Brian Davies
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I’m not a great fan of the rule of 14. For us, a two level response promises 10 points. Very occasionally, I would upgrade a nine HCP hand and treat it as 10 points – this happens most often when I have three-card support for partner’s suit – but I certainly do not respond at the two level every time that I have nine points and a five-card suit. I can’t remember ever responding at the two level with eight points and a six-card suit.
Even if I do sometimes do this with nine, partner will bid on the assumption that I have 10.
East’s 2♥ promised a five card suit and 10+ HCPs. East’s 2NT promised a balanced hand with 11-12 HCPs. Both bids look very normal to me. In an ideal world we would like to have stops in both unbid suits but we aren’t always dealt that and the hand is too good to pass. If partner raised to 3NT they would have at least another three points making it likely that partner would hold a stop.
If instead, East rebid 3♦, it would distort the shape as well as the strength.
“your 2/1 response is not too strong, a minimum of something like 8-10” – I know of several players who play that a new suit at the two-level is forcing as far as 2NT (so 1H-2D-2H is forcing). As a consequence, the two-level response tends to show a good 11 or 12.
Things get even more complicated when you realise that Acol was exported to many countries and has evolved in very different direction in several of these countries. Acol in the Netherlands is a five-card major system as I understand it.
You are right John! three hearts makes.
Why do you think that East is telling West to pick a suit other than spades? Is that because East can jump to four spades with four-card support? But surely 4NT asks East to pick a suit other than spades? I would think it more logical that the cue bid suggests some slam interest but with spades as trumps.
Hi Anthony, we didn’t comment on your sequence: (1♣)-1♦-(1♥)-1♠. My thoughts are:
- Both opener and responder have bid. Let’s give opener 11+ and responder 6+. Unless there is a lot of distribution about, we are not making game and we are discussing a part-score battle.
- In a part-score battle, I don’t regard a natural bid as forcing. Once we bid, partner also knows that this is a part-score battle (which is a reason for bidding).
- I don’t see why a one spade bid should promise any more than five – we are only at the one level.
- How do you play (1♣)-1♦-(1♥)-Dbl? It should not be penalties – our opponents are in a forcing auction – so it is competitive. I would play it as four spades and support (or at least tolerance) for partner.
- You also have two cue bids available. You might discuss the meaning of each, but in my partnership we would just use the cheapest cue bid as a UCB and I don’t think that we have a meaning for a two heart bid.
Yes, a cruel game. 76 match points available and we scored zero. If a club were led we would have scored 73 match points!
- One pair bid to 7NT by West! North cruelly doubled.
- One pair went down in 6H. Queen of spades was led and taken by the king in dummy. Then ran the hearts and couldn’t get to dummy!
- Most pairs stopped in game.
No surprise that we lost that round 20-0.
My wife held the South hand. She made the standard lead against a grand slam: a trump. I can’t fault her for that,
Bridge is an easy game when you have the benefit of hindsight and when you can see all four hands! Is there any reason why she might have guessed right? My “hindsight” logic is:
- East has a hand with a big source of tricks (single suiter or more likely two-suiter). East almost certainly has a void (or two!) – this is the most likely explanation for making such a leap and not revealing his hand.
- Partner has not doubled for a lead, so doesn’t hold a void (outside trumps). It is possible that partner might hold an ace (East didn’t use Blackwood).
- A trump lead is usually recommended because it is passive. But maybe we don’t want to be passive if East has a source of tricks, so I wouldn’t lead a trump.
- I would rule out a spade, because my length would make me guess that East would be void in that suit.
- I would guess that East’s “second suit” might be diamond.
- This seems to leave a club as the best guess. I am not worried about leading away from the Jack. I can’t believe that East needs to make the 10 of clubs for his contract.
So much for hindsight!
Norman Selway was extremely apologetic at the end of the hand!
Is this really an auction where you want to be passive?
What would you lead if partner doubled? Partner didn’t double.
“The fact that opener does not need help in clubs and does not mind a bit of heart wastage is why Bernard might recommend a simple 3S.”
Yes, this was part of the reason. The other factor is that opener wants to know whether East has a diamond control and 3S showing a very strong hand is the easiest way to initiate cue bidding. If opener rebids 4C, showing a club suit, East might judge the hand as unsuitable and bid 4S without cue bidding. Similarly, if opener rebids 3H, showing a heart singleton, East might judge the hand as unsuitable, based on the heart wastage and again sign off in 4S.
Not often, but here are a few possibilities:
- You might sometimes have enough to go directly to slam 1♥-4NT or even 1♥-7♥!
- Jacoby is usually off if there is competition. You would usually cue-bid their suit to establish a game-forcing raise.
- Some people still play Pudding Raises. Bid 1♥-3NT with: ♠K109 ♥J542 ♦AQ7 ♣K104. The hand has no ruffing values and a tightly defined point range (13-15 say)
- A Delayed Game Raise might be still be used on RARE occasions – see comments here. I didn’t get much support for this suggestion, but personally I think it might still be useful.
- Even if you don’t like a DGR, there can still be value in a Strong Jump Shift if that is part of your methods. I might bid 1♥-3♦ with: ♠98 ♥AK104 ♦AQJ94 ♣A2.
Yes, I would play 1NT-2♦-2♥-4NT as quantitative as well.
Blackwood isn’t ideal on this hand because the East hand has two fast losers in clubs. But on another hand, if you want to bid Blackwood, you probably need to follow a different route – either jumping to 3♥ to set hearts as trumps, bidding Charles’s Texas transfer (if you have agreed to play this) or maybe making a transfer, then make a jump bid as a cue bid and following with 4NT later. The meaning of a transfer followed by a jump is something that you need to discuss and agree with your partner.
