District 8 Solvers Forum -- from the December, 2000 issue of the District 8 Advocate

1. IMPs, both vulnerable

What is your call as South holding:    S-AK8   H-84  D-AK73  C-A854 ?
 

Action	Score	Votes	% Solvers
Double	100	11	59
3S	70	3	15
5C	60	1	8
4D	60	1	9

Here’s a problem that comes up often with so many players playing preemptive jump raises in competition. When their suit is higher than yours, it’s often impossible to make a game try at a safe level. The solution? Simply put:

MYERS:  “Double.  Suggests defending, with extra values.”

PASERO:  “Double. I hate it when people say ‘card showing’, but what else is this?  Partner, given very little direction, will do what’s right.”

Right;  partner can now make an intelligent decision (some partners can, anyway). With a stiff heart, he can bid an appropriate number of clubs. With a balanced hand, he’ll pass for penalties.This covers all your bases, since, as these panelists point out, you don’t even know if you have a game:

ATHY:  “Double. Sometimes you just have to trust partnero. You’re too good to pass and you have too many losers to up the ante. 200 sounds good and the occasional –730 is worth the risk.”

DODD:  “Double. Game is far from certain with all those empty spaces, and my defense is more than adequate despite ‘The Law’.”

Sounds like he thinks this is pure penalty, which seems to be a minority position. Partner knows we don’t have a heart stack, so I guess this hand is as “pure” a penalty double as we can have on this auction.

A few of our panelists were determined not to defend, though, and charged on toward game:

MATHENY:  “3S. A move toward a very unlikely 3NT. But if partner had that hand, he might have bid 1NT over 1H, so we’ll probably wind up in 5C.”

MILLER: “3S. Last chance for partner to bid 3NT.”

FEILER: “3S. The best contract here may well be 5D, or even 6D, but I don’t think we can get there from here. This is one of the reasons it’s best to open 1D with 4-4 in the minors.”

2. Matchpoints, both  vulnerable

What is your call as South holding:   S-532    H-AK4    D-J732   C-K64 ?
 

Action	Score	Votes	% Solvers
Double	100	9	33
2S	70	3	8
Pass	70	2	23
2C	60	1	13
2D	60	1	21

This is a trap from Kent Feiler to challenge our reasoning on Hand #3 from the August Forum. On that problem, you opened 1C with a 2-4-2-5 hand, LHO overcalled 1S and partner made a negative double.  After you rebid 2H, partner returned to your first suit with 3C. Most of our panel interpreted that as a game try for hearts and bid on to 4H. Kent had a different meaning in mind for 3C on that problem, and he’s going with it here, too:

FEILER: “Double. If partner doesn’t have 4 hearts, we’ll probably get to the right contract. If he bids hearts, we can try 3C and hope partner reads it.”

Kent thinks 3C should be passable and deny the suit shown by the double. He has a point, and if he was testing us, I’m sure we let him down. But, hey, we’re not exactly the Bridge World panel.  We may have thwarted him somewhat because most doublers had no intention of rescuing partner from 2H:

WALKER: “Double. You’ll never recover if you pass and hope to show these values later. If partner bidshearts, that may be a fine spot. It’s likely, though, that NT is the best contract, and this is the best way to get him to bid it."

WARD: “Double. If partner bids hearts, it’s not the end of the world. Every possible bid lies about a card, but with DBL, I only have to worry if partner actually bids hearts. Even then,  2H looks pretty good when he  holds x, xxxx, Axx, AQxxx. 2D on that 3.5-card suit leads to problems later.”

DODD: “Double, violating system perhaps, but raising clubs or cuebidding is even worse.”

Other choices ranged from wait-and-see to let’s-go-for-broke :

SPEAR:  “Pass, then hope to cuebid over partner’s double, or double a 2S raise to show values without 4 hearts. If I were trying for Forum points, I’d  double with the rest of the lemmings.”

MARSHALL: “2C. I used to pass these hands and think I could back in later, but partner kept thinking I had length in his suit with no strength, and kept getting it wrong.”

PASERO:  “2D, the smallest lie.”

A number of Solvers also bid 2D, but it’s really a pretty big lie, and it’s one that could easily propel us to the 3-level with 23 total points and no fit.

POPKIN:  “2S. When no bid is perfect, cuebid to get more information.”

What a rotten break Nancy!  Cuebids almost always get a decent score, and you got caught in the switches!

3. IMPs, NS vulnerable

What is your call as South holding:   S-AQ65  H-A62   D-J   C-AK653 ?
 

