happens is the bidding goes: 1c-1h-2d-3c and we all know opener has 17+ and responder has 6+ in points, but should opener bid on? Just guesswork unless you are using a gadget called (I am going to misspell this) Ingberman. It means that after a reverse, responder can bid 2N (artificial), which makes the reversing opener bid back to 3c (some play back to the first bit suit). Opener can override the command with 19 or more, but with the bottom of a reverse, he has to follow instructions. Here's an example auction: 1d-1s-2h-2n-3c-3d....a diamond signoff. If opener has 19 or more, it might go: 1d-1s-2h-2n-3S (showing 3s and 19 or more) or maybe 3N(showing a balanced 19 or so with a club stop. Here's the rest of the story: 1c-1s-2h-3c....the failure to use the 2N bid shows 8 or more, becoming a game force. (17+8-25, thus the game force). The point is, you can stay out of unmakeable games if you have to, and reach games when you have enough strength, and know the difference. Reverses are hard enough to deal with without having to guess what to do. I strongly recommend you add that 2N bid to your bag of tricks.

 

One last note on opener's reverses: One problem auction is this:

 

You hold x AKxx Jxx AKQxx. You open 1c and pard bids 1 inconvenient Diamond. You can bid 1H but what are you going to do next? Partner might bid 1N and you might be reduced to bidding the only force you have, 2S...on your singleton. How descriptive! A much easier, neater, and more descriptive way to handle this is to bid 2H over 1D. Technically, this is a jump shift. However, it works a lot better to consider it a "reverse" since if pard had responded 1N, that is what it would be. It is forcing 1 round, so you can control the action and not get messed up. Try this, you'll like it.

 

Responder's Reverses:

 

Responder can reverse, too. For example: 1d-1h-2d-2s....the normal way to bid spades and hearts is to bid spades first, then hearts. This auction is out of order, and note too, the responder bid a suit opener said he didn't have. This is a responder's reverse and is a game force. Like opener's reverse, the first suit is, by definition, 5 long and the second is shorter. It can be, like opener's reverse, a lot shorter. You should consider the 2s bid in that auction as simply "white noise", telling opener that game is here, maybe more. Opener should bid anything that looks "descriptive" and let responder finish the information-telling. Note that it can take 3 bids to describe what a strong jump shift shows with 1 bid. Remember, on this auction, the one above, responder can have a bid D raise, (which might mean he only really has 4h), a true two suiter, or a game forcing one suiter in hearts. Here's some examples of that:

 

1d-1h-2d-2s-2n-3h. (2N is just staying out of the way...3h might show this hand: Axx AKJtxx Kx xxx)

 

1d-1h-2d-2s-2N-3d...responder might have: x KQxx AJxxxx Ax

 

1d-1h-2d-2s-2N-3S...responder might have AQxxx AKJxxx x x

 

You don't really know what's going on until responder gets to make his 3rd bid. What you do know is that he has a game force.

 

4th Suit Forcing:

 

This is the last of the exploratory "power auctions". It works a lot like responder's reverses and sometimes either definintion will fit the auction. The basics are: Opener bids, responder responds, opener rebids a second suit and responder bids the last suit. Example: 1D-1s-2c-2h 2H is a "fourth suit forcing" bid and means for sure, a game force. Opener, if he has 4 Hearts, will raise, because the 4th suit can also be natural. If you play, as almost everybody does, "4th suit forcing", you have to be careful not to bid the 4th suit unless you have a game forcing hand. I told you it works a lot like responder's reverses...the 4th suit can be not only artificial, but very artificial. Opener finds out what is really on responder's mind on the next bid. The most common auction will be this: 1d-1s-2c-2h-2n....and now, responder bids his real heart-throb, any of the suits. The only bad thing that can happen is that opener has a 4441 pattern or 5440 and raises the 4th suit, but responder has something else in mind. This gets messy. It's responder's responsibility to correct and hope partner is on the ball. Other than this mess, 4th suit works real well.

 

A note about 4th suit. 1c-1d-1h-1s is NOT 4th suit forcing. Those are all natural bids and are by the theory of standard bidding, forcing to 1N. I have seen people pass 1h, on this auction, especially, but it's not good bridge...it means responder has bid on less than 6 high card points...a practice I simply do not agree with and I think usually infuriates your partner. So, what do you do if you have a very strong hand, game forcing, and the bidding goes: 1c-1d-1h-? If you have 4s, you don't have to jump around, just bid 1s. If you don't have 4s, you can bid 2S, a completely artificial bid and a game force. Why mess with this? This allows every and all jumps over 1c-1d-1h- to be invitational, every last one of them. It is of paramount importance to have a way to get to the right suit with a weak hand, an invitational hand, and a game forcing hand. 4th suit allows this in this manner, so you put up with the occasional problem hand.

 

Bob Holmes

[Maslow]

hey Bob

nice lectures

[bobh2]

**********SERIOUS 3N******************

 

In every area of bidding, you will find one little gadget, one little technique that just really helps. Example: The Ingberman 2N bid...the relay over opener's reverses...a critically needed tool that keeps opener's reverses from being moon shots.

 

The "Serious 3N" is a little technique that really facilitates slam bidding in the majors. Here's the problem:

 

If you get into a game forcing major position, particularly at the 3 level, and now Q bid, you sometimes burn up a ton or Q bidding space. Before you know it, you can be at the 5 level and STILL have inadequate information. The "Serious 3N" bid is a huge "space-conserver".

