[jillybean]

Hi,

This is a new thread set up to accommodate Bobs comprehensive lesson notes (rambling was Bobs words, I would never say that).

This should make it easier for people who like to print and keep the notes, the lesson schedule thread will only be used for notification of upcoming lessons. You can subscribe to this thread for email notification as you did for the i-abc lesson and Bob will include a link here when he posts new lesson notifications.

Bob, thanks for all the time you are putting in to share your knowledge and experience with other BBO'ers.

jb

[bobh2]

CLARIFICATON ABOUT SLAM Q-BIDDING:

Thanks for the question, vanyvon. I am responding in a manner that I can send the answer to others, as well, at whatever point in time they ask.

The first thing to understand is that Blackwood/Gerber is not a slam bidding tool. (It doesn't matter what type..std...keycard). Ace asking bids are gadgets designed to keep you OUT OF BAD SLAMS. Keycard is just a quantum leap forward from the older responses but still, to dig around, you need to learn to use Q bids.

Put in your mind that "slam hunt" Q bids are a lot like short suit game tries, or any other game try in that they signify an interest. The mindset, if you use blackwood/gerber, is that you are pretty sure you have a slam as compared to the Q bids that say you have a suspicion that you have a slam.

I grew up using Ace showing Q bids. Essentially, once you found a fit, and you suspected you might have enough values for a slam, you bid your cheapest ace outside the trump suit. I learned to not Q bid voids, initially. Voids, while valuable, don't contribute to the high cards in pard's hand and make it very difficult to evaluate for pard. So, if you skipped a suit on the way up, you didn't hold that Ace. More....if you skipped a suit, Q bid, and pard Q'd a suit that was helpful, then you Q'd a suit you skipped, that signified a K. That was easy.

One more thing to add to the method that improved it, and this is a matter of choice. I eventually figured out that if my partner q'd in a forcing auction, he was interested, all was good. However, if I had bid my all, previously, yet had an Ace to show, I just declined to show it at my first opportunity. An example of this might be when partner had opened the bidding and I chose to make a forcing raise on a good 11 or ordinary 12 high card points. I had bid my whole hand with my first call, and I simply didn't cooperate with the first Q bid. This seemed to work pretty well. You have to understand the Q by partner showed extras...I didn't have any so I didn't cooperate. An important point: If pard Q'd again, I know he heard my lack of cooperation, so now he has to have a lot of extras...I now could cooperate with a cheerful heart, and if I had what partner needed, all was well. This worked for me with good thoughtful partners and I stuck with this method for a long, long time.

The point of that is that if you started a q bidding auction, you had extras, enough to suspect that a slam was possible. If you cooperated in a Q bidding auction, you not only were saying you had that Ace, but you had solid or better values for the bidding you had done before. Now, a lot of players play that a Qbid below game in a forcing auction is not necessarily showing extras, but a bid for "just in case". I DO NOT like this, I think it does not communicate the message that needs to be sent.

Note that we are talking about Ace Qbids. Using A Q-bids, blackwood simply wasn't needed in these auctions. That said, using Ace Q-bids were sometimes unhandy. Lots of times, you just had to assume some things, because the wrong partner had the wrong A...you really had to think a lot. I knew the Italian Blue Team used KING VALUE Q bids...in other words, they Q-bid Aces or Kings, equally. I could see that it saved a lot of space, but I got lost in trying to understand how to read them. I just stuck with my tried-and-true methods. But something came along to change my mind....Keycard.

Why would this make an impact? Because you can Q-bid either Aces and Kings, given the room, and find out a whole lot more information, then use RKC to double check to make sure you are not off 1 Aces. This seems to work well, and I have been playing this for a number of years. An important point: If either partner starts a Q bidding auction at a level that you can no longer use keycard, that Q bid HAS TO BE AN ACE. Example: 1s-p-4s-p-5c. Club Ace, without a doubt.

You asked me for my recommendation? A Q's or King-value Q's? With a practiced partnership, King-value are a lot better. If you sit down with a stranger on BBO? You better stick to the old fashioned A Q-bids. And don't Q bid as a "well, just in case my partner has a good hand" bid...use the Q bid to show interest in higher things.

Bob Holmes (bobh2 on BBO)

******POST NO REPLIES, PLEASE....THIS IS NOT THE PLACE.....THIS IS FOR STUDENTS TO "QUICK READ" CONCEPTS....OR TO PICK UP NOTES FOR CLASSES/LECTURES....IF YOU WANT TO DEBATE...GRIN...ANY TIME! SEND ME AN EMAIL AT bob@spectrumpest.com OR FIND ME ON BBO...ALWAYS WILLING TO SET UP A CHAT ROOM, ROUND UP A GROUP OF STUDENTS AND GO AT IT! THE STUDENTS WILL PROFIT, REGARDLESS OF ANYTHING ELSE IF THEY LISTEN. IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION, SEE ME ON BBO.**************************

[bobh2]

General Thoughts:

Usually, what I put here is specific. I share (hopefully) helpful ways to handle different parts of the game, with specific topics. Sometimes, through questions in chatrooms or in classes/lectures, it becomes clear to me that I have learned some things through experience that don't show up in books and are not self-evident. I will stick these in little notes as they pop up.

THREE SIMPLE TRUTHS ABOUT BIDDING AT BRIDGE:
1. If the opponents open with any kind of preempt, think about finding a partscore, a game, or once in a while, as small slam...that is the mindset if you and your partner get into the bidding. Forget about grand slams unless you have a way to count on 13 tricks without any strain at all. Why? The preempts take away all of our cute bidding tools...they leave us to bid these hands with overcalls, Q-bids, takeout doubles, and Blackwood. That's it. If you have a good enough hand to compete for the partscore, that's cool. If you and your partner are strong enough to bid and make a game...all good. This is your primary focus, by the way, not to let preempts sandbag you out of your games. If you and your pard are real strong and get to a small slam and make it, you have a victory! Enjoy it. Slam bidding is a science, and Grand slam bidding is hard enough if you can use all of your tools. If you get preempted, don't sweat the Grands...be happy with reaching any makeable slam at all.

2. Same line of thought:

If the opponents open with a one bid, concentrate all your efforts on bidding to partscores and games. If it turns out that you both have real good hands, just don't sweat the small slams. Again, you have lost all of your bidding tools because of the opening bid and assuming the opening bidder has at least 10 or 11 points, you are on short high cards for a slam. Give yourself a break...get to your games with good hands here, don't worry about the slams. You will beat the people who take shots (they will be wrong more often than not) and the people who don't even bid the games. Think long term profit.

3. Still more on the same concept:

Regardless of what you do over opening 1N bids(the 15-17 variety), Capp, Dont, or my favorite, Ripstra, don't worry about game bidding. These bids are designed to aid in the partscore battles. If you find a good fit, be happy. Don't be greedy. The odds are ridiculously low that you have a game...don't shoot at it. Take your plus.

I know you all have a lot to think out at this game. Maybe this will help in some places so you don't have to work your poor, ol', overtaxed brain so hard.

Bob Holmes (bobh2 on BBO)

******POST NO REPLIES, PLEASE....THIS IS NOT THE PLACE.....THIS IS FOR STUDENTS TO "QUICK READ" CONCEPTS....OR TO PICK UP NOTES FOR CLASSES/LECTURES....IF YOU WANT TO DEBATE...GRIN...ANY TIME! SEND ME AN EMAIL AT bob@spectrumpest.com OR FIND ME ON BBO...ALWAYS WILLING TO SET UP A CHAT ROOM, ROUND UP A GROUP OF STUDENTS AND GO AT IT! THE STUDENTS WILL PROFIT, REGARDLESS OF ANYTHING ELSE IF THEY LISTEN. IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION, SEE ME ON BBO.**************************

[bobh2]

QUESTION I GET A LOT: WHAT METHOD/CONVENTION SHOULD I USE OVER OPPONENT'S OPENING 1N?


Concept:

If the opponents play a partscore after opening 1N, it is to our advantage that they play both higher levels than one and have to play minors rather than nt. It is to our disadvantage to move them out of nt, where we can get at 'em with the minors if they have major fits. With this in mind, consider that any overcalling system over 1N that has any focus at all on the minors is wrong. All the focus should be to get our major(s) into play. That's in immediate seat.

In balancing seat, there should be some ephasis on the majors for the same reason, but the real problem in letting them play 1N when you have a long good suit is that pard will never find the lead. Nt is ridiculously easy to make when defenders get off to the wrong lead, so keeping your mouth shut in balancing seat is not to your advantage in this situation.

So, how to accomplish these goals?

Start with immediate seat:

If you are going to put extreme highlight on the majors in immediate seat, try this: Obviously, 2 of either major is natural. 2 of either minor is a major takeout. Why use either? Because you are bidding your longest minor. Why? One big danger is having mirror image hands...and if pard has both minors and a ghastly hand, he can pass...danger is drastically minimized. If you have a minor you just can't stand not bidding, do so at the 3 level....make 'em guess. Last thing: X. No matter what you play, a x of an opening 1N should be the kind of hand where you intend to beat 1N virtually by yourself and have a good enough hand that you have a good shot at collecting big numbers if they pull. This is not a flat 17...it is something about that strength, but a suit you want to lead, and keep on leading to crush 1N.

So, we understand the 2c/2d bid, and the majors are easy. One point..if pard, opposite a x, has such a horrible hand as to not be able to leave it in, he pulls to 2c unless he has a 6 card suit. He should leave the double in with any two suits sorta stopped...that's how good the immediate double has to be. Remember, the immediate double shows 6+ tricks, with prospects for more.

This is easy to remember...key is: minors(your longest one) are both for majors, majors are natural, x is penalty

Hand strength? Depends a lot on vulnerability and suit quality, but in general, for the 2-of-a-minor bid? Something approximating a minimium opening hand. For the 2-of-a-major bid, the one suiters? Something approximating a very good weak two bid or better. The X(penalty)? Something like this: KQJtxxx, Ax xx Axx. Essentially, a suit you can run with one or no losers and entries/stops to keep them from running their suits. Over "weak nt" bids? X is the same, all other bids at the 2 level are full openers.

BALANCING SEAT BIDS:

Because pard is never going to find our suit, when we have one, we bid one suiter minors as freely as majors. What we don't want to happen is for pard to give them a soft trick on opening lead playing 1N....so all balances are natural, regardless of the level. Note that the double changes meanings, however. It can't be the same since pard doesnt know what your bid suit is. The double reverts back to theory: Major takeout. Experience with this says should be 9 high cards up. The length can be only 54 with consolidated points, and that is good enough.

Let me tell you why this part is my favorite part of the whole thing. If you balance with a double...the first thing you know is that the opponents only have a little more highs than your side does, at most. The tiptop most they can have is 17 opposite 8. More often, they'll have a lot less. The payoff comes when pard has about 14, you reopen with a double, for the majors with a minimium of 9, and they're in a world of hurt. The point count is 23/17, our favor, they probably don't have a place to run to, and most important, pard knows to lead a major. We will once in a while go -2...happens...(remember pard can pull to a minor, with a lot of length, at the 2 level). My experience with this is that usually, we send them scrambling, and usually, this gets a positive result...always the intent at IMPs...but once in while, you catch them in such a mess that you collect a huge swing.

That's why I play this gadget.

Recap for bidding in balancing: any suit, at any level is natural. X=majors with at least 9 highs, hopefully, 5+5, but if vulnerability is right, the suits are good...sneak one in with 5+4

So simple. But the theory is dead right.

PS. The reason I hate Capp is two things. A one suiter overcall ought to make the opponents strain to bid their hands. Capp's 2C does not accomplish this. Second reason: 2H/S show major/minor two suiter. To play the minor, you have to play at the 3 level. Not productive. Anything that has anything to do with bidding a minor over a 1n opener is just not good theory.

This is called Ripstra (with some tweaks from me, over the years). It is an "improved Landy". I have been playing this with every single regular partner I have had since about 1972 and it's like the Energizer Bunny, it keeps on killing 'em.

[bobh2]

********SIMPLE COMPETITIVE BIDDING, PART 1 OF 3********************

---------------"WHAT DO I DO WHEN PARTNER OPENS AND THEY BID?"---------

This small series was inspired by me getting to watch my young (young to bridge, anyway) friends. What I spotted was what I work on all the time for them, a decided lack of solid basics. It is critically important to handle normal, everyday bidding smoothly and not nearly as important to memorize a bunch of bells/whistles that this and that expert uses. We will get there, but we need solid foundations. (You will hear me preach this time and time again).

Section 1: You have support.

This is critical to know especially if pard opened 1 of a major. We know we have a fit, the problem is to determine how high we should be.

A. A simple raise...1S-(2D)-2S. Simply it shows 3 or more cards in support and the exact same strength as if your opponent had passed....6-9 highs. Yes, I have seen this messed up. This easy to remember.

B. A double raise...1S-(2D)-3S. When I started playing bridge, about the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, this was a game force, just as if the opponent had not bid. Q-bidding the opponent's suit evidently was such a whopper that it was effectively a slam try. Since making slam tries at the 3 level is pretty restrictive, this 3S bid evolved into a limit raise, just as the unopposed 3S bid was. At this point, a Q bid with support became a game force, but not necessarily a huge hand. I played this for a long, long time and I still see a lot of people (mostly Europeans, in my experience, on BBO) playing this method. The theorists got to work and the latest (and not really a very new treatment) style/method in "expert standard" has become to mean
that 3S bid become a weak bid, showing a great fit, but a bad hand, weaker in strength that a 1S-(2D)-2S bid, but about as good in playing strength, almost. Now why would that be? Because 1S-(2D)-3S is absolutely awful to bid against. If you are in 4th seat, you are just hung out to dry. You are now guessing at the 4 level, a horror, and you can't double them effectively, because of the whopper trump fit. The advantage is all to the opening side. Sound like fun to do to opponents? Of course it is. Handing the opponents a bunch of stress is always fun.

We've talked about raising partner when we have good-to-great trump fits, but with not too good hands. What happens when we have a fit, but it's our hand?

This is easy when you understand it: An immediate Q-bid in a competitive auction has changed definition. It either is a limit raise of partner's suit or better (could be a lot better) or a game forcing hand with a different suit. Example: 1S-(2D)-3D. Three diamonds will tell partner in English, "I have at least 3 card support for you and at least a working 10 high card points". We will discuss "free bids" later (1S-(2D)-2H, the 2H bid being defined as a "free bid") but for right now, let me just say that a free bid over a direct overcall is a one round force, and could be a huge, unlimited hand. So, the immediate Q bid here only has one meaning, "Limit Raise or Better in Your Suit, Partner".

This is called a "Competitive Q-Bid". Sticking the word, competitive on "Q-bid" differentiates this from the Q-bids used to bid slams. Learn this phrase, it is your lifeline in competitive bidding.