Action	Score	Votes	%Solvers
4NT	100	7	26
4C	90	3	10
5NT	80	2	3
6NT	70	1	5
Pass	60	3	56

Most of the panel understood this auction as slammish, but the Solvers were mostly content to play in game. When partner goes through 4th-suit-forcing and then bids 3NT, he’s usually showing more than a minimum. Here, since he bid the 4th suit -- and we only showed our pattern when we bid 3H -- we now have to find a way to show our extra values. Since 80 percent of the panel headed toward slam, Pass was demoted in the scoring.

4NT (not Blackwood) is probably the best way to show extras, since it implies a useful diamond holding. I think the 4C bidders are suggesting pure values in their suits. However, they can still get to a good slam contract or to 4NT if partner was just strapped.

ATHY:  “4NT. This automatic raise should be a near-universal response now that you’ve shown your pattern.”

DODD:  “4NT. I’d have made the same first three calls with as little as Axxx  Axx  x  AJxxx. ”

KESSLER:  “4NT. I think this is quantitative. I’d love to hear partner bid 6D. If he bids 5D, I’ll raise to 6. If he passes, I tried.”

SPEAR: “4NT, naturally inviting.  I can’t leave extra values unbid, then face teammates afterwards. If we miss a slam now, I can blame pard.”

FEILER: “6NT. It sounds like partner could have bid 3NT on the last round. If so, he must have been thinking about slam when he bid 2H, and if he was thinking it, I’m bidding it.”

Another alternative, 5NT, says pick a slam, but assumes too much, in my opinion (although you do have that possibly BIG  jack). These two good arguments almost convinced me:

WARD: “5NT. I have 5 honor tricks, and what I suspect is a  good diamond. It seems pretty obvious that I preempted partner out of diamonds, since at IMPs , he could have raised clubs instead of bidding 3NT. In any case, let him choose where we play, since he knows more about his hand than I do.”

WALKER: “5NT, pick a slam. 4NT is just torturing partner. He’s already shown extra values with 2H, so why ask him again? Partner knows my pattern, so it has to be right to ask him to choose the final contract."

4. Matchpoints, both vulnerable

What is your call as South holding:    S-AQ85   H-62   D-J3  C-AQ743 ?
 

Action	Score	Votes	% Solvers
Pass	100	7	13
2C	80	5	61
1S	70	4	26

I think this hand was put in as a reality check. I’d like to award a zero to anything but Pass, but since this is an election year, I will try to be politic. If you pass and LHO bids 1S or 1NT, you’ll be glad you stayed out of the auction. If he bids anything else, you’ll be well placed on the next round. The bidders, though, couldn’t wait to get in:

FEILER:  “2C. What else? Surely not the pusillanimous pass?”

SIEVERS: “2C. I’m a little light, but I deprive my LHO of bidding at the l-level, so I think it’s worth it.”

He won’t feel too deprived if he’s waiting to pass a reopening double.

MYERS:  “1S. Seems like the time to overcall a 4-card suit with clubs as a place to run.”

If you’re already thinking about a run suit, maybe it’s time to reconsider that first bid.

ATHY:  “Pass. 100% clear here. Why commit now? 2C could be suicide and 1S could prevent the best defense when the opponents play NT.”

KESSLER:  “Pass. We’ll have another chance, hopefully at a level where we can take action. 2C and 1S are out because of the suit quality.”

SPEAR:  “Pass, then hope to double subsequent heart bids by opponents.  Accurately describing one’s hand is not a bad thing.”

WARD:  “Pass. When did this become a bad call?  When it goes 1H – P – 2H back to me, I have an easy double. 2C deserves a visit from the Bridge Subtractor, violently screaming YO!”

I’m told that “YO” is the local parlance for -1100. And the Subtractor, for those who aren’t familiar, was introduced in a tongue-in-cheek Bridge World article from long ago. The article proposed that every tournament would have an official Subtractor whom you could summon to your table when you got fixed. The Subtractor would assess the opponent’s bidding and play and then deduct their matchpoints or masterpoints if he deemed their actions, however successful, to be bad bridge.

It’s an interesting concept. Of course, if you bid 2C here and go for “YO” — certainly possible — the opponents won’t need the Subtractor.

5. Matchpoints, both vulnerable
 

West	North	East	South
—	—	—	1S
Pass	1NT *	2D	?

  * (forcing NT)

What is your call as South holding:   S-AKQ985   H-97543   D-Void   C-AJ ?
 

Action	Score	Votes	% Solvers
2H	100	10	46
3H	70	3	31
2S	70	2	5
3D	60	1	5
4H/4S	60	0	11

Sorry, folks. I’m not jump-shifting into a 5-card suit headed by the 9, nor am I suppressing a 5-card suit. 2H seems just fine to me and I’m not worried about getting passed out. Cuebidding?  YO!  Subtractor!

