So many interesting hands to chose from
Playing with Colin last night I said that our table was wild and wacky and that was certainly true. I enjoyed this one and I noticed we weren’t the only East-West to have a similar result. South opened 1NT vulnerable against not and I doubled showing a major and a minor. I held S AK976 H 5 D 7 C AK10653. North bid 2D a transfer to hearts and Colin bid 3C pass or correct. South bid 4H and I "corrected" to 5C which South doubled. Colin held just enough with S3 H842 D K10853 C Q982.
Shortly thereafter North white on red opened 4H and I heard Colin double. Do you like pass on my hand, vulnerable? I held S K103 H 97 D83 C A108753. I passed and it went for 800. 5C is on the diamond finesse which works. Colin held S QJ7 H AJ6 D AQ106 CKQJ.
However we did have a little system thing on this hand. I held S Q1086 H 2 D 5 C Q1098632. Colin opened 1C and RHO bid 1S. I would have liked to bid several clubs but I wasn’t sure what that meant. I decided to pass showing less than 5 and then bid clubs at my next turn. This was the auction in the end and it was less than satisfactory because we make 5C.
| Linda | North | Colin | South |
| 1C | 1S | ||
| Pass | 2D | Pass | 2H |
| 3C | 3H | all pass |
I thought this auction would show a very distributional 3 or 4. Anyway we are going to try to play weak jump shifts in competition after we open 1C. So here I would bid 3C over 1S. It sounds reasonable to me but would be interested in comments.
The opening 2C bid held up well on this hand. Colin opened 2C and I held
S A1054 H Q8542 D 72 C A5
RHO bid 3D. I doubled and raised Colin’s 3S to 4S. Colin held SKQ76 H K3 D 10 C KJ10984.
Colin played this hand against Pamela and "Sabba" an Australian expert who joined us and played nicely. Our auction went
| Linda | Pamela | Colin | Sabba |
| 1H | 2S | ||
| 4H | 4S | 5H | all pass |
| Linda | ||
| S 64 | ||
| H 109654 | ||
| D K2 | ||
| Sabba | C AQ76 | Pamela |
| S AK10975 | S J842 | |
| H void | H K82 | |
| D J85 | D Q7643 | |
| C J953 | Colin | C 8 |
| S Q | ||
| H AQJ73 | ||
| D A109 | ||
| C K1042 |
As you can see this is a total tricks hand and if you want to keep competing in spades you better continue all the way to 6S if needed which is going 2 or 3 down depending on whether we find the diamond ruff. What do you think of the auction, by the way.
Too bad we weren’t in 6 because Colin played it well to make it. The defence started with 2 top spades Colin ruffing the second with the H7. HE played a diamond to the DK and played 3 top diamonds ruffing the last in dummy. He continued with the H10 and then played a heart to the Q as Sabba showed out. On the last trump Sabba threw a spade. Colin had a count on the hand. He knew Sabba had six spades, 3 diamonds and therfore 4 clubs. Colin laid down the CK and saw Pamela play the club 8. He now led the C10 and let it ride when Sabba ducked making 12 tricks.
Okay one last hand. The auction was:
| Linda | Pamela | Colin | Sabba |
| Pass | Pass | 2C | 3D |
| DBL | Pass | 3S | Pass |
| 4S | all pass |
| Linda | ||
| S A1054 | ||
| H Q8542 | ||
| D 72 | ||
| Sabba | C A5 | Pamela |
| S AK10975 | S 32 | |
| H void | H AJ109 | |
| D J85 | D 863 | |
| C J953 | Colin | C Q762 |
| S J98 | ||
| H 76 | ||
| D AKQJ954 | ||
| C 3 |
The defence started with 2 top diamonds ruffed by Colin. He played the SK and Sabba played the SJ presumably to scare him. It did cause a significant pause but Colin continued with a spade to the SA. LEaving out the long spade Colin played the CA and another club to the C9 as Sabba ruffed, However the defence is now helpless and can only take the HA. Bidding and making 4S was worth more than 9 imps
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Bridge-related
Bob Mackinnon has been the source of a lot of good ideas. Here is an email he sent me in response to this post. I have forwarded it to Colin.
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Competition over Big Club
I disagree with your idea of preemptive jump responses when the opponents overcall a Big Club. Here are some ideas.
There is an old bridge adage, don’t preempt over a preempt. This is because partner may have a big hand and the hand belongs to your side. Well, the same surely applies after partner opens 1. Don’t use up bidding space as that may be what the opponents hope to achieve.
Even if you have just 4 HCP, your side holds the majority of HCP. Your attitude should be, ‘this hand belongs to us.’ Concentrate on reaching your best contract.
When partner opens 1C, first picture him with 17 HCP, a flat hand and 5 controls, AAK, as a minimum. Now when the opponents overcall, what would you do if you knew partner had opened a maximum strong 1NT? You won’t want to preempt, would you? No, what you can do is use some form of Lebensohl to distinguish between a weak hand that wants to compete and a strong hand looking for game.
On the Blog Hand (above), you held S QT86 H 2 D 5 C QT98632 and the auction went:
1C (1S) Pass (2D)
Pass (2H) 3C (3H) All Pass
If you thought, ‘bidding 4 might push them to a making game’, that would be the wrong attitude. It’s not that your side can make game, but you should expect to make 4C.
When Colin passed he gave up the captaincy, and you can see why, so it is up to you to take the initiative and risk 4. It has nothing to do with the system that requires you to pass initially.
With Lebensohl, suits at the 2-level are nonforcing, an approach discussed by Marshall Miles. This may be a matchpoint strategy, but that is what I use, and it comes up quite often without causing much damage, but then the opponents are not very aggressive here in Victoria. At IMPs I would go along with Meckwell’s methods.
I think Meckwell double to show ‘points’, even with a long suit. This could work here to inhibit any free bids that could backfire with a penalty double looming. The more undisciplined the opponents they more fearful they should be. Use their uncertainty, limit your ambitions.