Opener's bidding opposite a competitive Q bid is a lot like bidding over normal limit raises. An example: 1S-(2D)-3D!-p-3S...opener has said that he would have passed a limit raise. If he would bid game, he can bid this way: 1S-(2D)-3D!-p-4S. If opener has a good enough hand to consider slam opposite a known 10-12 point hand....he'll need about 20 to be close....he can make a (slam-hunting) Q bid to show a control and a big hand. Example: 1S-(2D)-3D!-p-3H!. That is a slam hunting Q bid because we agreed on spades with the 3D bid. No, it does not show hearts, but either the A or the K of Hearts, depending on your Q bidding agreements (see previous lecture notes on slam hunting Q bids). It generally shows a whopper of a hand, but good partnerships play this Q bid just showing extra values of some sort. I recommend, for now, you play this as a real whopper. So...now that I have totally confused you, this auction has both types of Q-bids: 1S-(2D)-3D!-p-3H!. The 3D bid is a "competitive Q bid" and the 3H bid is a "slam hunting Q bid".

Don't be confused by this, it looks funny but the messages are simple. For now, get in your mind about that 3d Q bid. You have to have this as a tool or the opponents will bid circles around you.

Understanding what I have been saying allows you to raise partner's suit with any strength of hand. Here's the list:

1. Flattish, 3 card support, less than 6 points...PASS ( badly underused bid)

2. A distributional hand, 4 or maybe 5 trumps, but really weak...say 3 to 5 points, maybe a terrible 6 points...bid 3S!

3. Ordinary 6-9 point hand, and support? 2S

4. 10-12 points, plus support? Q bid...let partner take it from there

5. A good 12 points up? Q-bid, and make sure you get to game.

(One raise not covered so far...1s-(2d)-4S? Note that you could have Q-bid, then just bounced to 4S, so when you don't this is not a great hand, at least in terms of defense. It usually shows about 6 to about 9 with 5 card support and a singleton. A better hand, Q bid first, ok)

Section 2. You don't have support, but you have another suit to bid:

We need to discuss "free bids" now. A free bid is a situation where your partner opens, your opponent bids a different suit, and it's your turn, so you bid another suit.

The first point is, you don't have to bid everytime it comes your turn. A free bid means you have some reason to say something. If you do bid, the higher you come in, the better hand you have to have, remember, right now you don't have a fit so you have some chance of never finding a playable fit. Be careful! Don't be timid, but careful.

At the one level, a free bid is just a moderate hand...not garbage, but moderate, and like all free bids, promises 5 cards in the suit bid or more. Example: 1D-(1H)-1S...you just made a free bid with 1S. You have to have 5 of them and a reason to bid. A reason to bid is not because you are sitting in the next seat! You need maybe a minimium of about 8 points...with 8 points you and your partner have enough to compete with, about half the deck. This is a free bid at the 1 level. 5 cards, for certain sure and a decent, if not big hand.

At the two level, if you want to make a free bid, you need a bit more. You still have the problem that you are not sure you have a playble trump fit yet and you need a little cushion. A two level free bid promises at least a decent 5 card suit and at least 10 high cards points. You are telling your partner that in terms of high cards, it's your hand.

Did I forget to mention that all free bids, at any level, are at least a one round force? It doesn't mean that you are forced to game or slam, but just one round. We will talk about dealing with them in other sessions.

Just put in your mind, you don't have to jump around with a good hand and a decent 5 card suit or longer..you can make a free bid and define your hand later.

Section 3. NoTrump looks like a good place to play

A lot of hands that come up that you have the opponent's suit stopped real well, maybe twice and your hand is sorta flattish. Notrump comes to mind. But....and I see this abused constantly...to bid NT in competitive auctions you have to have the opponent's suit stopped, best to be double stopped, a NT type hand, and....and...some high card points. It's not the same as 1s-p-1N...not even close.

At the 1 level: 1D-(1S)-1N needs about a real good 8 to a medium 10 points. Why? because when you play nt, the side that has the most high card points takes the most tricks...duh. Assuming your partner has at least 12, you have 9 or so, you have, by just a little, the best of it. If you do that on 6 points, and your partner has 12, you are bidding to go down. Maybe doubled. Have some hand, your partner will love that you do.

You jump to the 2 level in NT: This is not forcing, but is highly, highly invitational. If you have a game forcing hand, you can Q bid first then bid 2N or you can just jump to 3N. 1D-(1S)-2N is invitational. Make it a solid invite. A wonderful 10 to a not-too-good 12...the invitational range.

If you change the auction a little....1S-(2D)-2N, you are not bidding to play 2N, you are bidding as invitational to 3N. The same idea applies as above, have a wonderful 10 to a not-too-good 12.

The last thing we need to cover here is negative doubles, but it has occurred to me that this will be enough material to try to cover in one session. The next of this series will be negative doubles, followed by the third section on responding to take out doubles and overcalls.

[bobh2]

***********COMPETITIVE BIDDING, PART 2********************
SECOND IN A SERIES OF THREE:
PART TWO: NEGATIVE DOUBLES

We completed the first part this afternoon on competitive bidding. We worked on , as planned, raising partner's suit, with varying degrees of strength. Probably the most important thing we learned was the proper use of competitive Q-bids. We also worked on "free bids" and nt bids in competition. As much as we learned, there's still a lot to go. (Good news, huh?). If you didn't catch the session, the notes are stored here. The notes will help, but it's just a lot easier to get your head around this stuff in the sessions.

The next thing we need to add to our bidding is a serious, in-depth discussion on negative doubles. I am sure there are good books out on this, and I highly recommend you read them. Like everything else in bridge, there are a whole lot of looking at every little part, and you can listen to me and read books, get a lot of information, and form your own opinions. Yeah, I know, this makes your head hurt. It strains the brain muscle. However, if you want to be "a player" rather than just a "seat warmer", this is exactly what you'll do. You'll hear me say this about a million times, you are a lot better off understanding why rather than just memorizing. You'll make a lot fewer mistakes if you understand.

NEGATIVE DOUBLES

I've been playing a long, long time. What I remember from my early years was that there was no such thing as a "negative double". The auction of 1S-2D-X simply said, You ain't making that! Pretty simple, huh? Well, the theorists, the guy who sit around thinking about bridge, got to thinking about that, having noticed that that situation didn't come up but about every 5th blue moon, and when it did, a lot of times, it wasn't profitable to be trying to beat 2 level contracts on a regular basis. The next thing I heard about was called the "Sputnik" double. If you kiddies will remember Russia put a satellite in orbit before we did, back in ancient history, so far back that I don't even remember when it was....and it was called "Sputnik". Evidently somebody was so impressed by that, they named the concept "Sputnik". (Yeah, yeah, our first walk on the moon was in 1968, I watched that at a bridge club in Dallas). The concept of Sputnik was that a double showed some values, but the doubler had no clear cut bid, like a free bid, which requires a 5 card suit. Now, I know Al Roth was involved in this somewhere, either as the inventor of Sputnik, or the guy who popularized the off-shoot of Sputnik, the negative double. It took awhile for the tournament players to work the bugs out of the concept where a double after an overcall was not trying to chew up and spit out the overcaller. (You know, now that I think about it, maybe Al Roth was the first real proponent of negative doubles...I seem to remember that he played negative doubles up as high as 7Diamonds). A lot of styles and treatments were tried, but finally, after lots and lots of usage by the expert community, negative doubles have evolved to about what I am going to explain to you. So, here goes:

The general concept of negative doubles is that you use it when you have enough high card points to be looking for a fit at the level the overcall forced you to. (Just like Sputnik). However, there are some other requirements. The set of requirements I like best are that a negative double is a two-directional hand. (a long time ago, people tried using negative doubles when they had a good one suiter but not enough points to make a free bid...this worked out real poorly. Want an example? xx AQJxxx xx xxx...the bidding goes 1c by your partner, 1S overcall, and it's your bid. You don't quite have enough to make a free bid at the 2 level...that usually requires about 10 points and at least a 5 card suit. You can upgrade due to the strength and length of your suit, but not quite enough. So you can't bid 2H. You are dying to bid, so you make a negative double???? It goes pass and your pard bids 5D. Turns out, he has an 18 point hand, with 4D and 5 or 6 clubs and thinks you have hearts and Diamonds. You are up too high, and he might even have a void in hearts.....disaster). So you need not to make negative doubles on one suiters. With this, you should just pass and get back in later...your partner will understand your hand a lot better.

What I mean by "two-directional" is that you have two options for your pard to get involved with that you can be happy with. The most regular "two directions" is when you hold the other two suits other than the ones which have been bid. On our example auction...1S-2D, you will usually hold hearts and clubs. Two directions. If you keep that in mind, you will see that two directions can be other things, too. Some people, mostly people who aren't grounded well in theory, play that the key is the other major. In the auction of 1S-2D-x, they absolutely guarantee 4 hearts. Only problem is if you have two directions, enough points to bid, but don't have 4 hearts? You are just in a mess. So what are the other possible "two directions"? Maybe the best way to explain this is to make a list:

Your options on the simple auction of 1 of a suit (by partner), an overcall by opponent:

1. one of the unbid suits
2. the other of the unbid suits
3. Nt
4. Support for partner

Now...grin...pick two.

I'm not kidding, that's the way it works. You have to have enough to be bidding around at whatever level you are forced to, but just pick any two.

Some examples, using 1S-2D:

xx AKxx xxx Kxxx. About minimium on high cards, but you have the other two suits

xx KJxx KJxx Kxx. Your pard, without 4H will likely bid 2S. You have enough to bid 2N. He will know you have an invitational hand and proceed accordingly.

Kxx AQxx xx Qxxx. This is close, you have support for spades and 4H, and you might want to find a heart fit. The subsequent bidding will tell you where you belong. A better example is next.

Change the auction to 1D-1S-?
You hold xx KQxx KQxx xxx. You need to get the hearts into the auction but you have minor support. Don't worry about pard not understanding, at the first. If you X, and pard does not hold hearts, he likely will bid clubs.....then you just correct to Diamonds. Now, he'll understand you have hearts and diamonds.

That's the skeleton of negative doubles. There are some little fine points you need to know, though. How about a couple of questions?

1. Can you make a negative double when you have a 5 card suit? Sure, if a free bid is not the best description. Let's use the two-directions as the other two suits. The auction: 1S-2D-? and you hold: xx AKJxx xx Kxxx. Bid 2H. Yes, you hide the club suit but it pays to really look hard for the major fit. Same auction: 1s-2d-? and you hold: xx AKJx xx Kxxxx. Now, double, same reason, make sure to not hide the major.

2. If you have a 5-4 pattern, when can you just bid your 5 bagger then your 4 bagger? I strongly suggest that you have enough points to force to game to do that. Nothing is perfect, but this generally keeps you out of trouble.

3. What about 5-5 in the other two suits? About the same..and remember, a negative x won't usually be or sound as strong as bidding two suits.

Something to think about: Since we don't make negative doubles on one-suiters, interpret this auction: 1S-2d-x-p-2s-p-3c????? We know a couple of things. Responder does not like spades. Responder does not like nt. What's left? The other two suits (not just clubs). Responder will have either x (maybe void) ???? in hearts, xxx in Diamonds, and 5 clubs, maybe 6, or x(or void) in spades, 5hearts, ?? in Diamonds and 5 or 6 clubs. He is clearly two suited of some kind.

This all takes practice and "touch". Negative doubles try to handle messy situations, and you are better off with them than without them, but nothing is perfect. If you have problem hands, bring them to me on BBO. I'll try to help. The best help is a lot of using them.

[bobh2]

********A LITTLE MORE ON NEGATIVE DOUBLES**************

I forgot to put this on the negative double page. I think I just wore out on typing.

Point 1. Negative doubles can be played as high as you want. I mentioned Al Roth played them through 7 Diamonds. What I have found is that, under the idea that you have to have enough points to warrent bidding to the level your opponents pushed you to, as the bidding gets higher, the accuracy gives way to just being able to show enough strength to be at that level. Does that sound like the old Sputnik bid? LOL. Exactly. There's a ton of difference between 1D-1S-? and 1D-3S-? and it gets worse if they bid even higher. At the higher levels, you can pretty much count on your partner not to have wasted values in the opponent's suit, and if you have 4 of the missing major, the odds are increased that he will trying to show exactly that.

Keep in mind that negative doubles are used when you are having a hard time showing your hand otherwise.

Point 2. Remember I told you two things? A free bid always shows a 5 card suit and a negative double can have any two of 4 options for the two directional concept? There is a funny little exception a lot of people are playing and I kinda like it. It is the specific auction of 1C-1D-?

The theorists are at work again. A lot of good players have adopted playing a neg x here as specific for both majors only. This means that if you have one 4 card major, you just bid it, and ignore the 1D overcall. That's the only change in what I told you, and so far, it hasn't come up much but I can see the value in it. Still testing it...I think I like it..I'll let you know in about 5 years...lol.

[bobh2]

***********SUPER ACCEPTS OVER 1N, THEN A TRANSFER************

I got asked about "superaccepts". If you don't know what that mean, it is a hand that you have opened 1N, and your partner transfered (I play that specifically for major transfers only), and you have such a good hand in support that you want to not accept the transfer but do something else. The bad news is, partner can be on xx xxxxx xxx xxx. Ugh! The good news, partner can be on a hand he just can't bid again on, but can bid a game when he finds out you have a ton in support.

My thinking is that it is rare that you have that trash hand, but a lot more often that if you know you have a whopping fit, you can bid a scrungy game based on distribution and fit, or you can, with a better hand, move toward a slam you wouldn't have if you didn't know the story. Odds are in your favor. And, note, if you have that terrible hand, think of this: Your partner has 15-17, you have nothing, the opponents have 23-25 highs and if you have a big fit, they likely do too. You just might steal them blind (grin).

First of all, a "superacceptance", the way I learned it, denoted that while the opener had shown a 15-17 point nt, after the transfer, he had re-evaluated and his hand now was worth more than he had originally shown with the 1N bid. Not the same, not on the 17 (tip-top), but more.

A few quick examples:

AKx KQx AJxx xxx. 1n-2d-? Don't do anything but bid 2H. That hand is real nice, but it's not worth more than you already showed.

Axx AKxx KQJx xx. Now, that hand get re-evaluated to more than 17. Not a ton more, but you now know you have a 9 card fit, no wasted cards, side sure tricks, and a ruffing value. That hand is clearly worth 18 or 19 in support of hearts. Make a move.

Ax KQxx KJ At9xx. 5422 patterns are touchy. My rule of thumb is that if they have about half the points in the doubletons, open them 1N. If not bid them as a suit hand...because the suits now will be real good. This hand qualifies for 1N. Now if your partner transfers to hearts the only way to improve this hand would be to move the J of D to hearts or clubs. This hand is a bomb opposite a known 5 card heart holding. It is sooooo good, it's hard to not just bid 4H.

Kx AKJx Kxxx Qxx. You have a superb heart fit, but your cards aren't in control cards, and not only the J of hearts loses a little value in a 9 card fit, if your pard has the Q, the Q loses a little too. Just bid 2H on this one.

Now that we know what kind of hands are acceptable for superfit (super acceptances), let's discuss how to do it.