 

The first thing you have to get your head around is that once you find a major fit, only about twice a year is is right to play 3N rather than 4 of the major. Since that frequency is sorta silly, you need to consider that a natural 3N bid in this situation is a waste of a bid. One of the "hot-shot" bidding theorists came up with the idea of using 3N here as this: 1. a slam interest bid, and 2. a Q-bid, in terms of slam interests, but unspecific about any card. I find it particularly helpful in locating club controls. I have seen some hands where you had AQx of clubs and Q the club A but maybe never find out if pard has the K of Clubs...there is just no room. Here is how it works:

 

Assume: 1S-2c-2d-3S is forcing. (If not, it should be)

 

Now, opener can bid 3N, saying, "I have some slam interest...what about you?" (You dont have to have a whopper, just some extras)

 

Now, opener can find out about minor controls easily, assuming responder isnt right on the bottom of his "force" and fails to Q bid because of that.

 

There is really nothing more to this, the only thing is that you have to have the understanding that when you find a major fit, you are not going to play NT.

 

Bob

 

********PLEASE DON'T POST HERE...THIS IS NOTE STORAGE FOR MY STUDENTS*********

[bobh2]

******CONSIDERING WHY WE WORK SO HARD ON LEARNING LONG SUIT GAME TRIES AND SHORT SUIT GAME TRIES*****

 

Everybody who has been through "Bob's Bidding Boot Camp" has been subjected to a lot of heavy detail concerning long and short suit game tries. This is not just a bunch of "stuff" to learn, but really learning these principles is of use all over the bidding we learn later. I suggest that when you enter "Boot Camp" you really get a complete understanding of how these principles work, because it sure makes understanding more complex things (later) easier. Let me give you some examples:

 

In the long suit game try area, we apply the principles to the following situations:

 

1. using Jacoby 2N, when opener shows a two suiter

2. when responder shows a game forcing raise with a good side suit.

3. when responder makes an inverted minor and opener shows a second suit

4. lots of places in "exploratory bidding" when either side shows a two suiter

5. When 1N is opened and responder shows a two suiter, both minors, both majors, or a major/minor two suiter

6. over Michael's or Unusual NT bids

7. over a simple raise of an overcall and overcaller bids another suit (always a second suit)

 

Bidding accuracy dictates you know how to handle all of these situations and all of these are covered, in principle, by the principles that guide long suit game tries.

 

In the short suit game try area, these principles apply in the following situations:

 

1. Splinter bids

2. Jacoby 2N auctions where opener shows a short suit

3. Delayed splinters or when one partner bids 3 suits

4. It is possible to apply these principles when one partner makes a bid or series of bids that show 55 or longer...like the Minor Suit Stayman bids sometimes do

5. This applies to transfer auctions sometimes too.

 

Hand evaluation is critical. These principles are how you learn how to do it. I suggest review, frequently.

 

Bob

 

*******Please post no replies...this is for information storage for my students only. Thanks***********

[bobh2]

***********LIMIT MAJOR RAISES*********

 

People play all kinds of auctions to show limit raises and have all kinds of restrictions on them...they gotta have 4 trumps...this, that, and the other. The dirty little secret about limit major raises is that the only thing that counts is fit (you got that), distribution, and controls. (This three-part concept applies to slam bidding, too).

 

Fit:

 

Some of the theorists in the world of bridge hang their hat on having a 9 card fit. 9-card fits are great. They make trump suits easier to play and better mathematically. Having them is a blessing. That said, the ownership of a 9 card fit is only one factor, not the be-all and end-all that some seem to think it is. Furthermore, the flatter the responder is, after pard opens 1 of a major, the less advantage it becomes. An 8 card major fit is certainly playable and is a huge improvement over the 4-3 fits I wandered into in my formative years. I suggest that you only upgrade for a 9 card fit if you have decent chances of being able to ruff something in the 4-card side.

 

Distribution:

 

You should know that the flatter your hand, the worse it is...that is just basic to the game. Singletons are valuable, and voids, a little more so, especially when you have a lot of trumps, but the real key is to evaluate your distribution every time you get to bid. You learn to think in "patterns". The most frequently undervalued situation is when you or your pard has a decent-to-good side 5 card suit. You'll learn that 3 card suits just dont build length tricks and 4 card suits can build only one, if you are lucky. 5 card suits have a good chance to build 2 length tricks, a big improvement over a 4 card suit. Singletons and voids control the "run" of those suits by opponents, but they are not worth much for tricks unless you have a bunch of trumps. This is also the reason why doubletons in responder's hands are overvalued, UNLESS responder holds 4 or more trumps. With doubletons, you are not sure they are going to be of any use anyway, and with only 3 trumps, it becomes less likely.

 

Controls:

 

This is the real key to accurate limit raises. We play a limit raise is a "good 10 to a bad 12". This enables the opener to accept the invite with "any excuse". These points are evaluated points, not purely high cards. Aces and Kings count, Queens are looked upon with suspicion and Jacks are virtually disregarded. A hand with KKK is upgraded to a decent limit raise, but QJ, QJ, QJ is sure not even close. A hand with AAK is not generally, for us, an opening hand, but we can make a limit raise on that because we know pard is going to bid game with any excuse.

