How High?

At a local duplicate club you are first to act with the following rather distributional hand.  What do you bid?

Justify My Bid!

You made an aggressive game bid.  Now you have to justify it.  Click next to see the play to the first two tricks and plan the play in 4S.

8-NT Convention Card: Minor Opening

In this series we systematically discuss the various sections of the ACBL convention card, and what I consider to be 8-NT standard bidding.

8-NT Convention Card: Major Opening

In this series we systematically discuss the various sections of the ACBL convention card, and what I consider to be 8-NT standard bidding.

Four Suit Transfers

If your partner bids 1NT, we have methods to tell your partner about 4 and/or 5 card majors.  With one or more 4 card majors, bid 2C Stayman.  With a single 5 card major you can bid 2D or 2H as a transfer bid, asking partner to bid the next suit.  Then you can set the contract while letting partner be declarer.

This is great.  But, what about those poor minor suits.  What if you have a very weak hand with 7 or 8 clubs?  Is there a way to play 3C?  What if you are really strong, with a good minor suit and are interested in a minor suit slam?  How do you bid these hands?

Four Suit Transfers help to solve this problem.  We use 2S with a long club suit to ask partner to bid 3C.  Similarly, we use 2NT with a long diamond suit to ask partner to bid 3D.  There are a variety of possible ways to play this system after these transfers, but that is not the goal of this article.

If we change 2NT into a transfer to diamonds, we can't use 2NT for its usual purpose.  All of a sudden we no longer have a way to invite to game in NT.

How do we invite to 3NT over 1NT?

Counting the Hand on Defense

While playing defense, it is often useful to try and count the suit distribution of the unseen hands.  You'd be surprised how often you can do this fairly successfully.  For example, take a look at the following hand 8-NT played on BBO last night.

I opted to lead a heart.  Click next to see the play to the first trick, and then make what deductions you can.

8-NT Convention Card: No Trump Opening Bids

In this series we systematically discuss the various sections of the ACBL convention card, and what I consider to be 8-NT standard bidding.

Precision Auctions

In order to give 8-NT a taste of some other systems that people play, occasionally I'll post some examples of bidding from another system.  Before we talk about how Oliver and I might bid this hand in the "Precision Club" system that we play, think about how the bidding would go in your system.

8-NT Convention Card: General Approach

In this series we systematically discuss the various sections of the ACBL convention card, and what I consider to be 8-NT standard bidding.

Slam Entries

After a quick auction, you find yourself in 6NT. South bid 2♦ showing at least 5-4 (in some order) in diamonds and a higher suit.  Click next to see the opening lead and make your plan for the play of the hand.

 

Ending with a Slam

It can be very hard to just play one more hand of bridge.

 In a throwback to college days, a long bridge match was played last night on bridgebase.  After 35 hotly contested boards, we agreed to just play one more.  We played the 36th, and then this hand popped up.  Did we sign off?  Off course not.  What do you think reasonable bidding would be on these hands?

What's the Right Line

Put yourself as East in the following hand. Press next to follow the play to the first trick and the next lead. What is your plan?

How to Add a Bridge Hand to Your Post

To post a bridge hand:  Go to bridgebase and create (and save) a hand using their hand editor.  Once you have done that, click "Export Hand" and then "Handviewer Link."

Switch over to the "HTML" editing view in the upper left, and add the code below in the appropriate position.  Then paste the link bridgebase gives you into the code, in place of (put link here).  Switch back to "Compose," if you'd rather do the rest a WYSIWYG.  That should do it!

<iframe height="400" scrolling="auto" src="(put link here)" width="500"></iframe>


If you'd like more info on how to manually create a handviewer hand, read http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hvdoc.html

Happy posting!

Balanced Hands 1

If you have no voids, no singletons, and no more than one doubleton, then your hand is a balanced hand.  There are three possible suit distributions that fit this description: 4-3-3-3, 4-3-3-2, and 5-3-3-2.  All of these hands are bid in a similar manner (some people bid 5-3-3-2 differently if the 5 card suit is a major).  Your goal is to tell your partner what your point range is within 3 points and tell partner that you have a balanced hand all within your first two bids.

To do this:

If you have a balanced hand with 15-17 points, open 1NT.

If you have a balanced hand and 13-14 points, open one of some suit (usually your longest minor) and then rebid the cheapest NT if you haven't found a fit.

If you have a balanced hand and 18-19 points, open one of some suit (again, usually your longest minor) and then rebid NT one level above the cheapest possible (without passing 3NT)

For example, look at my hand (East) in the following diagram.



I was dealer and held 15 points and had a balanced hand.  Accordingly I opened 1NT.  This tells my partner  a lot about my hand.  West knows that I have 15-17 points, and at least 2 cards in each suit.  So we are guaranteed at least a 7 card fit in hearts, with a fairly decent chance at an 8 card fit.  West decided that 2H would be a better contract than 1NT, so West used a convention called Jacoby transfers.  He bid 2D, asking me to bid 2H.  I did, and then everybody passed.

At the table, I was the beneficiary of a defensive error, so I made 2H (it should go down 1 at least) and as a result we got a top.  While we can't count on opponent errors regularly, 2H down 1 would tie for a top as well.