The first "superfit" bid I even heard of was "a failure to transfer". Ok, I says, that's cool, but what does a new suit mean, other than a big fit and a hand that "grew up"? It stands to reason to me that it should point out a concentration of values. I have played that for decades and have no complaint. Seems to me that Marty Bergen espouses showing a doubleton. That could be valuable too, so responder knows he has xxx somewhat covered, even xxxx. Since the superfit will almost always be on 4 trumps, that would be one way of playing it. There are some debatable points in that, though. What if you have two doubletons like the hand outlined above? Which is better if you have a 5332 pattern, a very common pattern, with this: xx AKx Kxx AQJtx? or even this: xx AKx xxx AKQJt? You don't have much of a choice, you have to open both of those with 1N, but boy, what a hand each of them is in support of a 5 card heart suit! I prefer to bid concentrations, all due respect to Marty.

I don't know what Marty plays a failure to transfer bid that moves to 2N is but again, I have been playing my version for a long, long time and am completely happy with it. I like to play 1n-2d-2n as scattered values, still better than I said, originally. Example: Axx AKxx Kxx Kxx. Partner knows that a QJx is probably working. He knows that Kx is probably working. He also knows that if he has a weakish 5-5 pattern, I not only have big time support for his major, the other 5 card suit will likely have some honors in it, control card-type honors.

The one thing that I wholly concur with Marty on is the jump. A great idea! 1N-2d-3H! That shows a minimium and 4 card support. Why this? Because if responder has a dog, the odds now become great the opponents have not only a game, but a biddable game. If responder has a little more, the opponents are almost shut out of the auction. Think how hard it is to balance, cold, at the three level when one opponent has opened 1N...shudder! Much easier to balance on this one: 1N-p-2d-p-2h-p-p-????(2S?).

One tool you have to just understand and memorize here is the "re-transfer". As responder, and your partner makes any kind of superfit (except the jump), and you have a real weak hand, you want to quit as soon as possible. How you do that is agree that if you rebid the transfer suit, now opener, having told his tale, has to meekly bid the transferred-to suit. What if he superfitted to that suit? Responder (the transferrer) has to bid the suit, and opener has to pass. Not real good, but better than being up another level.

This is a neat tool to add to your bidding arsenal. Any expert you play with will immediatly, without discussion, may not know what type of superfit you are playing when you do it, but at least he'll know you like the hell out of your hand. He'll also know how to re-transfer, don't sweat it.

Don't abuse this. Remember, if you make a superfit on only 3 cards in trumps, it's only about half as effective as if you had 4. You have to have a completely spactacular hand if you only have 3 trumps.

Discuss which type you are going to play with regular partners. I recommend you try to play it only one way. It doesn't come very often anyway, but when it does, it really works well.

[bobh2]

****************MORE ON COMPETITIVE BIDDING: OVERCALLS*****************

Let's see...we have discussed free bids and negative doubles. We have discussed competitive Qbids, and the various methods of raising partner's suit when he has opened. So, we are off to a good start from 3rd chair. Maybe we ought to back up to 2nd chair's actions. In modern bidding, second chair loses his normal bidding machinery, but is not completely helpless. He has the following tools to work with and we will explore each of them: Overcalls, takeout doubles, Q-bids, jump overcalls, various levels of NT bids, and of course the highly underused "Pass".

As is my general style, I am going to present some theory. I will also present some theory I disagree with. I am of the firm opinion that you should come up with your own answers and not blindly follow one person's ideas or memorize "rules". Read the theory part once. Re-read it in a year. That much experience may or may not change your thinking about this but at least, in this area, you'll have a good idea of what you think is best, and most importantly, WHY.

At the end, I will put a very short set of guidelines.

OVERCALLS: THEORY OF,

The first question of any decision at bridge needs always to be "WHY?". If you fully understand the why, you'll not have much problem with the "WHEN?" and the "HOW?".

Why overcall? Step one in the thinking, every call including pass needs to have a reason. There are a number of reasons for overcalling...let's see if I can enumerate them all:

1. To meddle with the opponent's bidding
2. To make an effort to play the hand with your suit as trumps
3. To accurately describe your general strength and start describing your hand pattern
4. To get a lead in your suit
5. To let pard know that you knew it was your turn to bid and you weren't asleep....just kidding...it does seem that way, but we are going to try to eliminate that type.

These reasons are not in order of importance, but in order of ease of explanation...shorter first...

1. To meddle with the opponent's bidding....We have discussed this in terms of opening weak two bids...a big reason to open weak two bids if you can. With a weak two bid, you just cause havoc for both opponents. With an overcall, you can't help the fact that one opponent has already opened the bidding, but you can take away all the responder's heavily practiced tools...Jacoby 2N, the 2/1 methods, inverted raises...and make the responder work with Q bids, doubles, and free bids. Usually, opponents haven't practiced with those methods nearly as much, and they rely a lot more on general bridge knowledge. (There's already an edge for us). One thing you probably haven't thought about is that overcalls vary in meddlesomeness (is that a word?) depending where the opened suit and the overcalled suit are on the ranks of suits. Example (in case you can't follow my convoluted English): 1c-(1D) doesn't meddle much, however, 1c-(1S) does. The 1S overcalls forces their 3rd seat to have to have a better hand to bid Diamonds or Hearts freely and even causes 3rd seat to have to have a better hand to make a negative double. This works for the other suits, too. 1D-(2c) is a pretty meddlesome overcall. See what I mean? Tactically, sometimes, it might be good to take a little bit of a stretch if you have a meddlesome overcall to make????

2. To make an effort to play the hand with your suit as trumps
3. To accurately describe your general strength and start describing your hand pattern

These two reasons are a lot alike, all part of the concept of "offensive overcalls". Basically, these overcalls are made in case partner has different hands that will do our side some good...not necessarily good hands, because if we find a whopping suit fit, we might be sacrificing. However the intent of these start off as intending to try to find a contract that we can bid and make.

4. To get a lead in your suit

One of the worst things that can happen to you in any given hand of bridge is that one of you is on opening lead....you listen to the bidding and know that your partner has some moderate amount of values...and you lead a suit (the absolute worst, you underlead an honor), and it turns out that you completely miss partner's holdings. Your opponent looks at the lead like Christmas came early. He scores a "soft" trick, with something stupid like an 8 or a 9, that's usually one trick blown, and he now has "tempo", meaning he can go to work on his plan instead of having to counter your attack. It's damage control time for your side, and you'll be lucky to cover anything.

This is why you see people overcalling real beefy 4 card suits. More about this in a minute.

Now we understand why to overcall, the goals if you will. Now let's look at overcalls in terms of what we should have in suit strength and hand strength to make them.

The first thing I want to say is: Overcalls are simply the most dangerous bid in bridge. You can damage your side's chances on a hand faster with an overcall than with any other bid. That said, do you suppose you ought to work out some guidelines and be pretty consistant with them? Your partner will appreciate, I'm sure.

Suit quality and suit length:

First, an overcall has to be, if you are going to have any sanity, at least 4 cards. Even this will be comparatively rare, since most overcalls will be 5 or longer. The 5th card provides a big margin of safety over 4 card overcalls, much like 6 card weak two bids provide a margin of safety over 5 card weak two bids.

4 card suit overcalls, first:

This is pretty rare. Actually there are two good reasons for overcalling on 4 card suits. One, the most common, you have some cards, they are all bunched up in one suit, and if partner leads another suit, you not bidding, you are going to be sick. We're talking about on the 1 level here, not higher. There is no safety at all for 4 card suits, overcalled at the 2 level or higher. It also matters which suit was opened and what your suit is.

If they open 1S, you can't bid at the one level.

If they open 1H, the only suit you can overcall at the 1 level is Spades, and guess what? The odds are real high the opener will play the hand...grin...you would be giving yourself a lead-director. So, if the lead directing option is not in the equation, should you be overcalling "light" on the auction of 1H-? The answer is no. If you are telling your partner you want to compete, you need a better hand. If you are disciplined about this, your partner will be better placed to make a good decision.

If they open 1D, first, now, the guy behind you has a decent percentage chance to play the hand. All of the objectives of an overcall are still in place..offensive and lead directive. If you have all of your cards bunched up in a 4 card suit, you can at least keep partner from blowing the hand on the opening lead by bidding that suit. A note: 4 card suit overcalls, when the suit is real good, are not very dangerous. Usually, you aren't going to get jumped on at the 1 level, and you drop those chances a lot if somebody has to double you with 10xxx for penalty. It's usually not worth their time and remember, there are backs on those cards...the opponents cannot see through them and can know, for sure, that they can bite a leg off if they just stopped and doubled. You could have AKQxxx and some side cards. It just doesn't happen much. That's the good news. The bad news is that partner isn't in on the joke, and if he gets frisky with a fit, he can get you in a ton of trouble.

If they open 1C, all three suits are available for offensive or lead directing overcalls. Even a lowly 1D overcall can be of serious use. It doesn't meddle with them much, but it directs a lead and starts a dialogue if parner has a good hand.

So, with the multiple objectives to cover, an overcall should have several inherent qualities...It should direct a lead, perhaps. It should be descriptive and be the first bid in a dialogue between your and your partner. It should have some degree of safety, too. So what quality of suit should you have to overcall? Vulnerabililty makes a lot of difference. Personally, I am not comfortable overcalling bad suits. Mike Lawrence advocates some overcalls that I wouldn't make. Mike has written a terriffic book on overcalls, essentially the "Bible" of overcalls. I suggest you read it. I hate to have points of disagreement with Mike about anything. I simply don't know as much about bridge as he does. On the other hand, we all make our priorities about the game from different points of view. That's one of the things that makes the game so much fun.

Vulnerable, to cover the safety point, overcalls should be made on very, very good suits. As the strength of the hand goes up, the required quality of the suit can go down, a little, but you have to be careful about this. With a weak hand, AQxxx might well be the minimium. With 16 high card points, J9xxx is simply not enough. Non-vulnerable, Mike advocates Qxxxx being enough with an opening hand...and I just won't do it. If you play with me and you do it, expect some squawking. My priorities lean toward safety and lead directing, and I think Mike leans toward competing more. Each to his own. To give you an idea, let me make a short list:

VULNERABLE (And NON-VULNERABLE ISN'T MUCH DIFFERENT):

AKQx yes, everytime I get a chance, provided I couldn't make a takeout double
AKQxx if I don't overcall that at the one level, call an ambulance
AKJxx if I am still breathing
AKxxx of course
AQxxx yes, knowing that there is a remote chance of going -1400
AJxxx yes, with 10 points or more
AJtxx yes with a little less in strength
Atxxx yes, with an opening hand...but I would't be happy
KQxx no...cant demand a lead and know it's right
KQ109 yes, almost certain to be right
KQxxx yes, but need some points too
KQtxx yes, that ten makes a difference
KJxxx no, unless a lot of hand
KJtxx yes, with an opener
QJtxx yes, with an opening 1N strength hand
Qxxxx not me...er...maybe on an 18 count???

Have you been making overcalls on lesser suits? I know you have, I have been watching.

Clean up your overcalls! You won't be getting in so much trouble and your partner will have an easier time.

Overcalls at the 2 level are different. They all are "offensive overcalls". They require even better suits and a working 10 points is dead minimium. Clean those up, too.

High card strength: I write 8 to 16 on my convention cards. It takes almost 8 to have a suit with nothing else that I would overcall (AQJxx, KQJxx) with nothing else in my hand. With more than 16, you should double first, then bid your suit.

Responses to overcalls are relative simple. Here are some thoughts on what I think standard is:

1. A simple raise is just like a simple raise if pard had opened. Beware of making real light raises on xxx with 6 or 7 points if pard can be making a lead-directive overcall, though. (If he overcalled over 1c or 1D. If he overcalled 1H with 1S, make your simple raise..he has a good suit and a good hand.

2. A jump raise in modern bridge is obstructive, sorta preemptive in nature. It requires 4 trumps, too. You might be careful with 4 trumps, a dog of a hand, and very flat distribution. It is about the same thing as a jump support as 3rd seat over an overcall.

3. A new suit is "constructive, but not forcing". Most people restrict themselves to 10 or more. I agree. A new suit should be at least 5 and have no more than 2 card support for partner. With a lot more than 10, a lot more, Q bid and bid your suit...you need 16/17 or more to do this. See Q-bid below.

4. A Q bid. Your old friend the competitive Q bid. Your pard thinks this means that your have a limit raise or better in his suit. That's almost always going to be true. Partner can make a minimium rebid of his suit, saying he doesn't have a solid opener for his overcall, or bid to game saying he does. He can make a trial bid with another suit (real or not) if he is right on the fence. If you have a solid limit raise, and he quits, just quit. If you have a full opener, and he quits, and you have room, you can try once more. Once in a while, you can just force to game if your partner is disciplined and won't overcall on the wrong hands. Even more rare, you have such a huge hand, but you don't have support, you want to find a game, probably in YOUR suit...Q bid, then bid your suit. Should you worry about him hauling off and bidding game in his, expecting support from you? He can't. Opener has about 12, you'd hold 18 or more on this auction, so there's only 10 left for partner to hold. He's going to rebid his suit and now you can bid yours...and that should be at least a one round force.

Here's the short guidelines I promised:

Overcalls:
Good suit. Usually 5 or more. 8 to 16 in power. More at the 2 level...in fact, 2 level overcalls should be right at an opening hand.
Responses to overcalls:
1-2 raise, just like partner opened. (Beware of xxx when very flat and very weak). 1-3 raises...weak, at least 4 in support. (Beware of very flat hands with that bad of a hand) New suits: constructive but not forcing, strongly implies no support. Q bid: Almost always a good limit raise of overcalled suit or better.

That's it. A word to the wise. Be disciplined. Don't color outside of the lines. It doesn't work well.

[bobh2]

MY FAULT

I apologize. My classes on BBO were for Intermediates and Advanced and I just didn’t realize that I was dealing with some beginners. Aaaarrrrhhhhggg. I should have figured it out. Here’s what happened to clue me in. In the last two days, I have spent a couple of hours showing people the most basic thing about bidding, because they showed me they didn’t know this. Evidently not, and you just cannot move toward being able to play the game until you have this down cold, so I am writing this up in the hopes that I can send people here to gain the understanding necessary.

Teaching someone to play bridge has two facets. One is card play and the other is bidding. Starting on card play, the steps would be:

1. The play goes in a clockwise manner, and the first guy to play plays a card of a specific suit. Each position has to contribute one card to the first trick (define that) in the suit led, if he has one. When each of the 4 positions have played a card, the trick is over and the highest card played of the suit led wins the trick. Well, you get my drift...

Starting on the bidding:

1. Learn how to count points
2. Understand about the suits (including NT) and their rank
3. Learn how the bidding progresses
4. Learn what the phrase, “opening bid” means
5. Learn about the levels(partscores,games, small slams, grand slams)
6. Learn about how much strength it takes to play at each level and how you find that out in the bidding.

That spot, right there, is lesson two, LESSON TWO! It boggles my mind to think that I have supposedly intermediate and advanced students who have just skipped line 6. If you consider learning to bid at bridge like building a house, I am working on putting the walls up and look down and see that building block #2 of the foundation of the house is missing. Surely, I dont’ need to point out the problems I have now?

We are going to fix that right now!

Point #1. The concept of bidding.