 

All of these factors contribute to making a limit raise and opener will have a very, very accurate picture of the hand. Yes, we are quite willing to make limit raises on 3 trumps, providing our controls/high card point count is right.

 

Remember, all bidding is just a rough estimate of the trick-taking capabilities of the combined hands. You cannot know, for sure what is going to happen, and all you can do is take the long odds, hand after hand. One other suggestion: If your decision is close, you might give some thought to the skill of the declarer and the skill of the defenders, as well. On these, it comes down to an educated guess, a lot of times.

 

Bob

 

*********Please post no replies here...this is informational storage for my students**************

[bobh2]

*********HOW FUNCTIONAL IS YOUR CONCEPT OF BIDDING?****************

 

When I teach, I have noticed that my students sometimes see the trees but totally miss the forest. They are so busy learning how the mechanics of bidding works that they haven't the time to sit back and understand the bidding part of bridge. This applies to a lot of things but what I want to address is one specific thing.

 

I have said this, over and over again...if your bidding system is solid, you will have a way to sign off(or try to do so) in any suit, invite in any suit or NT, or force to game in any suit(or nt).

 

The history of the evolution of bidding is interesting, I think. When I learned to play...yes, a long time ago, 4 card majors were the "standard" of the day. Yes, I got real good at playing 4-3 fits (commonly called Moysian Fits, named after a guy by the name of Al Moyse, who wrote a definitive series on the techniques of playing 4-3 fits. That was the very first thing I ever studied on the game). Five card major bidding soon became in vogue...and the whole bridge world breathed a sigh of relief. Playing 5-3 fits is a million times easier than 4-3 fits and flatly, knowing partner had 5 of a major to open relieved a lot of stress for everybody. So, I was in the middle of this, trying to learn to play the game. One thing I was always frustrated with was that in those days, essentially, when you jumped, you forced to game and if you didnt, the auction was not forcing. The result was that when you had 10 or 11 points and partner opened, you had to keep bidding new suits, and then raise to get the message over. This was even before limit raises came on the scene. I assure you, bidding was nerve-wracking. As time went by, and bidding evolved, the standard treatments came more in line with that paragraph above, because it needed to.

 

We now play virtually all non-conventional jumps, either raises or rebids, as invitational. (Conventional jumps are things like Jacoby 2N). This makes far better sense and results in far better bidding. Now that your mind is on the philosophy of bidding, let me point out a couple of places that still need operational help and some solutions to the problem.

 

One area that needs work/agreements is handling a big one suiter over an opening nt. Have you noticed, that using tranfers, you don't have a way to to make a move towards slam other than just bid whatever ace-asking bid you play and guess? Majors first: Think about this auction...1N-2d-2h...and you have, for example, this hand: x KQJ10xx KQx QJx or x KQJ10xx AJ10 QJx. If Partner's 1NT opener has good controls, you might well have a slam. If not, getting past 4 might be too high. So, what do you do, playing standard transfers? I donno. What you need is a bid that says, "Pard, I have a game forcing hand with a big heart suit. I might have interest in slam. How does your hand look for slam purposes?"

 

There is no such bid in standard usage transfers. The best you can do is bid a 3 card minor after transferring????? Completely misdescribes your hand. I have a suggestion, and have been playing this for decades. Use 1N-3H for this kind of hand. What do you play that bid now means? Some play it shows 55 majors, invite, and 1N-3S shows 55 majors, strong. That's silly. You have normal transfer auctions for that. Others play 1NT-3H shows 5-4 in the minors with 3-1 in the majors and is a game force, might be slam interest. That is far more useful than the 55 major thing, but in my opinion, you need to have a way to force to game in a major without bidding 4 of that major...you want to "poke around".

 

If you choose to play this, let me give you some tips:

 

1. Over 1N-3Major-? opener will Q bid if he is rich in "controls" (Aces and Kings) and bid either 3N or 4 of the bid major if not. Opener will not Q bid just because he has 17 highs when he has all Q's and J's.

2. If you have a real slam going hand, transfer and bid Keycard Gerber...4C. You won't learn a lot but you will find out if you have enough keycard to bid a slam.

3. Last tip: Have your agreements say, this jump to 3 of the Major is both a hand with some degree of slam interest, and one that will likely play opposite xx for no more than one loser. Why such a good suit required? Because opener will be worrying about his excessively weak support and soft-pedal a pretty good hand because he thinks pard is expecting something like Qxx for support. If that bid promises a powerhouse suit, opener can bid the true value of his hand.

 

So what do you do if you have a very strong hand, but something like Q10xxxx for a suit? Now, it's time to improvise...you NEED pard to like your suit if you are going anywhere. Transfer and bid a 3 card minor if you have to...you will find out what's up.

 

That covers the big Major one suiter, and now you can bid your hand accurately, with a long major, no matter the strength. Using transfers, you can transfer and pass...or raise to the 3 level...or raise to the game level...or bid Keycard Gerber...or....now...not transfer, but bid 3 of the Major directly with the right kind of hand.

 

So what about a big minor one suiter? We play Minor Suit Stayman...2S over a 1NT opener. It shows a game forcing hand with either a one-suiter or a two suiter. Read a different article in these notes about how it works. You can define a big minor one-suiter with it, and then...guess what? Once that is defined, the bidding works the same way...you Q bid when you like your hand, bid NT or the minor when you don't. Isnt that handy? You have a specific "pattern" of bidding that any big one suiter falls into. This makes bidding these hands soooo easy. If you are any good at the techniques of Q bidding, you stay out of bad slams, no matter if it is a major or minor, and reach the good ones.

