Jennbridge: A Good Bidding Sequence

Our expert opponents graciously complimented us on this bidding sequence at the recent San Francisco regional. (Bd. 4,  session 1, Thursday stratified open pairs)

♠	—
♥	Q J 9 2
♦	K Q 5 2
♣	K Q 9 6 3

Sitting North and playing with Mary Omodt as my partner, RHO passed and my first decision was what  to open. As I expected spades to be bid by either my partner or the opponents, I thought that the bidding would be likely to proceed more smoothly by opening 1♦, then rebidding clubs. According, I opened 1♦. 

Partner responded 2♦, an inverted minor bid, showing a limit raise or better in diamonds.  RHO now came to life with a bid of 2♠.  Although I only had 13 HCP, once we had found a fit and the opponents bid spades, my hand kept improving.  I now was pleased to bid 3♣ which I hoped would convey some useful information to partner.

LHO bid 3♠ and partner now made a key bid:  4♥. 

Wow. This hand may be going somewhere as I held a powerful, though aceless, 4-loser hand. Accordingly, I made what I expected to be a very descriptive bid:  4♠.  Partner now had the information she needed to jump to 6♦.

Board 4 West Deals Both Vul	♠ — ♥ Q J 9 2 ♦ K Q 5 2 ♣ K Q 9 6 3
♠ Q J 10 5 4 3 ♥ 8 5 3 ♦ 3 ♣ 7 5 4	N W E S	♠ A K 8 2 ♥ 10 6 4 ♦ J 8 6 4 ♣ 8 2
	♠ 9 7 6 ♥ A K 7 ♦ A 10 9 7 ♣ A J 10

The bidding :         P, 1D, P, 2D*, 
                               2S, 3C, 3S, 4H,
                               P, 4S, P, 6D

I ruffed the spade lead and took all of the tricks.  Plus 1390 was worth 17 out of 20 matchpoints.

See you at the table!

Jennbridge: A Bidding Question

By Bob Klein.
Playing matchpoints in a club game, you hold, in first seat with both vulnerable:

♠Txxxxx
♥Axxx
♦Qxx
♣void

You deal and pass.  LHO opens 2♦, weak.  Your partner, a very good player, overcalls 2♠.  Now, while you are thinking about how many spades to bid, RHO comes in with 4♣! What is your call?


It looks like your choices are to raise spades or cue bid.  Since you are a passed hand, partner cannot expect too much from you.  On the other hand, your hand has the loser count of a good opening bid! (Only 2 losers in spades due to the massive trump fit, 2 losers in hearts and 2 1/2 in diamonds--6 1/2 losers.)

With the 11-card or longer fit opposite partner who has come into the auction vulnerable, I decided that this hand had too much slam potential to bid only 4♠.  Since the opponents had bid 2 suits, I couldn't make a slam invite by jumping to 5♠, since that bid asks partner to go to slam if he has a control in the opponents' suit.  So I had to do something else.  I considered bidding 4♥, but finally decided that the best choice was to bid 5♣. This would clearly show a big spade fit and club control with interest in a possible slam. Given the 4♣ bid and my original pass, I hoped that partner would interpret this as showing a void.

My bid worked like a charm.  Partner, holding:

♠AKJxx
♥Kx
♦AJx
♣xxx

bid 6♠, which was an excellent contract.  It happened to make seven because of the particular lie of the diamond spots.  My RHO led the stiff ♦ten.  My diamonds were actually Q87 opposite AJ4 so the suit came in for no losers.  The first trick went ten, queen, king ace so there was a marked finesse of the nine.  The ten had to be a singleton since his RHO surely had 6 diamonds for a vulnerable weak two bid. Nobody else bid the slam so we got a cold top.

RHO could have made my life much more difficult if he had bid 5♣ instead of 4, holding:

♠x
♥Jxx
♦T
♣AKJT9xxx.

I wouldn't have the cuebid available so I would have just settled for 5♠, which partner surely would have passed.

Good luck!

Jennbridge: Cincinnati Bridge

Once I got to the bridge club it was great.  Navigating the sub-zero temperatures to get there was another story, however. Once there, I told stories about the 70 degree weather last week in Santa Rosa...sigh...   I started my bridge career at the Cincinnati bridge club about 25 years ago and it was good to see old friends.