The idea of bidding at bridge is that you use bidding to convey both the distributional pattern of your hand and the strength of your hand to your partner so that at some point, one or the other of you has a clear idea of the combined assets of the partnership. That person, knowing that, will make a decision concerning the level (partscore, game, small slam, grand slam) that the partnership can bid up to and take the required number of tricks to fulfill the contract.

(I told you this was “BASIC”)

Point #2. There is one and one way only to get to this point. During the bidding, each partner will have a “range”, a minimium to a maximium of high card points. The beginning ranges are very large, but usually, one partner or the other will, by their bids, “limit” their hand to a much smaller range, normally a 3 point range. Example time:

North opens 1H. His “range” right now is about a good 12 to about 22 points. South, his partner, after East’s pass, bids 1S. South’s “range” is 6 up to “unlimited”. Right now, all we know is “minimiums”. We know the partnership can have at least 18 all the way up to 40. North’s rebid is likely to cut down the range of strength, either to a lesser degree, or all the way down to the workable 3 point range we really need.

North makes his rebid: 1NT. The bidding so far: 1H-p-1S-p-1N. North did it! He just completely limited his hand to a 3 point range. In this case, he is limited to exactly 12-14 points. No matter what happens from here on, South, the responder must keep in mind that his partner has 12-14. That is now written in stone.

All of bidding is based on the concept that eventually, one hand or the other is going to “limit his hand”. Then, the other guy knows for sure the combined assets of the partnership and can determine the final outcome. The other guy can stop the bidding, he can “invite” his partner to bid to any of the levels, or he can just bid to the level he wants all by himself. Why? Because his parnter is “limited” and he’s the one in the partnership who knows how high the partnership belongs.

UNTIL YOU HAVE THIS CONCEPT COMPLETELY UNDERSTOOD, YOU HAVE NO REASON TO DO ANYTHING ELSE WITH BRIDGE. YOU ARE AT A PLACE THAT UNTIL YOU GRASP THIS, THERE IS NO PROGRESS TO BE MADE ELSEWHERE, AT ALL!

The best way to think at this is in terms of “boxes”. “Boxes” are small point ranges...let me give you an example:

If you are in the 6-9 point box, with a flat hand, you can respond 1N
If you have support for partners’s suit and are in the 6-9 box, you can raise your partner’s suit from 1 to 2.
Those two actions place you, without question, in the 6-9 box.
If you are in the 6-9 box, partner opens 1 of a suit, and you can bid a suit, staying at the 1 level, you can do that. Your hand is not “in a box” yet. It probably will be on your next bid.

Depending on the bidding system, you are going to have boxes that you can bid to to tell pard what range of hand you have. Playing standard, you have fairly standard, common boxes. The range of the box depends on whether you are an opener or a responder.

As opener, with NT hands...not distributional hands:

12-14 is a normal box
15-17 is the next higher box
18-19 is the next box up
20-21 is the next box up
22-24 is the next box up
25-27 is the next box up
28+ is the biggest one

(PS, Don’t worry about that biggest box....you’ll see one of those about once every 5 years)

As responder, normal boxes are, with flat (4333, 4432, 5332 patterns) hands:

0-5 is the first box
6-9 is the next box up
10-12 is the next box up
12-14 is the next box up (yes there is a little overlap)
15-17 is the next box up
18-19 is the next box up
20+ is the next box up

As either opener or responder, one of you is going to fit your hand into one of those boxes, and usually pretty quickly. BIG POINT COMING:

When you do, either of you.......THE OTHER GUY IS NOW IN CHARGE!.

Why? Because he is the one in the partnership who knows what is going on. That simple.

So how does he determine how high you ought to be? He can see his points, and he adds those to your range of points. No, he doesn’t know exactly how many points his partner has but he knows partner’s range, for certain sure. How does this help?

First, we need to make sure we understand what we need to play at the various levels. The first level is called the part score level, only part of a game. Without discussing trump fits, if we have less than 25 combined points, and we are going to play the hand, not defend, we need to be in the part score range, in our best combined suit or in nt. If we have a major suit fit or we can play in NT, and have at least 25 points, we need to be in the game level to go plus. If we can’t play NT, but have a minor suit fit, we need about 27 to play game in the minor. (Why the difference? To make a game contract in a minor, we have to take 11 tricks of the 13. To do that, we need more points than the 10 needed for a major game or the 9 needed for the NT game).

Once you determine that you have a combined 32 points, or more, (of the 40 possible), you now should be thinking about the small slam level. If you think you have 35 or more, grand slam is possible.

Those are the levels, and of course, you know the bonuses at bridge get bigger, with each higher level you bid to (and then make your contract).

We have spent all this time making sure we understand this, step by step. What follows is the actual mechanics of getting this right.

Here’s the situation: Your partner has “limited” his hand. He is in one of the boxes I outlined above. You add your points to his box...the top and the bottom, both. You see where your combined “range” now fits on the part score/game/small slam/grand slam hierarchy.

If your combned range all less than 25, you dont have a game. You find where you want to play and play that as cheaply as possible. If your combined range, bottom to top, is all in the game range, you have to make sure you get to game. The same for the small and grand slams. The other situation is that your range can overlap the numbers you are looking for. This is what will happen a lot, and you need to recognize that you are now in an “invitational” situations. Time for examples;

Your partner opens 1N:

You have 6 points. You know your partner is in the 15-17 box. Add your points to his top and his bottom. You get a combined partnership assets of 21 to 23. Your total assets just will not reach the needed 25. You pass.

You have 10 points. Pard has 15-17. Add your points to the top and the bottom. Combined range: 25-27. The top possibility will not reach the slam zone but the bottom is clearly in the game zone. This means you have a game but not a slam. You simply bid 3N. Pard will pass and will likely make the contract.
You have 9 points. Pard has 15-17. Combined range: 24-26. If pard has a maximium within his range, you can make game. If not you can’t. Guess what? You cannot make the decision by yourself. You need to find out pard’s exact point count. You do this by making what is called an “invitational bid”. In this case, it’s 2N. Pard will pass with a minimium and bid 3N with a maximium. Accuracy in bidding.

Think about the principles here. If you know you have a game, you make sure to get to it (more complicated bidding is another lesson). If you know you don’t have a game, you get stopped at a safe level. If you may or may not have a game to bid, depending on partner’s exact strength, you make an invitational bid and partner will know you need to know if he is on the top of that little range or not. He will “accept” the invitation if he is on top and “decline” if on the bottom.

Some very simple examples:

1s-2s-3s-? Opener knows responder is in the 6-9 box. Opener is saying, in English, partner, if you are on top of your stated range, we can make a game.

1d-1s-2s-3s-? Now responder is the one who knows what is going on. Opener has placed himself in the 12-14 box. Responder is asking partner if he has a good 13 or any 14 to bid game. He is “inviting”

1s-2s-pass. Opener knows the range, and it doesn’t get to game level strength. Time to quit.

1s-2s-4s. Opener knows that responder has 6-9. Opener thinks the partnership has the strength for game, so he does not invite. He just bids game. (Note he needs about 19 points to do this)

This is how you, as a bidder, determine how high you need to be. You need to have this concept very, very clear in your mind. Until you do, do nothing but think about this until you do. You are flatly wasting your time doing anything else until you have your mind completely wrapped around this idea.

Bob Holmes

[bobh2]

HAND EVALUATION:

HAND EVALUATION...what I have learned reading, playing, and argueing for 40 years.

I am finally getting around to writing this in the interest of being able to send it to the rare people who rag me about how I evaluate my hands in the bidding....rare, because, it seems that I usually get it right, about how good or bad a hand is.

If you are an expert, you know as well as I, that it is good for your game to hammer the basics down...you can get off track a little, and this will be both food for thought and hopefully, it will be entertaining as well. If you are a novice, you will learn a lot. This is a promise. I taught a medium-sized class in Oklahoma City a long time ago, a bunch of smart people, and this is exactly where we started. They were at best intermediates then, and two years later, in the Grand National Teams, 6 of the 8 seats of the finals in Flight B were occupied by members of this group. They worked hard and so did I, and I like to think that this subject was good bedrock for their game.

There are several factors involved in evaluation. Let's start with the honor cards.

ACES:

Aces are different from all other cards in the deck. Aces require nothing but themselves to be a trick (obviously, taking trumps out of the picture). Aces also do one thing no other card does to any significant degree...they "lend" power. Not only are they strong, but they make other cards in that suit significantly stronger. Examples follow (throughout) in red:

You have two suits, three long: Axx and Qxx....or....AQx xxx. Note that with the first set of two, you have one trick with the A and exactly 25% of a trick with the Q, assuming nothing but very small cards across from them. The math? For the Q to be a trick, you must find both the Ace and the King of that suit in front of the Q. 25%, like I said. On the other hand, considering only those two suits, when the A and the Q are together, you have exactly 1 and 1/2 tricks. If the King is in the pocket, 2 tricks, if behind, 1 trick. Either likelihood is exactly 50%. Do you see what the Ace did? It "gave" power to the Q. The Ace gives power to anything...AKx and xxx....or Axx and Kxx. The first example is 2 tricks, the second is 1.5. One more: Axx and Jxxx or AJx and xxxx. The Jack in the first of those two is worth 12.5%. The A, K, and Q have to be in front. In the second, you have a 25% chance of holding two tricks.

Now that you see what an Ace does, what is an Ace worth? In the "Goren" point count (Milton Work actually invented this, I think), it's worth 4. The real worth of an Ace has been estimated by theorists as closer to 6.25. I agree.

KINGS:

In Goren, Kings are worth 3. That's about right. Kings lend a little power and that's a good place to put them....3.

QUEENS:

In Goren, 2. That's a little overvalued, I think. It's a dead cinch two Q's are not the same value as an Ace. Neither are three Queens worth the same as two Kings. Try teaching this to all the "newbies" in the world of bridge. They already have enough to remember. How about 1.75? A lot closer.

JACKS:

Goren: 1. Not hardly. If you seriously think 4 Jacks is worth one Ace, you need to take up slot machines...no skill required. The best I can do is about 1/2 a point.

TENS AND NINES:

Spot cards are "hidden" value in evaluation. Having them simply increases the value of your hand. Period. Wanna see why?

AQt opposite xxx. You are 75% to make at least two tricks. You are 25% to make 3 tricks. Compare: AQx opposite xxx. You are 0% to make 3 tricks, and 50% only to make 2 tricks. Why? The presence of the lowly 10 spot card. Another?

AJ9 opposite xxx. Just an old 9. Mathematically, your odds do this: With the 9, you are 37.5% to have two tricks coming here. Without the 9, AJx opposite xxx, you are 25% to have two tricks. Is this important? Do you realize that mathematically, you are supposed to bid all vulnerable games, playing IMPs, that are 35% to make or better? The nine says "Bid a game", and not having the 9 says, "Don't bid the game". It's that critical. Last example here:

AJx opposite xxx. 25%, we already know. Add the ten spot...(this is the funniest thing..it's the biggest non-high card boost I know of) AJ10 opposite xxx. Now you are a whopping 75% to score 2 tricks from this suit. Just the stupid ten spot.

You still think "spot cards" aren't important? Grin.

DISTRIBUTIONAL EVALUATION:

Pick up your hand and look at the distribution. A very extreme example would be a pattern of 7-6-0-0. The other end of the story is 4333. If you have ever played bridge before, you know a big part of the game is "establishing length tricks". It's a little hard to do that with 4333. You only have one suit that can build a length trick and worse, the best that suit can do is one trick. From this standpoint, longer is ALWAYS better.

Take the holding of xxxxx opposite xxx. No face cards, at all. You are 68% to be able to establish not one, but TWO length tricks if you just keep leading them. Nothing special, just a 5 card suit. This makes 5 card suits a ton better than 4 card suits, and the numbers go up, the longer the suit.

My conclusion is that lengthy suits play a part in evaluating how good your hand is. Holding 4333 is a definate negative.

Those are the major points but there are more. These minor points certainly help when your decision is close.

CARDS RESIDING IN LONG SUITS

Aces, as noted are great cards. Singleton Aces are severly diminished in value, because they are not "lending" power. Goren says (I think) to count singleton Aces for 6. Dead wrong!
You hold two suits, a total of 6 cards. Which do you like better? A and xxxxx or x and Axxxx? This is easy...put KQx opposite the A in either and you'll find that opposite a singleton A, you have 3 tricks. Opposite Axxxx, you'll find you still have the three tricks, and are 68% to have not 4, but 5 tricks. Biiiiiig Difference. If the KQx is facing the singleton, you have 1 trick there and the Ace...total of 2, that's it. If the KQx is facing the xxxxx, you have a 34% chance of 5 tricks (including the A) and some better odds to have 4 tricks. Note that Axxxx opposite KQx has about an 89% chance of 4 tricks, if my math is right.
Any other example you use, you'll find you will really like having your face cards in your long suits.

CARDS WORKING TOGETHER

We already saw this in the example about Aces "lending" power. But...there's more: Any two big cards in the same suit actually re-inforce each other, to one degree or another...any two.
An extreme example: a Queen and a Jack. QJx and xxx opposite xxx and xxx. You are a whopping 75% to make one trick. On the other hand, Qxx and Jxxx opposite xxx and xxx. Let's see...the Q is 25% and the J is 12.5%, so combined...something like 33%. Another Biiiig Difference.
It is easy to do example after example. This is a factor worthy of consideration.

CONTROL CARDS

Let's say you hold 14 highs. Your hand is all Queens and Jacks. (QJxxx KQx QJ QJx). You pard wants to bid a tight slam. Let me assure you, he's going to have a cow when dummy hits. As compared to (Qxxxx KQx xx AKx). Maybe it's a good idea, when evaluating to say to yourself (I know, this is stupid simple), "Counting on my fingers, do I have more control cards, Aces and Kings, than non-control cards?" Just a thought.

Now that we have these Principles firmly in mind, how do we apply them? Some example hands will do.

KQJ QJx QJxx QJx
This is the worst 15 count possible. Would you open it 1N, playing 15-17 NTs? If your pard has anything, he will kill you. He'll be so overboard, you won't believe it. Open this with 1D and rebid 1N...geeze.

KQJ QJt QJt9 QJt
Same hand? Not exactly. With the addition of the spots, if you can stay out of slam, and more importantly, play NT, you just might survive opening this 1N. Note that three Kings gives you a play for 3N, missing 4 Aces. Also note, if they lead a suit where they have length, and keep on leading it, you still are not making 3N.

xxx AKx AKJ xxxx
Do you open this 1N? 15 points and good controls. If pard stuffs you in game, how are you going to fare opposite a random 10 count? Well, let's see...you have 5.5 tricks. Pard has 10 high cards. You need him to have 3.5 tricks from 10 points. Oh, my. His realistic expectation from 10 points is about 2.5, maybe just a little more. Oops! About a trick short, day after day. What's the problem? Opening that hand 1N, that is the problem. If you can't get to game when pard thinks you have 13 or 14, you'll be better off GOING PLUS.

xxx AKx xxx AKJx
Same hand? Not exactly. Now you have a fair chance of a 4th round club trick. Your odds went up enough that this is a 15-17 nt opening now.