 

Bob Holmes

bobh2 on BBO

[bobh2]

********CAN YOU HANDLE TWO-SUITERS WHEN PARD OPENS 1NT?*************

 

To me, it is critical, that of all the things that can happen in the bidding, if your pard opens 1NT, you should know exactly what to do to reach the most likely best contract. CRITICAL.

 

Transfers are a big help doing this. Great tools. Problem is, you are taught that if you have a two-suiter and game (or better) strength, you transfer, then bid the other suit at the3 level. BUT......and a very bid but, indeed, that is where the explanations stop. What the hell do you do now?

 

We should formulate the problem. The real problem is for the opening nt bidder to tell his partner which suit he likes and how good his hand is, in light of the bidding. Pretty logical, so far, right?

 

Every area of bidding has little "tools". Some are perhaps less-well known conventions with the inventor's name on it (the very useful 2N relay bid after a reverse is an example..it's called Ingbermann, named for Monroe Ingbermann...a hugely useful tool that is not real well known/taught, for dealing with reverses. And, no, I am not sure I have the spelling right.), or a little tool could just be a nifty technique. There is a nifty technique for dealing with these two-suiters.

 

Let's use a double major hand as an example: 55 in the majors, 2-1 in the minors, and game forcing values. Let me play Devil's Advocate and ask a couple of questions. If you transfer to spades and bid 3H, now what? Opener can choose, but how do you find out if opener likes his hand or not? You don't get taught that..and it gets real important. Here's the technique:

 

1. If opener chooses the higher suit (in this case spades), he simply bids 3S.

2. If opener chooses the lower suit, he has options. He can raise 3H to 4 with a minimium hand, or bid 3NT with heavy minor concentration and almost no cards in the majors. Here's the key...if he likes his hand, in support of the lower suit(hearts, here), he Q bids. Without this tool, he can still Q bid, but responder won't know which suit has becomes trumps. That can be a real problem. This tool solves that problem...a Q-bid is a good hand in support of the LOWER suit and shows a control. If opener has a good hand, and support for the HIGHER suit, see rule 1, above.

 

So, I'll assume that you are conversant with Q bidding, and you know that, as responder, if you have slam ambitions, you can continue to Q bid. If you don't have those ambitions, you can sign off at the game level. But what happens if spades is the suit?

 

Over 1N-2h-2s-3h-3s...accepting spades, you need to realize that opener got to show a spade choice, but nothing about how good or bad his hand is. In this case, responder, the transferer, either bids game and closes down, or Q bids to show some slam interest. Opener will pass the game bid, of course, but if responder Q bids, opener will either shut down at 4S or will also Q bid if he likes his fit and his controls.

 

That's it. An elegant little solution to a devilish problem when it comes up. The way to remember it is that if the higher suit is chosen by opener, RESPONDER makes the first move toward slam, but if the lower suit is chosen, the opener has the first opportunity to show the value of his hand.

 

If this seems confusing, it is not hard. Write some auctions down and see how it works.

 

NOTE: This techniques works the same way with a major/minor two-suiter, but even better. Simply, opener admits to support for the major if he has it, unless he had a huge minor fit. Example: 1N-2h-2s-3c-3s....spade support, nothing about how good his hand fits. 1N-2h-2s-3c-3D.....opener fits clubs, has a good hand, and a Diamond control card.

 

In closing...the other nifty tool for use with transfers is the "SuperAcceptance" bids. There is an article about them on page 1 of these notes

 

Bob Holmes

bobh2 on BBO

 

*******PLEASE POST NO REPLIES...THIS IS INFORMATION STORAGE FOR STUDENTS***********

[bobh2]

***********THE CONTROLS WITHIN A 1NT OPENER***************

 

Thinking on slam bidding after Partner opens 1N, and with all the bidding drill I do with students, it has occurred to me that one good way to evaluate how good the 1N bid is, for slam bidding purposes, is the total controls that hand has. Until you reach pretty high expert level, you will blindly follow high card evaluation for your NT openers, but perhaps there is a better way?

 

I have noticed that 15-17 point nt hands can be real good or real bad for slam bidding, and it dawned on me that it all had to do with the ratio of Aces/Kings to Queens/Jacks, within that 15-17 point framwork. So....a little analysis:

 

The worst hand you can have, and still be in the 1NT box is this: QJx QJx KQJ QJxx.

No, I wouldnt open that pitiful hand 1N either, but it IS 15 high card points. The best hand you can have in these terms is AAKKK...a full house, Kings over Aces. Count it up, is 17 highs. So what can be in the middle?

 

The maximium control count for 1N is 5. KKKAA or KKKKA. The minimium is 1 (see above). That is a huge difference when the point count range is only 15/16/17. So, here's a thought:

 

Let's consider a 5 control hand (controls=Aces and Kings) as a very good hand, and 1, the worst, as a very bad hand. What about 4? Well, one is AAAA....that's a whopper if pard has slam aspirations. AK, AK, particularly if they are joined is pretty good. So is AAAK. I think it's obvious that 4 controls is a good nt hand if slam is on the horizon. What about 3? Well, still AAA is pretty good, but KKK, with no aces is kinda "soft". All the other points have to be in "Quacks" and that's not wonderful in slam bidding. So, perhaps we should not bid so much when we have 3? And 2? Now we are reaching. The best 2 is AA and a bunch of Quacks. KK is really getting bad.

