Weekly Hand Analysis - Glenna Shannahan - April 4, 2022 - 11 Point Hand

 

Question: Here’s  a hand where communication of point count kept N/S from bidding Slam. N/S Made 6 NT.  How does one bid this for a slam?

Glenna:

This is a great discussion hand because 6 NT makes only because S has 5 ♦️! The contract should be 3 NT as 19 and 11 or 12 are only 30 or 31 points and 6NT usually needs 33 if both hands are flat. But the bidding was unfortunate because it told a totally wrong story of the S hand.

  South should respond 1 ♦️ and not 1NT. 1 NT denies a 4-card suit higher than ♣️ and shows 6 - 10 points and S has 11. After S bids 1 ♦️, N will bid 2 NT showing 18 or 19 and S will bid 3 NT.

  I will repeat myself here and say PLEASE bid 1 ♦️ when you have a hand like this. 11 points is good enough to accept an invitation to game from partner and 1 NT is not. We must strive to show the hand we are holding and not try to be clever, etc. Bidding takes a lot of memory work and a desire to be as accurate as possible. That’s how you know you don’t have a biddable slam. Always be thankful when you make overtricks—they are much more fun than undertricks.

Have a great week,

Glenna

Weekly Hand Analysis - Vic Johnson - April 4, 2022 - Bidding to a slam

 

Question:  

The hand made 6C, should W have gone up after E bids the 5C ?  Note: E and W  do not transfer into a minor so the 3 C bid by E indicated 6 C and at least 8 HCP.

Vic:

West described their hand to partner on their 1st  call (15-17 & balanced). The 3D bid by West on their second call implied 5 - 3 - 3 - 2 distribution (diamonds being the long suit). The fact that knowing partner’s hand East subsequently bid 5C indicates that is where East thinks the contract should be played. So NO, West should not raise to slam. 

Question: Do EW treat the 3C bid as forcing? If not, it is a terrible bid. What a tragic waste of a good hand if East had been passed out in 3C. Forcing or not, I am not aware of anyone who plays the agreement you describe for the meaning of 3C (or 3D) over an opening 1NT. I would encourage EW to revisit that agreement & seek some advice. 

Comment: Holding the East hand my response to an opening 1NT bid by partner would be 6NT. With North on lead 6NT is cold (7NT if North does not lead a heart).

Weekly Hand Analysis - Vic Johnson - March 28, 2022 - Jacoby 2NT or not?

 

Question: 

The N/S pair quickly got to game but perhaps a re-evaluation of point counts in both hand would have gotten them to a slam bid (which they made).

Vic:

Alert: I will assume that 2NT is Jacoby 2NT Convention, because if it is not, then it is a mystery bid which leaves me clueless. Jacoby 2NT promises 4-card trump support & 13+ points & is forcing to game. 

Note: If it is Jacoby 2NT, then Responder lied about having 4 hearts (NOT a good lie).  

North's initial evaluation of their hand should have been: 17 points (15 HCP + 2 Length) - 3.5 Quick Tricks (2.0 is standard for a full strength opening hand) - 6 Losers (a standard opening hand has 7). So, assuming Responder’s bid is Jacoby 2NT, North has no need to “reevaluate” their hand to be interested in slam. 

Once a game forcing bid has been made, slow advances to game are considered stronger than a fast advance to game. That means the 4H second call by Opener discourages the idea of slam. It says “Partner, I had pretty much a bottom of the line opening bid & have no interest in slam unless you are really loaded.”. Responder subsequently did well to Pass the auction out at 4H. 

A much better second call by Opener would have 3H. That says “Partner, I have extra values here & think we might have slam. What do you think?”. It also tells Responder that Opener has 6 hearts, not just 5. Responder should  now be reasonably certain they belong in slam. 

Over 3H, Responder could next choose to bid 4NT(Blackwood). Standard Blackwood would tell Responder that Opener has the other two Aces. Roman Key Card Blackwood would tell Responder that Opener has three Key Cards. Either way, I would expect Responder to next bid 6H which looks to me like it deserves to make. 