I can give you hundreds of examples about all of this. You can figure out your own examples, if you just will do it. All good bidding is based on "point ranges"...you just cannot live without them. For example:

If you open 1 of a major, and rebid cheaply, your pard is going to place you in the 12-14 bracket. He will, with support, not go forward if the top of your range, added to his hand is less than an "evaluated" 25 points or so. If he has 9, he will not try for game. On the other hand, if he has 13, he is going to force to game...knowing you have a hand that is "worth" 12. In the middle, of course he will invite. You cannot play the game without thinking about "brackets". In nt, the brackets are 0-5, 6-9, 10or11, 12-14, 15-17, 18-19, 20-21, etc. in Standard bidding. Actually, they are about the same in suit bidding, too. If you play a different system, the "brackets" are a little different, but the principle is the same.

THE CRUX OF THE MATTER

All this discussion has gone toward allowing you to accurately place you hand in a bracket. As a responder, when pard opens 1 of a Major, you will have a non-responsive hand (0-5), a simple raise hand (6-9), a "limit raise" hand(10-11), a game-force-but-nothing-extra hand(12-14), a game-force-but-a-little extra(15-16), and bigger brackets. You or your pard is going to "limit" your hand, eventually. Whoever does that first becomes the "responder" for the rest of the auction...the other hand being the one asking questions. The questions can, obviously, be, "How good is your hand for what you have shown so far?", "Do you have good controls?", "Is there anything else to tell me?".

You must get your hand into one of these brackets. Use the evaluation as outlined above to do so. The high card point content of your hand is not the only thing that matters....see above. Start off with the best evaluation you can do, considering the factors above. You'll find that as the bidding progresses, your hand will go up or down. Be ready for that, and bid accordingly.
You open 1S, pass, and your pard bids 4C, splinter, showing a game force in spades and a singleton or void in clubs. You hold KJx of clubs. Your pard just blew up (as surely as with a bomb) 4 of your points. Revise your bidding accordingly, right now!

Here's the hand that caused me to get busy and write this missive:

Axxx xx xxx Atxx

Your pard opens 1S. Opponents pass. The question is, "How good is your hand?". "What bracket does it fit in? Step by step, let's go through this:

1. High card points: 8...normally a 1-2 raise of some kind
2. Controls: Can't be any better for 8 points...that's a plus
3. Fit: You have a known 9 card fit...a big bonus
4. Big cards in long suits: Can't be any better, a plus
5. Spot cards: Only one, but it's in a real good place
6. Cards working together: (Aces can stand alone, and, two aces are likely "lending" power to pard's cards, anyway)
7. Distributional values: You have a doubleton heart. You have enough trumps that the opponents cannot lead them off the table. Pard can ruff (if needed), the 3rd and the 4 round of hearts and even the 4th round of Diamonds.

Conclusion: This hand is worth almost a game force. It fits in the top part of a "limit raise" bracket. I'd be willing to bet big money that if you took this hand and used a computer to generate hands that are worth 14 points with 5 spades, you'd make game 80% of the time, maybe more. If it is that good, you need to bid this as an invitational hand, not just a simple raise hand.

The final point: Move your hands up or down, depending on the evaluation factors...and remember, those factors change in the course of the bidding. Don't just count points. Think. Bid according to what you know about the game.

Bob Holmes

[bobh2]

DEEPER INTO HAND EVALUATION

HOW GOOD IS YOUR HAND?
...by Bob Holmes

Early rounds of bidding is done accurately by putting your hand in little ranges. The best example is NT bids. Opening 1N is commonly the range of 15-17, etc., etc. The concept is that one player "limits" his hand (that doesn't mean he places a top limit on it, it means he plunks it into a "range"). Then the other hand bids his hand according to what his partner has told him. If you are going to get anywhere close to bidding accuracy, this is the method.

We have discussed the finer points of what Aces, Kings and on down do and how they function....all by themselves. We also know how they function when in suits together...such as an A and a Q in one suit is a ton more powerful that if those two cards are in two different suits. We know that "spot cards" strongly enhance high cards. Now, it's time to put that knowledge to work.

The first and easiest place to start to determine how good your hand is is high card points. Count 'em.

Question 1. Is my hand flattish or distributional? You all know that distributional hands outperform flattish hands....in fact, it takes an act of Congress to get me to open a 4333 pattern with 12 highs. I also bump up my Quantitative NT bids by a point or so if 4333. 4333's just dont produce tricks.

Question 2. Is my hand major oriented or minor oriented? Majors are good...minors aren't so good..why is that? Major games are one trick lower than minors. If you have majors, you can outbid the opponents in part score competitions. You know that, but that question has to be on the list.

Question 3. Are my high cards in long suits or short suits? Maybe this hasn't occurred to you but an example is KQ doubleton compared to KQxxx. Which would you rather have? Obviously, for offensive purposes, KQxxx. That is a serious potential source of tricks. KQ doubleton is not nearly as good...a waste of strength, actually.

Question 4. Are my high cards in "Controls"...Aces and Kings....or are they in Queens and Jacks? Aces and Kings take tricks. Queens and Jacks need help...that's all there is to it. If you pay close attention, you'll start treating Jacks as virtual waste paper like I do. We all use the 4-3-2-1 point count method, but you'll find that the "real" value is more like: A=6.25, K=3, Q=1.25, J=.5. No, don't try to use this like that, but it is the real value of the cards, and you can make little adjustments in your evaluation when you know that.

Question 5. Are my cards working together are they all scattered around? (I don't think this ever conciously occurs to people, other than very sharp, experienced players). Example: If your partner has nothing in two suits, and you have Axx in one and Qxx in the other, mathematically, how many tricks do you have? Answer: 1.25. You have to find both the A and the K of your "Queened" suit in front of you to score a trick there. BUT. If you have AQx and xxx, all you have to find is one card, the K of that suit in front of you to score two tricks....so your likely trick count is 1.5. Note that just moving the Q under the Ace made your hand significantly better. Think on this...the light will dawn.

Question 6. Spot cards. Yeah, they are critically important. There are 8 spot cards that really affect the strength of your hand...10's and 9's. Obviously, 2 of them in your hand is average, and more is wonderful. Do you like Axx KJxx AQx Jxx better or A109 KJ10x AQt J109 better? Both are 15 high cards, both qualify for a 1N opener. Are they the same hand? Hardly. The second hand is a total rock, for a 15 count. If you like math, let me show you why this is so:

Opposite xxx in partner's hand:

AJx has a 25% chance to make 2 tricks
AJ10 has a 75% chance to make 2 tricks
AJ9 has a 37.5% chance to make 2 tricks (I think this is amusing...just a lowly 9...and the numbers bounce...lol.
AQx has a 50% chance to make 2 tricks
AQ10 has a 75% chance to make 2 tricks and a 25% chance to make 3!
AQ9 improves, believe it or not...I think to 62.5% chance to make 2 tricks (math might be wrong?)This goes on and on...with spot cards...last example:
Axxx has one chance to make 2 tricks, that the suit splits 3-3...35.5%
A10xx...just that brings it up to right at 40%, if my math is right. You gotta find all three "on-side" but it happens....12.5% of the time.

Now, you have the right questions to ask yourself about your hand. I suggest you do this, just like a pilot's check list, every last hand before you bid. Keep your list right by your elbow. Good habits are built, one action at a time. It won't be long before you do it in a flash but every so often, get your list back out and see that you are doing it. Make it a lifelong habit.

Practical Application:

This is soooo simple. Look at your hand. Count your points. Ask each question and answer it. Now, you know what your hand is really worth before the bidding starts. The bidding changes your evaluation, every time....be light on your feet....move your evaluation up or down with each bid. Critically important. If your partner bids your singleton, your hand value went down. If your pard bids your xxxx suit, you hand value went up. Simple. Your partner bids your Qxx suit...up. Your pard shows shortness in your KJ9x suit....well, there went 4 points...into the trash can, likely.

When you know what your hand is really worth, you can "pigeon-hole" your hand so your partner knows what's up. You can accurately bid when partner issues an invitation. You know what you should do on "borderline" hands. This is one of the primary building blocks...part of the foundation of a good bridge player. Without this, you are a lost soul, and I mean that with all my heart. Nothing, not one thing is more important to the bidding game than this.

[bobh2]

This is a "post" in the interest of keeping my little papers all in the same place

Lesson Notes for Friday, 13th, 2006. 3:30 pm, PST, chaired by Bob Holmes

Our session today will cover game try theory and long suit game tries. We will eventually cover short suit game tries and help suit game tries, as well.

Game Try Theory:

One bit of bidding theory you ought to understand is the concept of aggressiveness concerning making invitations to game (and this applies to slams, as well). The thought is simple. The applicaton may not be. The thought is this: If your partner has limited his hand with a bid in the "strain" (suit or nt), and you are thinking about whether or not to bid on, consider that if you pass, that will end the auction. This means that in this situation, you should be aggressive and partner should know that. Partner should accept an invitation in this circumstance only when chomping at the bit to bid game or slam, and should not accept when he knows it is marginal.

The easiest place to see this is the auction of 1NT-p-? If you pass, the auction ends. You should be thinking, "Do I want to play in game if pard is on a really tip-top opening 1NT bid?", not, "If I bid 2NT, will pard curb his natural aggression and bid game only if he really has a fine hand?" The same thing applies over: 1S-p-2S-p-? Note...if you pass, it's done...over. If you make a game try, and it doesnt' matter what type you play, pard should bid reasonably conservatively, not be aggressive himself. Reason?: Accuracy pays. If you both are aggressive with your cards, you can "aggress" yourself into a minus score. A good question here might be: Well, what if I have a hand that I just can't quite bring myself to bid game on, but if I make a game try, pard will be conservative and not accept? Answer: If you are going to be really regretful that pard didn't accept and it's really got you worried, bid the game and see if he (or you) can make it. If pard has a dog for a hand and you can't make it, you can always say, "A good pard would have had better stuff", then smile. Remember, your pard is not trying to decide between good and bad hands, it's between good hands, bad hands and in-the-middle hands. If he has a good hand or a middle hand, and this will make game for you, bid it. You have way the best of the odds. Your game try is based on the concept that he will accept with only good hands.

LONG SUIT GAME TRIES:

There are three types of game tries over a 1MAJOR-p-2MAJOR sequence in common use. They are long suit tries, short suit tries, and "help" suit tries. All of us learned long suit tries when starting the game...gee, that's our second suit. Simple, huh? Not really, because when we start, there is sooooo much stuff to process, books and teachers of raw beginners are trying to get you "up to speed" so you can "play bridge" We learn just enough to be dangerous. So, let's go back and really think about long suit game tries.

First, in the bit above, we covered who should be aggressive and who should be "on-the-mark" to conservative. A good thing to know.

Second, here is what a long suit game try does. It isolates the important cards from the unimportant cards. For discussion purposes, we will always use the auction of 1S-p-2S-p-? (Works exactly the same way for Hearts). So, after a raise, a new suit is "long". No, it doesn't have to be 5 cards long, but if not, the tryer will have to have compensating high cards. Why? He has more length losers. Simple, but only if you think about what bidding really means.

Having issued a long suit game try, what has happened? Let's make the game try in clubs, to save my typing time. 1S-p-2S-p-3C-p-? Translated into English, the tryer has said, "Pard, the only cards worth having are the AKQJ of S, the A of H, the A of D, and the AKQJ of Clubs. Interesting, huh? Don't fall into the trap of thinking having the AK of H or the AK of Diamonds is good...it's not. You could get lucky and pard have a doubleton there, but still, this is no good. If you attended previous sessions, you will have learned that big cards lend power to smaller cards. The AK of either Hearts or Diamonds might be "working" but they, by defination, aren't "lending". They are weaker than they look...don't get taken in.

We will discuss that ordinarily, a Queen here and a Jack there aren't good stuff to accept game invitations on, unless they are in one of partner's suits. If they are, they are "golden". If not, mentally, turn them face down. Even Kings that are "outside". Face down. They are waste paper, outside. This is what long suit game tries do.

Time to make a decision. How do you do that? Simple. You ask yourself, after a long suit game try, "Do I still have a decent 1-to-2 raise, having turned the KQJ of both red suits face down?" Note that I said decent, not great. If the answer is yes, bid the game, if no, don't bid the game. Yes, it is really that easy. It's so simple, most of us will have to see it in action to believe it. We will move to the practice rooms and go do that. If you missed this session, you can do this with your favorite partner, after the two of you discuss what I have said. If you don't know how to make the bidding practice rooms work, come find me and I'll tell you how.

MORE ON GAME TRIES, NEXT SESSION. DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP ON THE LINK SO YOU GET NOTIFIED ABOUT OTHER SESSIONS.

**********PLEASE DON'T REPLY TO THIS POST...THIS IS FOR ANNOUNCEMENTS ONLY*****

[bobh2]

More housekeeping, trying to get the notes all in one place:

Second Chapter on Game Tries over 1Major-2Major Raise by Bob Holmes

To Recap:

Earlier, we discussed these concepts:

1. We worked on long suit game tries, the idea of bidding your second suit after a major raise to give partner a way to re-evaluate his hand. (This is the first game try we all learned)

2. As the opener, we know that our partner has exactly 6-9 high card points, and with some very good hands, knowing we have a playable trump fit, we know that's enough, so we bid game. We also know that in theory (barring a no-percentage situation), after a 1-to-2 Major raise, we don't have a slam. (If one partner opens a limited one bid and the responder is limited to 9 highs, only magic will get you there). So, if your partner raises to 2 of your major, just blow off any thought of slam...you will profit a ton in the long term. So, direct game bids will range from a good 18 to 21, in evaluated points (if you don't understand that, go to the forums and get the notes about evaluation).

3. On the other end, with only 15 balanced, 14 semi-balanced, or 13 (not wildly unbalanced), the odds of being able to make game are short. (Numbers are approximate/flexible/estimates...grin). Those hands just aren't worth making a game try.

4. So, game tries, in evaluated strength, are the kind of hands that are just above the hands above up to a not-wonderful 18. Now it's a matter of how cards fit together and where they are located.

5. The oldest game try is long suit game tries. As responder, when partner makes a long suit game try, it becomes time to re-evaluate. We have discussed that the only cards that are "working" now are the AKQJ of the trump suit and partner's side suit..and the two side Aces. Now the responder very simply uses those cards only, turns the other face-down (this is easier to physically demonstrate than write about), and see if he still has a decent 1-2 raise. Simply (again), if he does, he bids game. If turning those cards face down made his hand one that he would have not raised on or really not liked it, the responder retreats to 3 of the major. That's all there is to it.....er...but...there is one thing I forgot to mention, because it's been so long since I played long suit game tries, I forgot...grin. If you are right on the border between bidding 3 or 4 of the major, look at your side cards again. If there is a King in either one, go ahead and bid game. Why? With a long suit game try, you put in your mind that your partner is 55 in those two suits. This leaves 3 cards in the side suit (if 55). If that side K is opposite the doubleton, pard can hold the Q doubleton or A doubleton and the K suddenly becomes a valuable card. Of course if the K is opposite the singleton, life is not wonderful. You'll not find out until the auction is over, too. So, play the odds and don't count side Kings, but if it's real close, add just a little for having one.