 

So, how do we use this concept? If you play 1N-p-3Major (I do) as a big One-suiter in the bid major, I think we, as opening nt bidder, should Q bid in support with 4 or 5 controls but not Q with 3 or less. There are a number of other auctions that can use this thinking, and no matter how you show big one suiters opposite opening NT bids, this can come into play.

 

This is particularly applicable with one suiters, but it may well help with 2 suiters as well. The value of an opening nt is more location dependent, but still, the concept of controls can't hurt.

 

Just a thought I wanted to share. Good slam hunting.

 

Bob

[bobh2]

********SOME THOUGHTS ON SIGNALING ON DEFENSE***********

 

Defending is a job with a lot of areas to be aware of. As a defender, you have to figure out things like:

 

From either side of the table, before the opening lead is made:

 

1. What is the probable strength of declarer and what is his probable distribution?

2. Same thing for dummy.

3. What does my partner have?

4. Where are our tricks likely to come from?

5. Does it sound like the opponents are pushing or comfortable?

 

Now, for the opening leader:

 

1. You have listened to the bidding and are able to tell, more or less, what type of hands the opponents have. Now, think about how the declarer is likely to play the hand. If he is going to crossruff, a trump lead might be in order. If he is going to try to establish dummy's suit, you might be trying to get your tricks before he does

2. Once you get that worked out, it is time to choose a lead. More Questions:

3. Which suit? And is there a reason to choose one over the other?

4. Now you have chosen the suit, what card? You want to make sure your partner can read what's up in that suit.

 

Time to go over standard leads:

 

Against suits:

 

ACE...most play A is from AK. Reason why is that leading bald aces is not a good idea. That means you are hardly ever going to just plunk down an A.

 

KING....old standard was to lead the King from either AK or KQ, pard gets to figure it out. Yes, there was a lot of misguesses made. That's why modern standard is Ace from AK???. This means, nowadays, King shows KQ???

 

QUEEN.... This is a "top of a sequence" lead, normally QJ10, QJ9, etc. It sometimes might be right to lead the Q from QJ???, a two card sequence.

 

JACK....Old standard, and still played by a majority is that a J lead is from J109/J108. Again, "top-of-a-sequence stuff. There is another issue...see below.

 

TEN...Same as the Jack...1098, 1097???

 

NINE....Same as Jack and 10...987/986

 

************************************

Time to discuss "JACK DENIES"

**********************************

 

Sometimes, you have a three card sequence, and you lead the top of it, all is well. Other times, you have stuff like AJ10, Q109...broken sequences. You cannot lead the top of those...because you need to maintain a tenace position. If you have Q109 and lead anything but the Q, and catch your pard on the Ace, you make sure the opponents only get 1 trick. If you lead the Q, catch pard on the A, your side only gets one trick, if K and J are in declarer's hand. If you lead the 10 or the 9, no matter where the cards are, and assuming pard can read it, you dont blow a trick. That's one problem. The other problem is, partner is stuck guessing whether you hold Q109 or 1098. He might see the need to return the suit after taking his Ace, or he might not. He has to guess. When partner is guessing, he is going to go wrong, sometimes. We prefer not to have partner guessing..not winning bridge, but how to do it?

 

We can play "Jack Denies, 10/9 shows 0 or two higher". This is not hard, but it is not very standard, since most people arent taught this when they learn to play, more's the pity. You have to agree with pard to do this...just a warning. Here's how it works:

 

The lead of the A/K/Q are all the same. The meanings of the J/10/9 change. The J says, "I have nothing above this in this suit. No broken sequences, nothing. The lead of the 10 or the 9 says, "I either have touching cards below this card....or....I have a "broken" or "interior" sequence. This broken sequence lead is dangerous...you can give up a trick, for sure, but if it is the suit to lead...you can get partner to quit making guesses.

 

How to clearly define this? How about this? If I lead the 10 or the 9, I have either nothing at all higher....or....I have the card directly above what I lead...then, going up, there is a hole in the sequence...and after the hole, going up, I have a larger card. A "broken" sequence. There are only a few of these broken sequences possible, so I will list them with the standard lead marked and the lead, if you are playing "J denies" marked. Scroll down:

 

A

J.....std lead

10.....JD(for Jack denies) lead

 

A

10...std lead

9.....JD lead

 

K

J...std lead

10..JD lead

 

K

10...std lead

9....JD lead

 

Q

10...std lead

9....JD lead

 

J...std and JD lead

10

9

but in this case, your partner knows you DO NOT HAVE HIGHER CARDS HERE IF YOU ARE PLAYING JACK DENIES

 

10...std and JD lead

9

8

but now you know that pard either started with KJ10 or nothing over the 10. (Partner, against a suit, wouldnt underlead the A and from QJ10, would lead the Q.....so...KJ10 is the only possible holding)

 

 

9...std and JD lead

8

7

but with JD lead, you know pard started with: K109 or Q109, or nothing higher. (He won't underlead the A, so it is not A109)

 

So, why use these? Example: Pard leads the J, playing standard leads. Dummy has xxx in that suit and you have the A. Do you play the Ace? If you do, you set up declarer's KQ if pard didnt start with KJ10. Playing J denies, you KNOW pard has nothing higher, and can either duck, which might limit declarer to one trick in that suit (He doesn't kow where the Ace is either), or you can take the trick and shift to another suit. At least, you knew the situation as soon as you saw pard's J if you are playing J Denies.

