Weekly Hand Analysis - Glenna Shannahan - September 20, 2021- Should you rescue your partner from 1NT with less than 6 HCPs?

Question: Is there any rule to rescue your partner from NT when you have less than 6 HCPs?

Glenna:

This is a great hand because it illustrates that nothing you do in bridge works out the way you want or expect 100% of the time. 1st of all, you notice most tables played ♣️ and not NT. The player who didn’t bid ♣️, made a gamble because he saw the possibility that with 3 ♥️ entries, he would have a chance at defeating a NT contract.

  The people who did bid ♣️ with that hand, had too many losers to make a positive contract. Since you’re the only one in NT, you were “fixed” again. Would really like for everyone to get into the habit of counting winners and losers.

  Regardless of length of cards in a suit, losers are ONLY the A, K or Q.  If you hold Axxxxx, you have 2 losers—K and Q.  If you hold Ax, you have only 1 loser. KQx - l loser. Kxx - 2, etc. We count losers in suit contracts and find ways to eliminate them.

  NT contracts you must count your winners and then determine how to make more winners, Again winners are Axxxx, KQx,  QJTx, etc,

  To answer your question about saving partner when you have bad hands, we do have two things to help us. 1st is transfers—we get partner to play the hand with his strength and our length.  The 2nd method does not occur very often but is a wonderful thing to know when it does occur—with almost no points and a SINGLETON ♣️ and 4 cards in the other 3 suits, bid 2 ♣️ and pass whatever partner bids. That little trick is something I teach in my BB1 classes. We want bridge hands to be a challenge and fun—not a hopeless cause. These two uses makes bridge more fun.

See You At The Tables,

Glenna