6. Once you get this method down, long suit game tries hold no more mystery...and if you want to really cement this in your mind, go to the kitchen table with a deck of cards and pretend your pard opened 1S, give yourself 3 small spades (for a while, then Qxx, then xxxx, then...etc.). Deal out semi-flat hands that total 6-9 highs, including whatever points you have in spades. Now, over your 1S raise, let partner make a game try in each suit. Turn over the cards as outlined above and ask yourself if you still have a decent raise after a long suit game try in every side suit. This won't take 15 minutes and you'll have it.

Long suit game tries are pretty accurate. If you know all about them (outlined above), you'll consistantly stay out of bad games and consistantly bid very good games. You have to realize, no matter how accurate the bidding gets, the very close hands are just educated guesses. You'll hit some makers and miss some makers. You'll bid some that don't make, too. The good thing is that your best guess will always be a good guess, and (wide grin), as your dummy play skills increase, you'll make more of the close ones...enabling you to bid just a little more aggressively.

ANOTHER TYPE OF GAME TRY:

We have beaten long suit game tries to death. A long time ago, somebody came up with the concept that if the opener could communicate where a singleton was, the responder could evaluate his hand accurately, and we know from the previous study that the location of high cards that increase in value is of supreme importance. So, a number of players tried this concept...a new suit over a 1-2 major raise was an hand of solid values and a singleton or void in the suit bid. They found:
1. The hands they wanted to make a game try didn't have a singleton or void all that often, but when it did, this bid was deadly accurate.
2. It took a good bit of experience to use short suit game tries...because there was no specific method. The long suit game tries came up a lot more often, but the accuracy was so good with short suit game tries, it has never disappeared.

I have been playing, this year, for 4 decades. About 10 years ago, I learned an easy method to control short suit game tries, and it dawned on me that this same method enabled me to bid far more accurately over the short suit responses of Jacoby 2N and over the splinter bids. What a hoot! So nice to learn something that helps that much, after 30 years of play. Before we learn about short suit game tries, absorb the following. It is called "The Thirty Point Deck".

The Thirty Point Deck

Each suit has 10 high card points. (Bear with me, I'm starting at the beginning and this is quick). If you know that your partner has a singleton or void in one suit and you have a trump fit, you know you don't have to worry about losing tricks in that suit (maximium of one). So now, you only count up the high cards in the other three suits. The maximium is obviously 30. You can subtract the total of your combined assets and get a rough number of high card points you are missing on those three suits. You'll find that every 4 points you are missing translates into one trick. From here, it's easy. If you have 26 points between you, you are missing one trick in your three suits and one in the short suit. (Yeah, I know...if pard has a void, you are sitting on a likely slam). Note: This method helps on slam bidding, but it's best use is in tight game bidding. If you have 22 points in your three suits, missing 8, meaning two tricks, plus the one in the short suit, bingo! Bid game. This is straightforward. The only hitch is knowing if your partner has a 12 point opener or a 15 point opener. You have to make some assumptions

1. If partner makes a short suit game try, remember, it's going to be on "evaluated" points. He knows you have 6-9, exactly. So what is the minimium he should have, when he holds a singleton? As noted above, you need 22. He knows that he needs you to have 8 to go, because with 7 or less, you'll be reluctant. And that's 7 in the "working" suits. So he needs about 14, and that's not counting much, if anything for the short suit. Essentially 14 in high cards, that's the minimium, and he needs to have decent top cards, not a collection of Q's and J's. (Yeah, I know "Goren" calls that about 17, but it's not, until the 5 card major gets raised). So, now you know to count him for 14 "working" points, maybe 15.

2. The other assumption is that nothing in the short suit is working except the A, not the King or the Q or the J. The Ace, too, has lost some value...it lends power to air. It is only worth 1 trick, period.

So the rest is easy. Remember about turning non-working cards face down? Do this now, in the short suit. Do you have 8 or 9 evaluated points? If so, bid game. If 6 or 7, look again. If you have anything that will help...4 trumps rather than 3, a doubleton in one of "your" suits, something like that, bid the game. If less, time to retreat to 3 of the major.

That's all there is to it. I suggest you practice this a little, but it doesn't take much. You won't believe how accurate this is.

Remember that I told you this works over the short suit bids of Jacoby 2N and the splinters, too? It does, big time. Jacoby 2N is a commonly used major suit game force. One of the things that J/2N does is highlight a short suit. To use it, you assume your partner has 12 points outside the singleton, add that to your hand, and if you are nearing 30, you are nearing a slam. If your partner bids a splinter, a double jump shift, this shows a good fit and a singleton. You need to have an agreement about how much strength the splinter shows. Some play 10 or more, others 11 or more...I play it shows a full opener...the singleton is a bonus. It could be more, a lot more, but a minimium of that. If partner has nothing in that suit, we have no more than 6 missing "working points" and one in the short suit. That's 2.5 tricks. Opener, with extras, Q bids or with a lot of extras, just takes control and starts an ace asking sequence.

For now, I am not recommending either of these game tries. Whatever you are comfortable with. I do strongly recommend, however if you use short suit game tries, or splinters, or Jacoby 2N, that you make sure you understand the concept of "The Thirty Point Deck".

Last Issue:

"Help suit game tries"

This is a lot like long suit game tries, but asks for help in specific suits. I quit playing these a long time ago because if you asked for help in a specific suit, and your partner had that help, it was good, but if not, it just tattletaled where your weakness was. This resulted in a lot of 3 of a Major, down one. Just for your information, where you might need help would be a suit like Jxx, Qxx, Kxxx, or even xxxx. I had just about forgotten this treatment, when a friend taught me a better way do deal with it. The way you do it is to use the next bid up as an artificial asking bid, and responder "tells" the opener where he has help, if any. This worked out pretty well, because the eventual defenders weren't sure where the weakness was, and...even better, hands came up that if the responder had help in either of two, it would work, and you could find out with this little gadget. There were even hands that needed help in both side suits..you could find that too. It was very flexible, but took real good judgement and planning. The other bonus was that with this rather ticklish stuff, you could use short suit game tries as well. So, it just depended on what kind of hand you had, you had a lot of options. I have practiced this in the bidding rooms for hours with regular partners before we got it going right. I don't recommend it for players who are trying to ingest a ton of other information. I brought this up only so you will have heard of "help suit game tries". Wait a while...play either long suit or short suit game tries for now. Remember, without discussion, long suit game tries are the default. Both work well, if you know what you are doing with them.

[bobh2]

Still more housekeeping:

SIMPLE STRUCTURE OVER 2C AND 2N OPENERS-WHAT NEXT?

I have been playing with some of my newbie friends who attend my lectures to get ideas on what hole in the dike to plug next. I have gotten some good ideas, but the single most glaring thing I have seen is that they all know about what to open with big hands, but once they get that off their chest, it's anybody's guess what will happen next. We're gonna fix it.

2C OPENERS

We need to define 2C openers so we have some small chance of bidding game and slams that make and staying out of those that don't.

Suit-type 2C openers: Easy.

Play 2D as "waiting". It shows nothing except a lack of enough points to make a descriptive bid, either in a suit or by bidding some number of NT. The response of 2N should be about 7-9(????) and the single best hand to bid 2N on in response to 2c is a flat hand with KKK. I have no idea what to do with more points, I never get that much when partner opens 2c. Mostly I bid 2D and let him talk. There is a technique you need to learn. It's called "second negative" or "double negative".

A solid group of strong players use the immediate response of 2D as "waiting, but positive" and 2Hearts immediately as a direct "second negative", showing a hopeless hand. If you do that, now, the 2N bid becomes a positive hand with a decent heart suit. With all respect Kokish who invented this, I hate it. Just my opinion. I play what is outlined below with everyone but my tightest partner, with whom I play a series of responses that would make a ball of string look like a ruler's edge. Here is your simple solution:

Use 2D as waiting. Let pard bid his suit. Responder (you) now bids the cheapest suit at the 3 level that is available...completely artificial. It just gives the message, "Pard, I am going to pass the next bid you make if you don't jump". No, this does not apply over a 2N rebid...after one of those, you go into the Nt sequences shown below. So...2c-2d-2h-3c...says, "I'm through bidding if I can help it". If opener wants to play in game opposite xxx xxx xxx xxxx, let him do it. That 3C bid has nothing to do with clubs. Artificial, like responses to blackwood. This applies to either minor rebid, too. 2c-2d-3c-3d...nothing about Diamonds. Pard should have a good enough hand to make 4C or shouldn't have opened 2c to start with. 2c-2d-3d-3H...nothing about hearts, still artificial. Same story..you are going to pass the next bid. Why? Because you have, at the very most, 2 Queens, and probably less. With 2 Q's and a J, take a chance, with one King, for sure get to game. We'll discuss this particular situation more later.

Now that you know how to use "2D Waiting", here are some guidelines/rules.

Rule 1. Don't open 2 suiters with 2C unless you have game in hand opposite zero. The only thing that counts here is losers, and if you don't have any, open 2c, over 2D (waiting...the response you will usually get), bid one suit. Pard is obligated to bid once more. Then jump in the other one. Pard will chose which he likes best and then you bid game in it. If responder has a reason, he'll move toward slam by Q bidding an ace or just bid it with more filler cards than you expect. That's it...the end. Not real scientific, but very practical and easy to remember. Just remember, second-suit jumps by opener are game forcing, if you haven't reached game yet. Do not abuse this. If you have any doubts about having game in hand in both of your suits, don't open 2C.

Rule 2. With a One Suiter, you need to be within 1 trick of game in your suit. No, don't open 9 solid spades and out with 2C. That you open 4S or something. All you'll do if you open that hand with 2C is confuse partner. The loser count is just part of it, good strength is the rest of it. If you are having a hard time figuring out your losers/winners, talk to me, I can show you how to do that in 10 minutes, maybe faster. Don't stretch.

Rule 3. Tell any stranger you play with that you play 2D waiting, cheapest 3 level is second negative. This is the way us old-timers played for decades. If they know anything about the game, they'll understand this.

Rule 4. When your pard opens 2C, he is going to want to bid his suit comfortably. If you bid anything but 2D, you get in his way. For that reason, you need two things to not bid 2D in response. One is a good suit, usually defined as a 5 card suit with 2 of the top 3 honors. You also need maybe a little more high cards. If all you have is one suit, you can bid it after pard bids his. That shows a positive response of some sort and a suit of some sort. If you didnt have that, you'd bid the "second negative".

This is not too hard. If you have problems with it, come to the lecture. If you don't get there, having read this, and are still confused, find me if Im not playing, I'll clear it up for you.

There are all kinds of ways to handle this stuff...I'm not sure what "standard" is any more, but this was "expert standard" a decade or two ago. It's easy to work with once you understand it, and a lot better than not knowing.

2NT OPENERS (AND ALSO APPLIES TO 2C-?-2N)

I know there is a lot to learn. On one hand, learning is the fun part, but, it's not much fun to just get totally lost. I played tonight with some lecture attendees. Back to back hands, the opener either opened 2N or bid 2c-2d-2N. The responding hand on one had 7 small diamonds and nothing in high cards and on the other, responer had a whopper with both minors. No clue what to do with either. What happens is that whereever they learned, they were told, "Stayman and Transfers over 2N or 2c-2?-2N, and that's all. This just won't get it. 2N bids are hard for real experts to bid over, much less folks with less experience. Let me give you an easy way to deal with this:

Disclaimer: If there was a "standard" way to do this, I'd outline it for you. There are so many bidding tools, gadgets, you just can pick and choose what you want to play of them. Problem is, your pard has to be able to play them, too. I think, very strongly, that if you, the folks who attend my lectures, will learn to play what was "expert standard" a decade or two ago, anybody will have a nodding acquaintence with it, and you will avoid shooting your own foot off. There are better, more scientific ways to do this, but you have enough to try to learn right now. Just get in a position to reach the right spot most of the time. You'll be surprised how many people you will beat doing that. (You ought to see my notes here...pages of them...with winstonm, my "regular" partner...gag!)

When I started playing, I'm trying to remember if we started with Jacoby transfers...too far back in the fogs of time. Maybe not. In fact, I don't think so. We had Stayman, that I know. At the point in time transfers took the world by storm, here's what we were doing:

Over 1N, we used Stayman normally, hunting majors, but also used it as a means of signing off with a bad hand and a long minor. We transfered to one suit and bid another, and that was a game force. We used a direct 2S response to 1N as an all-purpose minor hunt...called it MSS(Minor Suit Stayman). We jumped to 3 of a minor to invite with a good suit and weak hand. Those were the tools we had available. Now, we have 4 suit transfers, etc, etc, ad nauseum. If you want my opinion, you'll play just what I described for a while as your bidding system over 1N. Why? Because everybody played that and everybody can bid it effectively. Go sit and play with an expert...take 2 minutes to tell him that...he'll be happy. He played that for 25 or 30 years. Smolen is really nifty. 4suit transfers is neat. Yada, Yada, Yada. Too much stuff to learn until you have the rest of the game solidified.

The really neat thing about playing that over 1N openers is that you can play it over 2N openers, just as easy. You cannot play 4 suit transfers over 2N without a lot of discussion. Avoid shooting yourself in the foot, at all costs. Play that simplified Stayman/Jacoby Transfer combination over 2N and 2c/2d/2N and worry about something else. Best advice I can give you.

In order not to leave you hanging with questions, let me give you some example auctions:

All these start with 2N:

3c...stayman.
3d...heart transfer
3h...spade transfer
3S...game force, one or both minors
3N...to play
4c...gerber, asking for aces
4D/4H...most play Texas transfers...forget about it for now
4S...undefined for now
4N...Quantative, asking how good your hand is for a 20-21 point hand.

after 3c, Stayman:
pard responds with 3D, you can bid a 5 card major (assuming you started with 54 in the majors) and is a game force. With an awful hand, transfer and quit with that pattern. Usually you will end up in 3N, unless you connect. This is the important part...with a bad hand and a long minor, bid stayman and over any response, but 4 of the minor to play. Forget invitations, either bid game or not. Yes, if pard bids 3d, and that is your minor, pass. There are more scientific ways to do this, but we are trying to avoid memory work and still land on our feet.

after 3d or 3h, transfers:
bid game or pass. with a second suit and interest in higher things, bid the second suit...that's forcing. ask for aces with 4N.

after 3s (which responder bids with any kind of minor game force), opener bids a 4 card minor...just like major stayman. From here, raise to game, bid game, or bid Blackwood. This isn't cute but better than being lost.

This is simple and straight forward and works over 2N openers and over 2c-2?-2N. You can sign off in any suit, bid major/minor or major/major two suiters and handle any one suiter. Minor two suiters are harder for you, but they are tuff for anybody. Further, this is easy to explain and easy to remember. I highly recommend this method until you have a lot more experience or a regular partner who likes memory work.

[bobh2]

and still more housekeeping:

****How to Deal with Interference After Partner Opens 1N******

Frankly, when partner opens 1N and the opponents interfere, this is an irritating situation. It is less so if we know what to do, but still a pain. Some bids and some methods are worse than others but we need to learn how to deal with this. Some background first.