 

Against NT contracts:

 

J Denies is even more useful...why? Because now, there is nothing keeping partner from leading out from under an Ace if that is his long suit. Therefore, you get to use it more and it can be the difference between returning partner's suit to run the suit and set a nt game or not....and taking an A and shifting to a better suit to defend nt with.

 

Yes, the card led is exactly the same, vs NT or suits.

 

Last thing: DO NOT lead the 9 from QJ9. This isnt very smart, and too, you need to remember that if your 10 or your 9 is involved in an interior sequence....you MUST have the card right above your card, then have a gap right above that. QJ9's gap is in the wrong place. A nine is K109 or Q109, or nothing higher.

 

Against NT Contracts:

 

 

Leads againt NT contracts are completely different due to different needs.

 

ACE.....You aren't plunking down Aces against NT either...so leading the Ace has special meaning. It is: "Pard, I have AKJ10?? and need you to either drop the Q and get out of my way, or give me COUNT. This is called an "unblocking" lead. If 3rd seat has the Q, either play it or get yelled at. No kidding. Alternatively, if you DON'T have the Q, give count,however you agree to do so. The reason for this is so pard can drop declarer's doubleton Q (if he has that) or lay off the suit and try to get you in to lead through declarer. Count play by 3rd seat makes it easy to get it right.

 

KING....typical "asking for attitude" lead. Sure pard might have the KQJ10xx, but it doesnt matter, 3rd seat here tells pard if he has the A or the J of that suit.

 

QUEEN....another special lead againt NT. Opening leader might have the QJ10...QJ9...or a real special holding...KQ109?? Why is this special? Declarer can have the AJx and hold up...and partner cannot lead that suit anymore. That would give declarer 2 tricks in that suit. If pard leads the K from this holding, sometimes it is hard to get right. Pard should lead the Q, not the K, and if 3rd seat has the Jack, he knows the lead wasnt from QJ10, then he realizes that pard has to have KQ109 seeking an "unblock" so he plays the Jack. Now partner can keep leading that suit. One last thing...if 3rd seat does NOT have the Jack, he gives count, just like when pard leads the A. Why? Declarer can have AJ doubleton, and take the A on the lead of the Q. Then he has to let partner in. If you, as 3rd seat have given count, partner will know if the J is going to drop. If he knows it won't, partner will try to get you in to lead through the suit.

 

JACK/TEN/NINE....all the same as against suit leads, and even more effective.

 

"Attitude", "Count", and "Suit Preference" signals need discussion. I will start another paper on them

 

Bob Holmes

bobh2 on BBO

[bobh2]

***********SOME THOUGHTS THAT MIGHT HELP ON DEFENSIVE SIGNALS**********

 

My students are starting to get pretty good as offensive bidders. We have plans to work on the competitive bidding. I have told them that playing the hand is an individual sport and they need to buy books and study. That only leaves defense. It's kinda imporant...you defend about half the hands, except when you play with me, then you defend about 75% of the hands, due to my known inability to draw cards. So, soon, we will be working on defense, and the needs are philosophies, for sure, but the tools need to be learned as well. We'll start by saying, buy Mike Lawrence's book on opening leads. It is unbelievable what that book will do for your opening leads...and that is where the defense starts. Now, for the tools:

 

Standard tools include standard count signals, standard attitude signals, and Suit Preference Signals. There are not only modificatons to these, and some other tools like Odd/Even discards, but we are going to learn to "do" standard.

 

Count signals are generally important since one of the chores you have to do, defending, is to get an accurate on declarer's hand (and pard's, as well). You cannot play the game without being aware of (and keeping up with) the count of the hand. Standard signals use High-then-Low to show even numbers. Low-then-High to show odd numbers. The idea is that that bidding will give us a general idea, usually, then partner's signals will confirm the exact count. Defending against trump contracts, count signals tell you how many tricks you can get in certain suits, when to hold up, when to cash out, and a lot of other things. Count is completely critical defeding trump suit contracts.

 

Attitude signals are how you tell partner if you like like or dont like something. This applies to opening leads or telling partner he can discard a particular suit since you have that one covered. Standard methods use "High Encourages, Low Discourges".

 

Suit Preference Signals are a specialty signal. They only apply under certain circumstances. Let's go through them. Pard lead, against a trump contract, an Ace (usually denoting the AK...) Dummy comes down and there is a singleton on dummy..partner is going to have to shift. You tell him which suit by playing a comparatively high card in the led suit for the highest ranked side suit. If you played comparatively low, he thinks about the lowest-ranked side suit. Another time these are used is when you give pard a ruff. You can tell partner how to get back to your hand for yet another ruff by doing the same thing as above. Let him ruff a low card to lead the low suit back, but a higher card to lead the higher suit back. There are a lot of SPS situations that people dont think about if you really want to communicate with the cards. You can even use them following suit in declarer's trumps. Example: If you have 742 of trumps, you could agree to play 2, then 3, then 7 if you like clubs, for example. This has one catch...you have to be sure that no matter how you play the cards, you play doesnt effect the outcome of the hand. This is also effective when declarer is running a good, long side suit from dummy and you have the same holding. You could, for example, play 7-4-2 if you can protect spades. Just a thought.