What would have changed if my hand were slightly different?  Suppose my KH were actually a QH.  Then I would have 14 hcp, so I would bid 1D planning to bid 1NT over my partners response of a major.  I would rebid 2NT if my partner responds 2C.  I would pass if my partner bid 1NT.

On the other hand, if my 10S were the AS, I would have 19 hcp, so I would bid 1D planning to jump in NT.  I would bid 2NT if my partner bid 1H or 1S.  I would bid 3NT if my partner bid 2C (or 2D actually).  I would bid 2NT if my partner bid 1NT (one level higher than in the 14 hcp case).

Both of these leave partner well placed to decide where we should play.  Of course, with the actual hand, West will pass so I won't get another bid (assuming, probably incorrectly, that the opponents don't bid).

The moral:  If you have a balanced hand, tell your partner.  Narrow down your point range so partner can make a good decision as to where to place the contract.  There are various systems that you can use over these balanced hand openers, but the actual system is less important than simply describing your hand.

Some notes:  When your partner opens 1NT, you should announce the agreed range of your partnerships 1NT bid.  For example, when I opened 1NT above, my partner said, "15 to 17."  Some partnerships use different ranges (12-14 and 16-18 are probably the most common alternative ranges).  While I won't say much about Jacoby transfers here, they also come with an announcement.  When West bid 2D, I said, "transfer," to let the opponents know that the 2D bid does not mean West has diamonds.

Some pairs choose to open 1 of a major with a balanced hand and a 5 card major.  Some choose to open 1NT anyway.  There are arguments on both sides of this issue, and conventions that you can add to help improve either choice.  What is important is that you agree on a partnership style.

Jacoby 2NT

Let's talk about Jacoby 2NT.  Suppose your partner opens a major, and you have an opening hand yourself.  Great!  You want to play at least game, and maybe more.  Suppose you have 4 cards in your partner's suit as well.  Fantastic!  You know you want to play in four of the major.  But, with a good hand and a good trump fit you certainly want to see if slam might make.  After all, if the hands do mesh together well you can make slam with fewer than 33 combined high card points.  What you need is good distribution.

This is exactly the situation for splinter bids and Jacoby 2NT.

A splinter bid is a double jump shift.  For example: 1S-4C, or 1H-3S.  This bid shows 4 card trump support, and an opening bid, AND a singleton or void in the suit you just bid.  So 1S-4C guarantees 4 spades, and no more than one club.  You are showing your distribution, hoping partner can reevaluate his/her hand better as a result.

Jacoby 2NT fills a slightly different need.  You still promise 4 card support, and 13+ points (some people cap it at 16 hcp), but now you are showing a fairly balanced hand.  You are saying to partner, "We know our trump suit.  We are going to game.  We need to figure out whether our meshed distributions can bump our point count into the slam area.  Please tell me if you have a short suit."  The opening bidder does just that.  If you have a singleton or a void, bid that suit at the lowest level over 2NT.  If you don't, and you have a minimum hand, given that you opened (say 13-15hcp), just bid 4 of your major.  If you have a maximum, bid 3 of your major to leave more space for exploration if needed.

Here's a hand where Jacoby 2NT was used to good effect.  This is a hand I played with Jonathan in Pittsfield on Sept. 20th.



For some reason, North decided not to preempt.  I opened 1S, planning to bid hearts next.  Jonathan had other ideas however.  With a strong hand, and a 9 card heart suit, he knew we should be in game, and slam was possible if I had the correct hand (for example, a singleton heart, the ace of diamonds, king of clubs and the AK of spades-only 14hcp).  He bid 2NT, fixing spades as trump, and asking if I had shortness.  I did, and showed it by bidding 3D.  Now Jonathan reevaluates.  His KJ of diamonds are no longer useful cards.  They duplicate the singleton I have.  If we count points for both the singleton and the KJ of diamonds between us, we are over-counting (just as you don't want to count 5 points for a singleton K in your hand).  We his new evaluation, he knew slam was highly unlikely, so he signed off with 4S.

This was the ideal location.  I played 4S, making 6 when north opted not to cash her AD when she won the AS.  Maybe she should have cashed out, but cashing that A sets up the K for a possibly helpful discard, and she has no idea that my hearts are so good, so I am certainly sympathetic.  Scoring 480 for 4H+2 was a tie for top, and 4.5 matchpoints.

What if my singleton were in hearts however?  Then Jonathan would be excited.  He could bid 4C as a cue bid, showing control there, and hoping I could bid 4D.  If I could, then we are on our way to a possible slam with only 27hcp or so.  And we will likely make.

Jacoby 2NT is a tool to help you evaluate how your hands fit together beyond the simple point counts use it wisely, and it will serve you well.

Some notes about use:

Jacoby 2NT is an alertable bid.  That means that in real life, if your partner bids it, you say "Alert" or place the "Alert" card on the table.  Do not explain unless you are asked.

There are of course variants that you could play as a follow up.  In particular, the 3NT bid over 2NT is unused in my system above.  You could play that as a balanced hand, or simply a medium range opener (that's probably best).  Another thing you could add is a jump with a max and a void.  Just make sure you discuss with your partner before you start play so that you understand each other.