At matchpoints, there are some players who just dive in, all the time. They do this on 4-4 patterns, all kinds of crazy stuff. On one hand, they are risking huge numbers, but on the other hand, they can get huge payoffs by messing up the bidding. Matchpoints is a knife fight in a dark room. If you are playing IMP pairs or teams, the risk/reward isn't nearly so great for the "scramblers"...they have a lot better chance to be handed their head. You can apply the methods below but if you know your are playing against matchpoint oriented loonies, just keep your doubler out.

Interference bids in sane situations are usually on lengthy one suiters or serious two suiters. Most people adopt one of the common methods and use it. You ought to know how to counter these bids. It is helpful to have some tools to work with before starting discussions on countering specific methods. The first tool you need to have is Lebensohl. This is, as far as I know, the best tool to use to counter 1suiters. You also need to think about playing neg x's over 1 suiters. In general, it is not productive to play immediate x's of one suited bids as penalty, regardless of what we were taught when we started playing bridge. For sure, look up Lebensohl, learn how to play it. It is hugely useful in this situation and even more so dealing with weak two bids. If you don't play it over weak two bids, aggressive weak two bidders will drive you nuts.

Before we discuss how to beat the methods, let's see what the strengths and weaknesses are.

Capp is the "default", it seems on BBO. On one hand it is a programmed way to get into the bidding on both one suiters and two suiters. With all due respect to Mike Cappelletti and Freddy Hamilton, I sincerely believe it has a theoretical weakness. In theory, a bid over an opening nt has a fairly high degree of risk. Their responder knows opener is on a lot of points and has a flat hand, more or less. If you walked in when you are unlucky, you can just get killed. So what are you trying to accomplish with a bid here? Theory again, you should have two objectives..one, to compete for the part score, and two, to throw a monkey wrench in their well-ordered offensive bidding machinery. The second is getting more important all the time. People, even rookies, are bidding so well that leaving them alone and letting them use their tools, is getting expensive. So, perhaps you need to be bidding, and having a schematic is a good idea. The only problem is, Capp does a poor job of getting in their face. Why? Because the one-suiter of Capp doesnt' cause any pain. Any bidding over 1n should have two qualities, one, it is major oriented, exclusively, and any 1 suiter should make 3rd hand's life difficult. Why so much emphasis on majors? Because if you have minor orientation, and bid, you shove them out of nt and into a major where they belong, and worse if you both have fits, they can outbid you....maybe you ought to defend nt when you have minors?????

CAPP (Short for Cappelletti...and also called Hamilton...two claims on inventing this, I think)

X is penalty
2c is a one suiter
2D is both majors
2H is Hearts and a minor
2S is Spades and a minor
2N is both minors

To deal with this:

Over X:
XX to relay to 2c, and pass with clubs, or correct to D.
From here "all systems on"...stayman and transfers..but I recommend that 2S is a double minor takeout, weak

Over 2C...the biggest weakness of their system...
X is Stayman...commonly called "stolen" for "He stole my bid"
again, "all systems on" but now, 2S is your normal stuff, Minor Suit Stayman or 4 way transfers

Over 2D(Majors)
You now know both suits...if you have interest in penalizing them, X
if you have both minors, but no interest in game, pass, let them pick a major and bid 2N at your next turn (2N is not a good place to play partscores...use it in competitive auctions for takeout).
Q bid a major if you have a stop and a game going hand. Your most likely game is 3N. If you have a game going hand in one minor, Q bid either major, preferably one with a control and over partner's next bid, bid your minor. With both minors, game going, no interest in 3N, Q the preferred major, and over partnters' next bid, Q bid again.
bid either minor to play

Over 2H or 2S(that major and an unknown minor)

Use Lebensohl. It's hard to deal with an unknown suit, ignore it.

The most common bid from Capp is the one suiter. The 2C bid accomplishes nothing as far as making you work if you play what is outlined above. A better tool is called for for them, but now you can deal with Capp. (A better tool is outlined below)

DONT:

Another fairly common schematic for bidding over nt, and another one that has a lot of minor emphasis (thus wrong).

X=a one suiter (No, no penalty double...sigh)
2C=Clubs and a major(oh, wonderful, let's bid them clubbies)
2d=Diamonds and a major(see comment above)
2h=Majors
2s=a better spade one suiter
2n=both minors

The theory weakness is even worse...x doesn't do any "preemptive" work at all. The only thing to be said for DONT is that it keeps you at the 2 level on all two suiters but minors. If you are going to scramble in with 4-4's and crap all the time, maybe this is best????

TO DEFEND DONT:

XX to force pard to bid 2c then you can pass or bid 2D, both to play
all systems on from there (notice how it didn't get in your way, at all?)

2d and 2d, use Lebensohl

2H, use the same defense you use against Michael's Q bids. If you haven't discussed this, I'll give you a quick and easy defense...it will come up a lot. 1. bid either of the other two suits (minors) to play. 2. Q bid a suit you have stopped with a game going hand, trying to get to 3N. 3. Bid 2N as a one round force, (not necessarily a good hand), showing either a game force in one minor, both minors, or both minors, merely competitive. Pard will pick a minor. On your next bid, pass if you just wanted to compete...bid your minor if a game forcing one suiter (regardless of whether your pard bid it, or the other minor), and Q bid again with both minors and a game force.

2S..back to Lebensohl

What I have written looks complicated. It is a little, but if you see the principles, and your partner knows anything too, you can fall back on principles. They are:

If defending against a known 1 suiter, use Lebensohl
If defending against a two suiter where the suits are known, use Q bids to show stops, new suits to play, and 2N to show the other two suits. With 2N, you can quit when partner chooses, or you can make a game force by now bidding your one suiter or make a game force with both suits by Q bidding again.
If defending against 1 known suit, 1 unknown suit, use Lebensol against the known suit, and ignore the other suit (best you can do, not perfect, but a lot better than nothing).

For you analytical types, there is one more thing to stick in these principles. If your side starts with 1N, the first objective is to get to game (3N) safely. Use the principles above. If you are in a suit bidding war, like a Michaels Q bid situation or unusual nt situation, one change needs to be made: Use the Q bids differently. You can turn their own bidding on them, use what is called "higher-to-higher, lower-to-lower". Q bid their highest suit to highlight interest in your highest suit, and Q bid their lowest suit to highlight your lowest suit (the two other suits). An example: 1c(by your partner), and they make a Michael's bid of 2c. You Q bid 2S...that's their suit, but you are saying you have a good D suit and a good hand. 1c-2c-2H...you have Q bid their lowest suit, the one pard opened, and are saying I have a good hand with clubs in support. This works for when you open 1 of a major and the opponent bids the unusual 2N bid...same principle...higher to higher, lower to lower.

I promised you a GOOD tool to use over their nt opener. In theory, a GOOD tool gets you into the bidding over 1N with: decent major one suiters, very long one suiters of any kind, decent major two suiters, or extreme two suiters. It does not tempt you to bid with moderate minor holdings of any sort. That is proper theory and also a GOOD tool is easy to explain and easy to remember (forgetting stuff is like shooting yourself in the foot).

RIPSTRA(slightly modified from the original)

2C is a double major takeout. Clubs is your longest minor. 5-4 in the majors is a risk, but you use it there at your own discretion. 5-5 is a lot safer.

2D is your longest minor, again...and still a double major takeout.

2H is natural, I suggest something like a good weak two bid or better

2S is natural, too.

X is penalty, not a balanced hand, a suit you want to jam at them and a lot of entries (how about: KQJTxx Axx x Axx?). That's my kind of double..partner will leave the double in with almost anything..and be happy to leave it in with two Queens. If he can't leave it, he pulls to 2C unless he has a 7 card suit.

2N-both minors

3 of anything is just real long. Note that you cannot bid a minor in this unless you are very, very long in it?

Why bid your longest minor even if it is maybe only 2? Your poor old partner might have a 6511 pattern with minors. You are in deep water. He can pass and play that minor at the 2 level. It just may not be in the opponent's best interest to start doubling you at the 2 level when you are 6511, you see?

RIPSTRA BALANCING SCHEME: 1N-p-p-?

Different objectives here. First, the only two suiter you want to bid is, again, majors. X with that. You need 9 points, preferably in your suits, and if only 9, preferably 55. With a little more points, 5-4 works just fine.

The problem with other two suiters is the same as in immediate seat...if you have minors involved in your two suiter, you push them out of nt, where you have a chance at them, into majors where you don't. A different problem exists when you have a one suiter.

With any one suiter and a moderate amount of points, if your pard is alert at all, he knows you have some points, and he'll lead his long suit hoping at least some of your points are in his suit. If you have a good suit, but only moderate points, he is going to give a soft trick to the declarer and maybe the contract along with it. Don't let him do that. Bid all suits, even minors, naturally here. It is always better to have a major, but even if you have a minor, your partner will never guess your minor to lead, and you aren't going to do well against 1N. Push them out of it.

Question: Why is it safe to bid on so few points? Answer: Their third seat passed. They have between 15 and 24 points (at the most). Also, your partner's points are sitting on top of their points. Your finesses are working, theirs are not. If you have 9, your pard will average 11. Once in a while, responder will have his max, 8. You can be in trouble here. However, he's going to be real leery about doubling you for penalty...you could have AKJtxxxx or something. So, the theory is: (and this works in practice), you will get in trouble a lot less than you ought to. On the other hand, if you use the re-opening X to show majors, and promising at least 9 points, anytime your pard has 13 or 14 or more, he can leave the double in, and he knows what to lead. Remember the declarer is in a world of trouble, he can't get to dummy and it wont do him any good if he could, his finesses arent working.

You can explain Ripstra quickly: 1. in immediate seat, bid your longest minor for a major suit takeout. 2. All other bids are natural, except for 2N, a minor take out. 3. Balance with natural suits or X with the majors and at least 9 points.

It's right, in theory. It's impossible to forget. There is never any confusion. What more can you ask for?

[bobh2]

Being a mentor/teacher in the world of bridge has some interesting aspects. Maybe it's kinda like raising children (except the bridge players will actually talk to you). It's still hard for our fledgling players to realize that all of this "stuff" happened to their expert/experienced player/teacher/mentor 4 or 5 decades ago, and in exactly the same manner, sometimes worse...(grin).

Lately, I have run into a bunch of newer players who soak up bridge knowledge like a sponge does water. I am not saying they learn how to apply it that quickly, but they suck it up. I have never seen anything like this, except when you try to wash your car in Las Vegas and before you have time to put a soapy rag down and pick up the water hose, the soapy water has dried on your finish. Washing cars in Las Vegas is a two person operation if you want your car to stay shiny. I am not kidding about these folks...I go sit down to chat with somebody about bridge, or go to the bidding practice rooms and in a few minutes, there's a crowd. This sure has nothing to do with my skills at the game, but maybe a little with the fact that I can explain stuff clearly, to one degree or another. I wouldn't bar them from sitting and listening for anything...they are addicts to the game, same as me, the only difference is I've been hooked for half a century.

I need to address something and what I just wrote pertains to it. The latest problem to come up is that the discussion at the table (among our newer "addicts") is both continual and blame-setting. This isn't real new, folks. It might have been a little more restrained "in the old days" when the kibitzers (we called 'em lurkers) couldn't see all of the hands and perhaps a little more polite since a punch to the nose was a reasonable possibility if a player got enough of being second-guessed. Still, it went on all the time, and most of it then was from partners who were irritating themselves (if the truth were known) by playing badly, and then taking it out on partner. In my younger and more hot-headed days, I had a partner off his feet and up against a wall, because he was such a continual grump at the table. Wasn't one of my better days in terms of partner-to-partner relations.

You need to understand....bridge is a game where you are trying to outhink the opponents or the game. If you don't accomplish that, you don't lose your life, your bankroll, or a limb. However, your self-image gets battered. Your ego takes a pounding. You know you are as smart as somebody like me (aint' too hard to get there) and it's just not reasonable that I should pound on you at bridge. It makes you want to just scream. Then, you are already seething, and your partner starts on you, and the opponents chip in, and even the "lurkers". Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhh! Kiddo, this ain't new. It may be a hair worse when everybody can see every dumb card you play or every bid you ever make with all the online tools, but not a lot. And, I agree, it gets real old, real fast.

So, how to get a grip on this, where you can have a good time and learn something?

1. Understand that all of that is not (usually) somebody working out their frustrations with life on you. Almost all of your parners, opponents, and even lurkers are trying to learn the game, in their own special style. What they are doing is thinking outloud, putting what they can see and what they think they know out there to see if it fits. They are (usually) not trying to be mean to you...they are stretching their minds around the game. Think back...grin...I raised a daughter. She'd cop an attitude, a different one almost every day, trying it on like a dress, to see how that attitude fit her. She'd try on a new persona, a new way of presenting herself to the world and change all of that on a whim. If you are related to the human race, you'll identify with this. All of the bridge players are doing the same thing, exactly. I don't care how nice you are, you do it too. Some are a lot worse that others, and I will assume that you don't do it much because you are real nice, but let me assure you, there are times, or will be times, that your partner is doing all he/she can not to punch you in the snoot.

2. Understand that there is a way, even with us humans being the way we are, to slow this stuff down, a lot. What you do is just tell the people that you don't want to discuss the hands, hand-by-hand because it slows down the game. The only thing that you are willing to discuss is pure bidding misunderstandings. (An example of that would be: over (1S)-1N-p-2c, by you...you thinking that was stayman and your pard passing it, thinking it was a suit). Offer to review the hands when the session is over with your partner, if he wishes. Explain sweetly to your opponents, regardless of whether or not they are friends, that they are welcome to "tend to their own knittin'". Now, for you to get this courtesy, and courtesy it certainly is, you have to keep your own fat mouth shut...grin. You cannot analyze partner's play or the opponent's play (out loud) and expect them not to do the same. One nice thing about BBO is that there are a lot of players. You can always go open or join another table if you ask nicely and they won't stop.

3. Another thing to understand. Beginners/intermediates/Advanced players simply are not qualified to teach other Beginnners/Intermediates/Advanced players. I strongly suggest you and anyone you are playing with remember this. Your job, right now, is to learn, and there is a ton of that on your plate. If one of your pals asks you about something, tell him, "Here's what I think I know about that, but you might ought to dig it out yourself". This thinking will keep you from passing out advice (that is probably not wanted, and maybe be off-base) and will keep you from listening much to the same advice from somebody else and using it as "The Word". If you want to know something, go read a book or go pick some real good player's brain. Dig it out of the Encyclopedia of Bridge.

Now that you understand what's going on around you, let's talk about the other of your two jobs here (the primary one of staying sane while learning the game). This is keeping your partner happy. So why is that so important? Do you like to win? Do you like to keep friends friends? Concerning winning, let me ask you a question: When do you play your very best game? When you are fully aware that your pard is working with you, on your side, and no matter what, there is going to be no yammer or blame-finding, right? Guess what? That's when your pard plays the best too. So how do you get your pard to play his very best? Be a wonderful partner, remember to have fun, and concern yourself with how you can do better and not worry about your partner's game. If you even comment when something goes up in smoke, the only thing you can say is,"Gee, pard, I could have done better". If you think you are blameless, just shuddup. That works just fine.