Most 2H bidders had the feeling they would have another chance to bid:

ATHY: “2H. A dangerous hand, even though you only have 4 losers. This auction isn’t likely to be over.”

DODD: “2H. Partner may pass if he’s short in the majors and loaded in diamonds, but this auction is far from over if my crystal ball is clear.”

FEILER:  “2H. I suppose I could bid 3H, but I’m not worried about the hand getting passed out, and I’d like to listen to more bidding.”

MYERS: “2H. Despite the rotten suit, partner could have a better fit in heartsthan spades, and may have wasted values in diamonds.”

More than three-quarters of the Solvers bid hearts, casting a fairly strong vote for the jump to 3H . They’re about a king or so shy of jump-shift values, but at least they’re getting the suit into the picture. Some of our panel, though, decided the hearts weren’t worth mentioning for now:

KESSLER:  “2S. Hopefully followed by 3H over 3D. This leaves us much better placed if we get to bid again.”

PASERO:  “2S. I’m content now to show my 6th spade instead of those ‘hearts’. I’ll bid 2S instead of 3 to avoid eating up too much room.”

WARD:  “3D. I have to admit I’d have opened 4S, it being matchpoints. But now I guess I have to give myself a chance to hear partner bid hearts.”

Let me get this straight: your first evaluation was a preempt, but now a cuebid? What changed your mind – that partner now might have limited values and RHO unlimited values?

6. Matchpoints, both vulnerable

What is your call as South holding:   S-K8   H-A4   D-J765  C-109752 ?
 

Action	Score	Votes	% Solvers
4D	100	9	31
3S	80	3	18
4S	70	1	13
3NT	60	3	31

With your secondary spade fit and heart control, this hand is very slammish if partner really has diamonds. Can it hurt to raise?
4D implies slam-invitational values since it bypasses 3NT. If partner rebids 4S, suggesting a 6th spade and perhaps diamonds that weren’t really biddable, you can still bid on.

A 4S rebid would also confirm a hand that was too good to bid 4S over 1NT -- S-AQJxxxx  H-Kx D-KQx  C-A.
On further reflection, you really do have a prime hand, don’t you?

FEILER: “4D. If partner didn’t want me to raise diamonds with 4-card support, then he shouldn’t have bid them. People who bid 3S are telling their partners that they were afraid they didn’t know this was matchpoints.”

MYERS: “4D. All of my cards are working. I guess the best thing is to indicate the fit for partner’s second suit.”

POPKIN:  “4D. At first, I chose 3H as temporizing, thinking I didn’t want to bypass 3NT at matchpoints. But I realized that we’d miss too many slams this way. If partner is just making a power jump shift  preparing to bid 4S, I have 3 ‘aces’ for him – spade king, heart ace and the ruffing value. If he does have diamonds, I have the same three . The real problem is whether to bid on if he rebids 4S.”

Other 4D bidders were planning to bid 5H — a cuebid confirming spades — if partner rebids 4S. That seems a good way to complete the picture and show a slam invite. It’s also a good endorsement of the wisdom of not jump-shifting with limited high-card values, as in #5 of this set. If partner makes a slam try with an 8-count on that deal, you may be in trouble.

At the other extreme, some panelists wanted to slow things down.

SIEVERS: “3NT. This looks better than 5D at matchpoints, and slam seems remote. If slam is there, partner will probably bid again.”

3NT suggests a non-fitting hand with club and heart values. With that idea of your hand, partner may pass with many hands that make slam. With a different view, our 3S bidders wanted to steer partner directly to the major:

SPEAR: “3S. Masterminding for matchpoints. I’ll say I had a diamond in with my hearts if 6D makes.”

ATHY: “3S. About right on this scattering. It’s forcing, and it doesn’t  kill the chance to play in other contracts.”

Finally, suffering from declaraphobia and hoping for a lead out of turn:

WARD: “3S. If partner bids 3NT, I’m ready to spread the dummy neatly. I’ll admit it’s close between 3S and 4D, but it’s matchpoints, and giving up on 3NT usually means 6D. 4D puts too much pressure on partner to rebid spades, which could easily be the best game if he’s 5-3-4-1 or 5-2-5-1.”

If you’d like to read up on our bidding system, Bridge World Standard, see: www.bridgeworld.com/bws/bwsmainpage.html

A big turnout  would be a great way to welcome our new moderator team, Nate Ward & Scott Merritt, who will write the February Forum. Scott has designed a handy web form you can use to submit your answers and comments.

Avoid the holiday rush; send your solutions as soon as possible (by December 23, please) to Scott and Nate through the web form, by mail (Scott Merritt, 1215 Paula Drive, Champaign IL  61821) or email ( merritt@prairiecity.com ).

How the Panel Voted  (Panel/Staff average: 520)