Over 3H, Responder could instead choose to bid 3S which in most partnership agreements would promise first round control of spades. I suspect Opener then subsequently bid Blackwood & go on to slam.

 

Comment: Instead of 2NT my first call holding the South would have been 1S (promises 4 spades & at least 6 points & is forcing for one round). If Opener was one of my regular partners, I would expect their second bid to be a jump to 3H which promises 6 hearts & extra values. High ho, high ho, its off to slam we go.

 

Ain’t bridge a great game?

Weekly Hand Analysis - Glenna Shannahan - March 28, 2022 - Rebid of 5 Card Suits

 

Question: This board goes awry when N goes looking for slam with insufficient points. How can you stop the bidding and have a makeable bid?

Glenna:

  We do Not rebid 5-card suits    Rebid 2 NT or a new suit 

  N has no reason to look for slam with this hand. Barely has enough to insist on game.  

Glenna 

Weekly Hand Analysis - Glenna Shannahan - March 21, 2022- Weak or Intermediate Jump Shift

 

Question:  If you look at E, S, and W each has long suits.  How does one bid to let partner know they have these long suits?

Glenna:

  I think they did pretty well. I would have overcalled 1 ♠️, not 2. My weak jumps show better suits with most points in that suit. E should always bid 3 ♥️ even with the ♠️ fit, because a double fit is a fantastic way of bidding game with fewer points than normally needed. But, now to South: S has a 3 loser hand and must bid 4 ♣️ over 3 ♥️. North would correct to 4 ♦️and S will pass or bid 5.  5 is makable when ♣️ Q falls doubleton.

  Send me more hands like this because I see a need for better understanding of weak or intermediate jump shifts!

Thanks so much,

Glenna

Weekly Hand Analysis - Vic Johnson - March 21, 2022 - Six and Five Come Alive

 

Question:  How should this hand been bid?

Vic: 

Disclaimer: If you posed this question to a series of different experienced players, I would be shocked if you did not get a number of different answers. Basic bidding system & partnership agreements, along with personal preferences, style & opinions, would all play a role. Following is how I suspect one of my experienced partners & I might well bid the hand. 

Holding the West hand, I would want to be able to tell partner I have a strong 6-card club suit. I would consequently open 1C, laying the groundwork for me to rebid clubs later. Clubs is also of course the longer of my two suits. Pass by North. Partner would bid 1D, leaving South with no rationale call other than Pass.  

North & South are Passing for the remainder of the auction. 

My second call would be 2S, a jump shift which partner would read as showing a strong two-suited hand with clubs longer than spades. They would also take it as game forcing. You will note that my 12 HCPs do not meet the standards for “strong”. But I would argue that my awesome distribution (“Six & Five Come Alive”) more than compensates for my minimal opening point count. I am hoping for game, possibly even slam, in clubs or spades. 

Partner would bid 3C promising club support & leaving 3NT still open as a possible game bid. It also renders it unnecessary for me to rebid my clubs to tell partner I have six of them. 

My third call would be 4NT (Blackwood Roman Key Card 1430 - clubs is trump). Partner’s subsequent call of 5H promises two of the five Key Cards & denies the club Queen. Knowing I am missing only one Key Card & not being worried about the club Queen (I have it), I would bid 6C to end the auction. 

Looks to me as if EW deserve to make 6C. See if you can figure out how. Ain’t bridge a great game?

 

Weekly Hand Analysis - Vic Johnson - March 14, 2022 - Disciplined Weak Two Bids

 

Question:  Although West bid 2S, North has good spades and a 15 point hand.  South opened.  Does North really need to pass?

Vic: 

An interesting hand & auction. The only player with a decent hand is North & they are the only player not bidding. With the possible exception of East, I would rank all three bids that were made as questionable. 

Anyway, to answer your question:  It depends.  

Are NS playing “disciplined” Weak Two bids? “Disciplined" means that the suit in question is pretty solid which is the agreement I have with my partners. Ideally, that means 2 of top 3 OR 3 of top 5 honors.   