Now, here's some advice for you. If your object is to win at bridge, play with partners who are playing winning bridge and keep them playing that way. This is a simple fact. Bridge is a partnership game and a huge factor of winning has to do with taking good care of your partner. They do best when they are chirping along, not stressing out. Your behaviour and style at the table matters a lot. This is not hard to accomplish, you just have to be aware of this, and do it. What I have just said applies to the game regardless of your skill level or anything else. It is a universal truth.

I have one more tip for you, and this is nothing but my own opinion. Another part of keeping partner happy is his willingness to trust what you bid and play. Trust is a big thing. Try to make sure your bids are in the range they are supposed to be, and remember, it's nice if you have the top of your range, not the bottom. Your pard will love that. Stay solid...it pays, long term.

Last thing. You will generally make friends with the bridge partners you play with. Treat them as such. I have friends from the bridge world that I have had for 50 years. Their kids think I am blood-related..."Uncle Bob". These folks are part of who I am, and I cannot express how much I cherish them. You will have the opportunity to make the same kind of friends. Make sure you take advantage of that opportunity...simply, it is your best interests.

Recap: Don't discuss errors at the table. Think about your own game. When reviewing, work on partnership problems, not individual problems. Work on individual problems by yourself or with some kind of mentor. Enjoy the game and your partner's companionship. Hard to ask for much more of a card game, huh?

[bobh2]

PICKUP PARTNERS

I have made last minute partnerships, particularly for tourneys, and in this circumstance, two things just have to be addressed.

1. Over 2C, there seems to be no standard(?) for a supernegative. There has to be. I suggest:
2D waiting, and over a suit rebid, "cheapest 3 level bid is supernegative". This bid is completely artificial. This takes no discussion, best part of it. Example: 2c-2d-2h/2s...then 3c is super negative. 2c-2d-3c....3D is super neg. 2c-2d-3d....3H super negative.

2. There are so many variations of bidding structure over 1N, this needs quick agreements. I suggest, for speed:
(a) 2S, minor stayman, game force, can be a one-suiter, too, but is always game force
( jump to 3 level, light invite (6 card suit, 2 of the top three honors, nothing else)
© Stayman, followed by 3 of a minor is signoff
(d) normal major transfer and normal stayman auctions

No this isn't fancy and doesn't cover some types of hands, but is playable. Smolen fits right in, if you like Smolen but not necessary. This does let you know what's going on with almost no discussion and it lets you sign off, force to game, or invite game with a minor hand.

[bobh2]

MORE ON THE CARE AND FEEDING OF PARTNERS

Having played bridge for some 5 decades, almost all of it f2f, you might figure that I have either seen (or sigh....committed) most of the anti-social activities that happen at or around bridge tables. Being well-educated in this department, and hopefully, reformed, I have helped newbies handle things like:

A (supposedly) very good player playing with a medium level player was being very, very mean. I explained (in an indirect fashion) to the medium level player that it was not necessary, under any conditions, to have to take this abuse to learn/enjoy the game and exactly how to handle it.

An intermediate level player got their nerves frayed by being nitpicked, by partner, opponents and kibitzers. Again, there is no reason for this, and I showed this player how to stop it (and maybe to understand that a bunch of that is enthusiasm in learning, a lot like a 5 year old, forgetting social graces in the heat of brainstorming). Yes, at that stage, they get excited...grin.

Soooooo.....I try to pass some of this stuff to those who have the patience and warped curiosity to push through some of my ravings, and I have something to explain to you, something I think important.

Under the heading of taking care of and keeping partners you want to keep, there is one thing you must never, never do. Two recent occurrances lately led up to this. One, in a f2f tourney, having just finished 2nd overall in a big Swiss team event, I sort lost my temper with my partner and we haven't spoken since. What happened was, through the event, my partner, who is a fine player made some strange bids. It took until the last match for me to snap to what was going on......my partner was playing "client bridge" with me. A simply goofy bid in the last match was what gave me the picture, and I thought back about the other strange bids...by the end of the round my slow burn was pretty hot and and I had some words to say about this. I was only at Defcon 2 until he said that I had been playing badly all day (wanna take some bets on that one?) and he admitted to (trying to) covering for me. I lit up like a Roman candle and when that conversation was through, so was the partnership.

In the last few days, this same sort of thing occurred again, but not on 10 or 15 hands, just one. I made an opening lead of a side suit when all three of my dogs would have led my partners re-bid suit on this particular bidding. It was clear that I should have led pard's suit, but didn't and led a suit that was both risky and maybe ill-advised. My partner got in with the A of trumps and played some side suit back. Partner was seething because the dummy held the Ktx of pards suit and pard held AQJxxx. We did not discuss the board at the table (I try not to do that, even with students), but in a conversation later, I pointed out that there was a reason I didn't lead partner's suit...I HAD A VOID, and without heat, opined that it shouldn't have been terribly difficult to figure that out from all the clues. (This was not a student). My partner tried the excuse of, "Well, I have seen you make a lot of strange leads....(that part may be partially true...grin)". I got a little warmed up. The reason might not be entirely clear to newbies so let me walk you through it. My partner tried to excuse a very bad mistake (for an experienced player) by saying that it was because my pard decided I had made a mistake on the opening lead, a pretty goofy one, in fact, and that was the reason my pard now made a mistake.....that mistake now being all my fault.

This is intellectually dishonest, insulting to me, and defines an emotional reaction rather than critical thinking. The biggest problem is the unwillingness to say, "I made a huge mistake"...anything else is just wrong. Here's why: If you make a mistake, just own up to it. Honesty is admitting it, worrying about what you do, not what your partner does. Further, to be a real player, you have no choice.....you have to assume your partner did right. The game makes no sense at all if you don't. If you haven't figured it out yet, the two people to your left and right are ENEMIES. The one in front of you is your ALLY. And yes, this is war! (grin). If you are suspicious that pard made a mistake, and you can cover, by all means do so (that's one job of a partner) but if you have to believe the opponent or your partner, there is no choice in the matter. Bet your life (figuritively) on your partner. Play the game with the thought in mind that your pard is on your side. THAT is the only way to play, no other way. Make the right bid and make the right play, and if you have conflicting information from your partner and from an opponent, trust your partner.

That said, the lead I referred to was not properly analyzed. Frankly, it was clear to the street sweeper outside that I had a void. My partner make a mistake not getting that right. Frankly, I don't care. Mistakes are part of the game. For me, they are irritating when my partner makes them, to one degree or another, but when I make them, I get furious at myself. It has taken a lot of time for me not to get upset with myself, and so tempermental that I mess up the next board. In poker, they call that "being on tilt". Considering how fast and how hot my temper can burn, I have done well learning to control this...not at my partner, at myself. So, I was not hot about the mistake...I got a little warmed up because my partner violated a basic principle of being a partner, that being making a play or a bid, based on thinking your partner made a mistake. I got a lot hotter because of what I am about to tell you.

This is a RULE. If you ever mess up (and you will) and make the mistake of believing the opponents rather than your partner, or mess up by making a play that gets you killed, based on the concept that partner did wrong, rather than right, it is time to LIE. Never, never, never admit that, outloud. Admit to stupidity or confusion (I have an easy excuse....senior moments), but never that you did not trust your partner....either his judgement or his skills. My partner told me, by admitting to that, that in my partner's considered opinion, I couldn't find the right lead when, as I said, all three of my dogs and the gopher they chase could....rather than thinking about why I didn't lead that suit. It would have been far better for my pard to stuff a sock in the mouth than ever said that. The point is, take credit for your mess ups...get in the habit of that...if you vary off of that path, you need to take up something as intellectually challenging as....er....slot machines. The other point is, keep your partner happy, he'll chirp right along and and if a reasonably forgiving sort, will overlook your (unfortunately) regular errors, too. There is just no profit in making sure your partner does the same thing, take credit for errors even if you think it wasn't your fault. A reputation as a partner builds on technical skills, to be sure, but also on people skills. If you like to play with people who you know are better at this game than you are, work on your game skills, but add to that your social skills. A good way to get and keep real good partners.

Never, never, admit that you made a play based on thinking your partner made a mistake. Lie like a dog...far better to have "stupid" moments or "confusion" or "Senior moments".

Bob Holmes

[bobh2]

Opening bids:

I had an adventure today. My world is pretty stable and I pretty much understand what happens and why, and have learned to ignore the things I really don't care about very much. No, I have no idea how or why my remote controls work when sometime I have to use one to get a picture on the TV and other times another. I have memorized the sequences of button pushing to get it to work and from there, I don't know and don't care.

I had a student tell me today that he's never played bridge f2f (face-to-face). I thought about that a minute and my world just tilted. Aaaarrrrggghhhh, how can that be? All he's done is watch little flickerings on the monitor and was able to see what a hell of a game this is? I was dizzy with the thought. I learned to play when 3 of my college pals sat me down at a table in the dorm, handed me 1/4 of a deck of cards, and said, "Holmes, we're gonna teach you to play bridge". All those memories....playing all night and sleeping through classes...going to Dallas to a tournament and getting drunk (college days, after all) and playing in a side game and not knowing where I even was until the 4th round....playing against the Dallas Aces (the world champions) in a small tournament, and tieing the round with them, still a rookie....getting screamed at for doing something beyond stupid....not taking the setting trick because my pard (and one of my best friends) hesitated a guy into taking a finesse...tournament after tournament, playing all day, staying up late and trying to figure out the hands of the day...HE'S NEVER PLAYED FACE TO FACE?????????

No wonder some of my rookie pals don't know anything...all the chance they've had to learn is to watch the game played. Never a chance to go play in the local club, then go out with a crowd to the local pub, drink beer and hash over hands. Some of them have discovered that there are a lot of books written on the game, a lot. But they have missed the learning experiences I had, the verbal debates on bidding systems, the heated arguments about who screwed up...or who screwed up the worst. No wonder every time I sit down with a student, I look up and there are "birds on the wire"....watching, soaking stuff up. Ok, I've got it now...a better picture.

One of the things they've never learned is hand evaluation. I have tried to fix that with notes on this Forum space. Another is just exactly what constitutes an opening bid. People are feeding them "Rule of 20" and "Losing Trick Count" and they think those things are going to tell them what to do. Perhaps I should outline that, is a good place to start.

When I started, back in the days of King Arthur, an opening bid was 13 high cards. I won't even discuss 4 card majors with you, but I promise you, 5 card majors was an innovation. Twelve point hands were only opened with extreme distribution and 11 counts were an AUTOMATIC pass. Things changed....and boy did they.

Now, every 12 count is opened, and with decent stuff 11's are common and some 10's. That stuff is fine for people who can play the insulation off the wire, but it doesn't work too well for my rookies. We need to discuss normality. We need to discuss this so we can see what we are trying to accomplish.

First, the objective of offensive bidding is to go plus. Let me repeat that: PLUS. Bidding is just an estimate of the trick-taking capacity of your hand. Read what I wrote about hand evaluation to get a picture of how to do that, how to estimate that accurately. Some facts for you: Aces take tricks, Jacks don't...unless supported by bigger hands. Trump fits take tricks and if you have a big fit and short suits, you can take a ton of tricks. Only thing is, you can't know all of your trick taking capacity until you bid some and find out. Does that suggest that the value of your hand goes up or down, depending on the bidding? Of course, a lot. So where to start?

Background: The basic theory of standard bidding (as opposed to a lot of big club systems and even wierder systems) is that an opening hand opposite another opening hand should produce game. This has been the operating idea for even more decades that I have been playing, and it still works pretty well. That should give us a clue to what an opening bid has to have.

More background: Have you ever opened a 20 point hand, caught partner on zero and never got close to making? Have you ever played a game with 12 points opposite 12 (only an Ace difference than the first situation) and made it? That's because 12 points opposite 12 will have some communication between the two hands. You can take finesses, a way to make cards get better. You will find that as the points become more and more unbalanced between the two hands, it is harder and harder to score the tricks your point count says you should be able to take.

Another thing to think about: There is a huge difference between flat hands, major hands, and minor hands. Majors are in a class by themselves. If a major hand finds a fit, game is not out of range (only 10 tricks) with a combined 22 points, given the right situation. Flat hands are going to require more in high cards....by defination, there are not length tricks to compensate for a lack of high cards...game is going to require something like 26 high cards to bid to go have an edge in the objective of going plus. Minor hands are in a whole different world. You know slams are rare...so games, when holding a minor hand, is more likely by a whole lot, and...this is the peculiar thing, probably 85%, maybe 90% are played in 3N. If 3N is on the horizon, length compensates for high cards to a degree, but that is another part of the game to work on. If you are aiming for a minor game, that's 11 tricks, one trick short of a slam, and you need a lot of points to have a good shot...closer to 28 or so.

Now that we know all of that, let's see what we can come up with. First, perhaps we can open majors a little lighter than minors, we don't need quite as many points from pard to make a game if we have a fit. So, what would be the kind of hand in a major we could open, find the same kind of hand by partner, assuming a fit, and have a good shot at game, day in and day out? Remember we have to factor in the real possibility of not finding a fit, and end up playing in nt, or worse, 5 of a minor. If we have a huge possibility of finding a playable fit, the requirements could drop down a decent amount. Example: AJ9xxx AJtxx x x. That hand is a powerhouse, all you have to do is to find a fit in either major and almost anything will make game in a major. A lesser hand, but still good odds is my favorite example of the weakest hand in high cards I open is AQxxx Axxxx xx x....again, with a fit, a little bit more and a well-placed 8 points in partner's hand may well make a game. So, we are, with both majors opening a bit light. How about a 1 suiter? Then we don't need the fit so much, but our losers need high cards to cover them...maybe that's not such a good idea. Flatter major hands? Remember, with those, you may end up in nt or a minor...very light probably won't be real good. So the final conclusion? How about a "good" 12? That would work opposite a "good" 12 a lot of times. What is "good", go read the notes I have mentioned.

Now, flat hands: We are going to need 13 opposite 13 with these to have a shot at game. Opening less, and you are simply taking the short odds. Try passing 12 flat...the sky wont' fall. Another thing about doing this, you can bid aggressively later, but if you open, you are going to have to run scared the rest of the hand. It's far more comfortable to pass and bid aggressively than open and hope your partner doesn't hang you for it.

And last, minor hands: Remember your objective is almost always going to be nt. Barring extreme distribution, the only thing that compensates is a reasonably long, very good suit. So, while this hand: xx Kx Kxx AJt9xx might be a potential opener, Kx Qx Axxx Kxxxx is simply not. Remember the probablilities, and where you are likely to play...nt. Don't forget about the potential trick-taking possibilities on defense...much better to have your your cards in Aces and Kings than Q's and J's. So maybe, most minor hands should have a full 13????

There is another type of opening 1 bids that need consideration...the major/minor two suiter. That is a harder hand to classify. On one hand, you might find a fit for the major and then your hand goes way up...example: AQxxx x KQxxx xx. You just can't ignore that possibility. I suggest opening that hand, but you gotta do what you can to soft pedal that if you don't find a fit for the major.

A last thought on opening light: Don't do it just because it was your turn to bid. Something like KJxxx Qx J Axxxx just won't do. You need a "working" hand to take a stab at it. That hand is simply not an opener.

Think......"good" 12....you'll be ok

Bob Holmes