Glenna:
South doesn’t have an opening bid so I think they should do nothing but PASS!
This leads to an interesting line of defense—lead your longest suit and make
declarer ruff at every opportunity. Sometimes they run out of trump and you
become master of the hand. This has a name: Forcing Game. A great defensive
play.
Good
luck,
Glenna
Vic:
Your question begs a two-word answer that happens to be the most common immediate response to many/most bridge questions: "It Depends”.
First & foremost it depends on your Partnership Agreements. Close behind your Partnership Agreements it depends on the strength & distribution of your hand.
Most partners agree that DBL of a preemptive opening bid is for Takeout. Since that is the most common agreement, I will assume it is the agreement here. That means you cannot DBL for penalty, as much as you might like to do so.
Partner has a right to expect any suit bid you make to promise a strong suit of at least 5 cards. That means you should not make a suit bid either.
Partner has a right to expect a Takeout DBL to promise at least an opening hand & “tolerance” in the unbid suits. The opening hand you have. What is your partnership agreement with respect to “tolerance”?
Your
singleton club clearly does not meet any rationale standard for tolerance. It
also makes clubs the suit partner is most likely to have length in. If
you DBL, would a Club response by partner make you happy?
I suspect not, especially knowing they might be forced to do so holding a very weak hand.
Bottom line is that, despite a strong urge to tell partner you have 4 spades, you should be reluctant to make a Takeout DBL which has the potential to get you in lots of trouble.
If I were holding the South hand, I would PASS. I believe West & North were also correct to subsequently Pass.
Looks
to me like good defense puts East down at east one trick. Ain’t bridge a great
game?
Bridge Scoring 1 Video - November 1, 2021
Contents:
YouTube Location: https://youtu.be/uCPXkC5dVdk
Handout: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Pwe7XjDTSpRs2jtCPV-qpaP1qGuCE1FYx0IYu1ImUb8/edit?usp=sharing
__________________________________________________________________________
Bridge Scoring 2 Video - November 8, 2021
Contents:
YouTube Location: https://youtu.be/nc5GgX2bHNE
Handout: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Pwe7XjDTSpRs2jtCPV-qpaP1qGuCE1FYx0IYu1ImUb8/edit?usp=sharing
Vic:
The correct motto is: “The stronger the hand, the slower the bidding, until you know & then you go.” I don’t see any discrepancies in that motto.
Motto Meaning: With a strong hand do not use up bidding space rapidly. You need the auction to go slowly enough so that you can be sure to find the correct denomination (S - H - D - C - NT) & also determine if you really do have enough points and/or the correct distribution to be in game. Once one of you is sure of the denomination & knows that you are strong enough for game, they should stop worrying about using up bidding space & simply go to game (jump or whatever).
The 1H bid by partner was an overcall which most players agree could be as weak as 8 HCPs. Added to your 13 HCPs that is NOT enough points for game. However, partner’s overcall also promises a 5-card suit so the Law of Total Trump says you should be in game, point count be damned.
As soon as partner overcalls 1H you “know” (by virtue of the Law of Total Trump) that you should be in game. On your second chance to call you should tell partner that by bidding 4H. If partner has a hand that is much stronger than 8 HCPs, they are then free to explore for slam.
The 3H bid you made told partner you do not “know” whether you should be in game. The 3H bid only invites game. Fortunately, partner had more than 5 hearts & accepted your invitation.
In the bidding scheme the robots use the 5H bid by north, over a jump to game (4H) by south, was probably a bid that was forcing to slam (which deserves to go down).
You
deserve to take 11 tricks whether your contract is 4H or 5H. You get the same
score either way. You do not have to bid 5H to get the score for 5H. So I am
not sure why would it matter whether the final contract was 4H or 5H. In fact
4H would be preferable, since it gives you room to miss a trick & still
make your game contract.
South did NOT have a good weak 2-bid!!! It’s ok with the right hand to open
with 5-10 high card points (HCP) or 5-11 HCP. BUT the suit has to be good. If the ♥️ suit was KQxxxx or AQxxxx it would be okay. So more
important than point count is how good the suit is!!! Do not open
horrible suits. Non-vulnerable (NV) vs. vulnerable (V) you could have as few as 5-7 HCP. If you are V vs. NV, you
should have 9-11 HCP.
Good players who have 6-card Majors open 1 of the Major and rebid 2 with as few
as 11, Again look at V or NV. They assume the 6-card good major should be
opened. A lot to consider.
No, in my opinion they should not.
It is my understanding that an overcall at the two level, especially vulnerable, should ideally promise a strong 6-card suit. If only a 5-card suit, it should be exceptionally strong. The club suit in question clearly does not measure up.