 

Now we have the tools outlined. The best way to get familiar is ask questions. Here are some you should ask (and there probably are a lot more):

 

If I tell my partner count, won't the declarer get that message, too?

Sure, but declarer can see all of his assets, you can't. Who needs help more? AND, if a declarer is smart, he knows you can be falsecarding him or just being sloppy...he wont believe much of what you say, anyway.

How do I know which signal to use?

Toughest question of all. SPS are easy, they only apply to specific situations. Concerning between attitude and count, you just need to think of what partner needs to know and make that signal. He'll read that thinking process and defend accordingly. Sometimes you get this wrong. Dont worry about it. Experience helps.

What should be my primary signal?

That is no fun to answer....look at the bidding, look at dummy, look at the lead. Think about what pard needs to know. Then, from me, you get this crappy answer...it all depends. Maybe the best help I can give is that count is critical against suit contracts and attitude is perhaps the more critical at NT.

Are there better signals to use than standard?

Yes. It doesnt matter if you play normal count or upsidedown. Upside down attitude signals are far superior to normal, but I teach normal to my students so they can play with anyone. We will change this, down the road.

What about using Odd/Even or Laventhal Discards?

None of those specialty discards have a great deal (if any) edge over standard signalling, and they can cause messes. Moreover, don't you have enough to try to remember?

Should I give the right signal all the time?

Let's see....if you play against intermediate or less, they won't know enough to pick off the signals and even what to do with them if they do. Against Experts, when they see you are not an expert, they won't trust you to do it right anyway. Expert vs Expert? Declarer wont' be so naive to think the opponents wont' falsecard him...I ignore opponents signals, for the most part.

Is there any group I should falsecard?

Yeah, advanced players. They know enough to "read" your signals and are good enough to put that knowledge to work. And, they haven't been around long enough to become cynical/distrustful about the opponents meddling with them. They bite at the bait, once in a while.

 

More to come on this.

 

Bob Holmes

[bobh2]

**********DOUBLE MAJOR HANDS WHEN PARD OPENS 1NT*************

 

If there is one type of hand to get right....to define clearly and have a complete understanding with your pard about, after one of you opens 1N, it has to be the 5+5+ Major hands. Why is this? First, because you get a game bonus bidding 10 tricks in the majors, but it takes 11 in the minors. Second, with 5+5+ in the majors, and pard opens 1N, you have two considerably easier potential games...and actually 3 (3NT)....than any other hand pattern. This is the hand pattern you just have to get right.

 

Transfers have made this considerably easier, but you need a set of bedrock agreements. It is true with 5+5+ majors, and with a lot of other bidding, there is more than one way to skin a cat. However, as much as we can, we need to stick to "mainstream". Below I have listed what I think is the most standard treatment.

 

1. with both majors, 5+5+, and a not-forward-going hand(a scruffy 7 or worse), transfer to hearts. Why hearts? If the opponents come in and get you doubled...you can run to spades and stay at the same level. This little piece of advice is from my friend, Mildred Breed, one of the top women players on the planet, having credentials of World Champion and the like.

 

2. Same pattern, but invitational strength....from a good 7 (?) to a scruffy 9 (?)...transfer to hearts and bid 2S. Open can pass or correct to NT or raise to 3 or raise to game.

 

3. Same pattern, but game strength or better...transfer to Spades and bid 3H.

 

Mainstream thinking is that a transfer to a major, followed by any suit at the 3 level is a game force.

 

Note: In a different paper in this set, there is an article concerning "what to do next" after a transfer and bid at the 3 level. I strongly suggest you read it.

 

A little tidbit: Transferring to one major and showing the other one absolutely guarantees 5 or more of each. Reason: If you had 4 of one, you'd be starting with Stayman.

 

Another tidbit: Transferring to one major and bidding a minor can be assumed to be 55 but sometimes you are stuck bidding a minor on a 4 card suit. This has to do with your pattern...likely, you will have a 5431 or 5440 pattern if your second suit (the minor) is bid but with only 4 cards.

[bobh2]

****************DECIDING UPON STAYMAN OR TRANSFERS**************

 

There seems to be some confusion about whether to select Stayman or Transfers when pard opens 1N. This is really comparatively simple.

 

Stayman ferrets out 4-4 major fits. It is an "asking bid". Transfers make declarations...they define 5 card suits. If your majors are 5 or longer in length, use transfers. If your majors are 4 in length, not 5, use Stayman. Transfers won't get you the information you need. The problem seems to be when you have a "mixture".....one 5 or longer major, one 4 carder. The logic still holds. Transfers will not find the 4-4 fits, Stayman will. It just cannot get any simpler than that. With Stayman, you "ask" and if you don't get a hit on your 4 card suit, you bid your 5 card suit at whatever level seems appropriate.

 

There is one exception. If you have a weak (meaning a non-forward-going hand), transfer to the 5 card suit and pass. Why? Because if you try Stayman, and get a 2D response, you are stuck. If you retreat to NT, your partner thinks you have a good 8 or 9 points and are trying for game. If you now bid the 5 card suit, your pard thinks you have invitational strength. In either case, he might stuff you into game. Not so good when you have 2 high card points.

[bobh2]

**********STAYMAN AUCTIONS*************

 

Everybody knows how to start Stayman, right? Pard opens 1N, you bid 2c.