Playing teams with partner Joe Fisher as well as Norm Coombs and Larry Klein, we picked up some Imps on this hand.  I dealt and opened 1♥.  (Had we been playing Flannery, I would have opened 2♦!)

♠A10xx
♥AQxxx
♦Jx
♣xx 

Partner bid 2NT, Jacoby.  I jumped to 4♥ showing a minimum with no singletons or voids.  Partner, undaunted, bid 4NT, RKC.  I responded 5♠, 2 keycards plus the trump queen, and he rolled into 6♥.

A diamond was led and he laid down a nice 5-loser hand.  (deduct a loser for the 5th trump)

♠Kx
♥Kxxxx
♦A109
♣AKx

♠A10xx
♥AQxxx
♦Jx
♣xx 

There was nothing to the play--draw trumps, ruff 2 spades and lose a diamond.   We won 13 Imps on that one.

Another amusing hand found me playing and making 1♠ for plus 80 while our teammates bid and made 5♦ for a 12 Imp gain.

Going back Saturday for more.  The temperature is expected to be in the balmy 40's!

See you at the table!

Jennbridge: Putting on the Pressure

As we all know, it pays to make life difficult for the opponents! In a recent regional team game, white against red, partner passed and RHO opened 3♥.  I studied my hand:

♠10xx
♥Void
♦QJ10xx
♣AQ10xx

My first thought was that I "knew" what was going to happen.  I was relatively sure that LHO would raise to 4♥ and they were favorites to score up a vulnerable game.  What could I do with my minor-suited hand?  How could I both announce my minors and jam the auction?

What about an overcall of 4NT?  Wouldn't that inject surprise, take up bidding space, and describe my hand all at once?  Partner was an experienced player and familiar partner--surely he would read it.  If things went awry I could always scramble, bidding the minors later...

4NT!  Pass by LHO, 5♣ by partner, pass, pass, PASS!  Wow--this auction has a good sound.  At least we're not in trouble.

Partner's hand was suitable:

♠10xx
♥Void
♦QJ10xx
♣AQ10xx

♠Kxx
♥xxxx
♦Kx
♣KJxx

A spade was led, and in the course of time the opponents took two spades and a diamond for down one.  Sure enough, when we compared scores, our teammates announced "plus 620" and we replied "minus 50!" We love those 11 imp gains.

Keep up the pressure!

See you at the table.

Jennbridge: Squeezing in Monterey

It's always better than I remember: the weather, the seafood and the beauty of Monterey Bay.  Throw in some good competitive bridge and you have a winning combination!

Margie Michelin and I had a nice 58% game to make it to the barometer finals.  Here's a fun hand from the first session. Bd. 7, both Vul.

♠	2
♥	J 6 4
♦	A K Q 10 9 7 2
♣	6 5

Partner opened 1♣, RHO overcalled 1♠ and I bid 2♦. The bidding became rather long and tortuous after that, but we eventually landed in the nice contract of 5♦.

♠	8 6 5 4
♥	A 9 8 7
♦	8
♣	A K 8 3

♠	2
♥	J 6 4
♦	A K Q 10 9 7 2
♣	6 5

A diamond was led and I studied the hand. Clearly I had a spade loser--could I avoid losing two hearts? Like most players, I usually can't visualize the whole hand at trick one, but this much I know: Once I start running my long suit, the hand will generally come into focus.

It was possible that LHO needed to guard both clubs and hearts and that she could be squeezed.  To prepare for this possibility, I rectified the count by ducking a heart early in the hand:  I led a heart which lost to the 10 in RHO's hand. A spade was cashed and I won the next spade.

Sure enough, LHO started getting uncomfortable making discards on the run of the diamonds On the penultimate diamond she pitched the ♥Q and on the last diamond she discarded the ♥K!  She wasn't able to guard both clubs and hearts and I scored up my game. 

Hand rotated--I sat North.

Board 7 South Deals Both Vul	♠ 2 ♥ J 6 4 ♦ A K Q 10 9 7 2 ♣ 6 5
♠ A K Q 10 9 7 ♥ 10 5 3 ♦ 5 3 ♣ Q 2	N W E S	♠ J 3 ♥ K Q 2 ♦ J 6 4 ♣ J 10 9 7 4
	♠ 8 6 5 4 ♥ A 9 8 7 ♦ 8 ♣ A K 8 3

Making 5♦ was worth 36.5 matchpoints out of 38. 

See you at the table!