A more pressing question is why South passed the 1S bid by North. In Standard American a new suit at the one level by Responder is considered a forcing bid. Opener may not Pass.
The proper second call by South in this case would be 1NT (denies 4 spades - denies 6 diamonds - implies a balanced hand - promises a standard opening point count). Where the auction goes from there depends on how sophisticated the pairs bidding systems are. Given that Responder has 13 HCPs, including 3 Aces, I would expect the auction to reach game (3NT or 4S).
Interestingly enough, I don't believe either 3NT of 4S deserves to make. In bridge reaching the correct contract is no guarantee that contract deserves to make. The correct contract will, however, deserve to make MOST of the time.
Ain’t
bridge a great game?
Glenna:
A
great thing for partners to do is to SUPPORT with SUPPORT!!!!! S should
bid 3 ♥️ and W should bid 3 ♠️. N will pass and E can decide whether or not to bid
game. E has an opening hand at the very least and W has support AND 10
points.
W must raise partner!!
Glenna
Glenna:
Everyone
including the guys with 50 and 60,000 master points make mistakes and spend
time talking to themselves—especially if the mistake was because of loss of
concentration, a mechanical error or just bad judgement. That’s when you say to
yourself, you did the best you could at the time with what you knew—sorry, it
wasn’t enough. If you “beat yourself up” every time you make a mistake, you’ll
get so down on yourself that you won’t have fun. The best way to avoid those
bad days is to learn the rules of bidding—easy to -- just takes and hard
work. Once you know the bidding rules, your scores will improve 50-75% and
This
hand is an excellent example: You have 11 points and can go to the
2-level EXCEPT you need a 5-card suit to go to the 2 level!!!!! When you don’t
have the strength and/or the length you need, bid what best works for you
hand.
You have 11 points but only 4 ♥️, so look for something else.
1Nt is 6-10 and you have 11. Well with 11 or 12, we bid 2 NT. That is not
forcing and partner will probably pass you. But 2NT has at least a 90% chance
of working out better than a 4-card suit at the 2 level.
Forgot to say the Robot’s x showed 4 ♥️ and 4 ♦️s so NT is even better. One thing you should learn soon is negative doubles
I wish I you and 3 others to do NOTHING but bidding for 2 hours. I
can promise at the end, you would be so much better! Please think about
Investing
a little time to gain a lot!!!!
Vic:
The “rules” are whatever you & partner agree they should be.
A common partnership agreement is that 1st & 2nd seat opening bids should absolutely promise a “solid” hand. The classically accepted Total Point Count (TPC) standard for “solid" is 13-21 points. Audrey Grant teaches that you can add length points to high card points (HCPs) to determine your TPC.
The Quick Trick standard for “solid" is at least 2. The Loser Count standard for “solid” is not more than 7. Most often, hands that meet the Total Point Count standard will also meet the Quick Trick & Loser Count standard, but not always. You need to consider all three standards when you evaluate a hand.
An example I often cite to my students is a hand with all 4 Queens + all 4 Jacks + a 5-card suit. That hand has 13 Total Points, but zero Quick Tricks & 8 losers. I would not dream of opening that hand in 1st or 2nd seat.
Some partners agree it is OK to open light in 1st or 2nd seat with certain types of hands. A common standard they embrace is the Rule of Twenty (count the total number of cards in your two longest suits - add that number to your HCP count number - if adding the two numbers gets you to 20 you can open). A better agreement for opening light is the Rule of Twenty Plus Two which simply means the hand should also have at least 2 Quick Tricks.
Partnership agreements for opening light in 3rd & 4th seat are very common. The Rule of Fifteen which involves HCP count & the total number of spades in your hand is often used in 4th seat. Among experienced players outrageously light opening bids in the 3rd seat seem to currently be in fashion. It is reasonable to assume these experienced partners have discussed these bids thoroughly. It is also reasonable to assume that experienced players are better at getting themselves out of trouble.
Weak Two bids in the 4th seat, by the way, are an exception to opening light. Weak Two bids in the 4th seat should promise an opening hand to go along with the 6-card suit. If you have a Weak Two hand you would like to open in the 4th seat (6 spades for example), open at the one level.
The
South hand in the example given could be described as an “Aces & Spaces”
hand. It has 3 Quick Tricks. It has 12 HCPs, but does not meet Rule of Twenty
standards. It also has 9 losers & no promising distributional
features. Other than the Aces, the spot cards are terrible. The three Aces may
very well be the only tricks that hand wins. I would not open that hand in
either 1st or 2nd seat.