If South’s 6-card diamond suit is solid, North could imagine at least five & possibly 6 tricks in diamonds. Over 2S they could consequently opt to bid 2NT which promises a good hand and a spade stopper. Holding the North hand myself, I would be very tempted to bid 3NT. Turns out that the way the cards are sitting I believe 3NT deserves to make. 

Ain’t bridge a great game?

 

Weekly Hand Analysis - Glenna Shannahan - March 14, 2022 - Weak Freak

 

Question: The “weak freak”, is there a way to communicate the extra values in an unusually long suit?

Glenna:

  A traditional “weak freak” is 5-9 points, 5 trump and a singleton somewhere in the hand! I have to be honest and say I often break the rule of a singleton and half the time we make it and half the time we go down. Think the best policy is for the partnership to discuss how they should bid a hand with 5 trump and play it accordingly.

  The South hand can NOT get excited with their 19 or 20 points as the MOST  North can have is 9 and that only makes 28 so enough for game, but no interest in slam. The books say slam can be bid with 32 and  that’s true for suits as you can ruff losers. I have learned over the years that I need 33 for a NT Slam.

Hope this helps,

Glenna

Weekly Hand Analysis - Victor Johnson - March 7, 2022 - 2NT?

 

Question:  

E overcalls the opening C bid by N. After W bids 2NT to indicate point count what is the best bid for E to make 3C indicating a C stopper, 3 H  or 3 NT?

Vic:

Question Back At You:  What system are EW playing? I have never heard of a 2NT bid in that scenario to show point count.  How many points was 2NT supposedly showing?  

Answer to Your Question:  My second call holding the East hand would be 3C. BUT I would expect that call to be interpreted as showing not just a stopper in clubs, but a two-suited hand (hearts & clubs) with the clubs either shorter than or equal in length to the hearts. More often than not that would mean 5-4 or 5-5 distribution. With a two-suited hand, I would not expect East to be “bidding stoppers” in search of a no trump contract. Even if West has the other two suits, EW are likely to have a transportation problems playing no trump. 

Comment: As soon as East overcalls 1H, West knows they have a golden fit in hearts. West's first priority should be to tell East about that golden fit. There are two common ways of doing that, depending on partnership agreement. West could raise partner to 3H. Or West could make a 2C cue bid of opponent’s suit. Both of those options promise 11(+) points. The 2C cue bid has the advantage of letting East bail out at the two level if they have a bottom of the range overcall.

Weekly Hand Analysis - Glenna Shannahan - March 7, 2022 - A gamble or not so much

 

Question: 

W has 19 HCP, 6 diamonds and a void in Clubs. Opens 1 D with the thought of doing a jump shift into H. But…partner only has 5 pts and passes. Is there any way to bid this hand that gets it to slam or is this just a “Ho-Chunk” hand?

Glenna: 

  I think a Ho-Chunk bid is a gamble and some bids are truly that. But, this is a case of people not being aware of how we count points today. Because of how we do hand evaluation, when partner opens the bidding, we give value to the honor cards AND we add 1 point for every card over 4 in a suit! So with a 5-card A9765 suit, we have 4 points for the A and 1 point for the 5th ♥️.  The hand with 6 points should respond 1 ♥️ and partner should bid 4 ♥️.  It’s very important for responder know that 4 ♥️ is NOT a shutout bid—it shows a hand that can make game opposite a 6-point hand. So, if responder should happen to have 12 or 13 points, he should look for slam!!! The only shutout bid in bridge is 1NT  P 3NT—no slam here partner!

  Hand evaluation has changed over the years and today we give value to hands that have high cards in the long suits. I will give you an example which also shows the difference between a good 10 pt hand and a bad 10 pt hand or of any hand:

           Good                                                                     Bad

 

Axxxx  xx.  KQJx  xx                         xxxxx   Ax   Kxx   QJx

                                                                                         

               Ok                                                             Not so Great

 

AKQJTxxxx  x   xx  x                         AKQx     AKQx     AKQx  x    Both hands can take 9 tricks BUT look at the difference in points!!!!

 

Hope this helps,

Glenna