 

Do you know when to use Stayman and do you know what every last potential bid means? This is important, because 1N is a frequent opener and if you know for certain sure you will bid a hand technically right (judgement always is a potential problem), you can relax, you are going to do well on this hand, because you have all the bids down pat. If you don't....may I remind you that self-inflicted wounds at the bridge table are the primary reason you get beat?

 

Let's go through Stayman auctions in as orderly manner as possible.

 

1. 1N-2c-2?-pass.

The only justification for the pass is that responder had one of two types of hands...(A) xxxx xxxx xxxxx void....and (;) xxxx xx x xxxxxx. (X's signify unimportant cards). With type A, and a comparatively weak hand, you will be better off bidding Stayman and passing the response. NT is not a good place to play when you have a void. With type B, responder was intending to sign off in a minor but found a 4-4 fit on the way there. (If you play Stayman followed by a minor is a game force, and some do, you cannot bid stayman on this hand. You have to transfer to the minor and you get to play at the 3 level.) I play 1N-2c-2?-3 of a minor is a sign off, and when I have a nasty hand...very weak...and I dont want to play nt, my style lets me find any major fit, and if failing that, to play in a long minor at the 3 level. It also lets me play 2D if I bid stayman, pard has no 4 card major, bids 2D and I have a weak hand with long Diamonds. I just pass.

 

A note: Do you know that you shouldnt use Stayman with a 4333 pattern? Reason? You dont have any ruffing values and pard opened 1N...he doesn't have many. Why do you need a trump suit?

 

Over 1N-2c-2D:

 

2H by responder shows 5H/4S and is invitational. (Some play what is called "garbage stayman" and their agreements are different).

 

2S is also invitational but shows 5S/4H.

 

Note that neither of these can be 5+5+, responder would have started with transfers, not Stayman

 

2N by responder shows an invitational strength hand, with 1 or both 4 card majors. He would't have bothered with Stayman if he didnt have at least one of them.

 

3C by responder. I play this as a minor signoff. If you don't like it, play something else.

 

3D by responder. Responder could have passed, so this is forward-going. I am not sure this is clearly defined in "standard" but I think it should be a good 5 card D suit or maybe even 6, trying to help pard toward bidding 3N. It may be that responder would rather play 3D than 2N if opener cannot find a way to bid 3N.

 

3H or 3S by responder. This is defined in standard Stayman. Either major at the 3 level shows a game forcing hand, and 5 of the suit jumped in and 4 of the other major. How do you know about the 4 in the other major? Responder would not have bothered with Stayman without a 4 card major.

 

3N by responder means he was looking for a 4-4 major fit, but since there is none, he has the strength to play game in NT.

 

4C by responder. There is no suit agreed or implied. Straight, old-fashioned Gerber.

 

4D by responder. A lot of people don't have this defined. Another lot of people do...they play this as "delayed Texas Transfer", meaning a transfer to hearts. Responder has 4 Spades and 6 or longer hearts and game forcing strength.

 

4H by responder. Again, "delayed Texas Transfer" with long spades and 4 hearts this time. A WARNING! This bid is easy to miss. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen it passed. Make sure you and your partner are in complete agreement here and remind your partner a few times. Playing a 4-1 trump fit at the 4 level is not much fun.

 

4S...as far as I know, completely undefined

 

4N...a Quantitative NT bid, inviting to slam in NT since no major fit was found. Yes, since responder used Stayman, he implies 1 or 2 4-card majors.

 

A Note: If you are going to accept a Quantitative 4N bid, I suggest you pretend that it was Blackwood and answer Aces. It is possible to play 6NT with 32 high card points and be off two Aces. This is an irritation.

 

1NT-2c-2H:

 

2S by responder. I play this as 4S and a long minor, and a weak hand. It sure isn't hearts and it sure isn't 5S. There is another paper concerning dealing with minors over opening nt bids...you might profit reading that.

 

2N by responder. Invitational, and shows 4 spades, because of the Stayman use. Denies a heart fit. Opener can place the contract.

 

3 of either minor...for me...a sign-off in the minor.

 

3H by responder. An invitational raise, and confirms a heart fit.

 

3S by responder. Standard Stayman has no definition for this bid. There is a good use for it. See the paper on "Tools" for a complete explanation. This is a game-force with a heart fit, some degree of slam interest.

 

3N by responder. Responder has game values, 4 Spades and not 4 Hearts. Opener can pass or correct to 4S

 

4C by responder. Keycard Gerber for hearts. Hearts is implied but not certain. Responder is in control, so it doesn't matter. Opener responds as if hearts are agreed.

 

4D by responder....undefined

 

4H by responder...simply, responder wants to play game

 

4S by responder...undefined

 

4N by responder. Quantitative NT raise with 4 S. Opener can pass or correct to 5S, 6S, or 6N

 

OVER 1NT-2c-2s:

 

The auctions are the same with one exception:

 

1N-2c-2s-3h. That is the auction that shows a spade fit, a game-going, slam interest (to some degree or another) hand. It is artificial and asks for hand definition.

 

THOSE ARE ALL OF THE STAYMAN AUCTIONS. I SUGGEST YOU MAKE SURE YOU HAVE EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM DOWN SOLID. THERE IS JUST NO SENSE IN SHOOTING YOURSELF IN THE FOOT WHEN PARTNER OPENS 1NT

 

Bob Holmes