Bidding in Response to Partner's Overcall

Here’s your hand sitting East:

♠ A98

♥ Void

♦ Q8653

♣ KJ982

Here’s the bidding, South dealer

West          North         East         South

                                                1S

2H              2S             ?

First, what do you know? South opened the bidding so probably has 12-14 HCP. Your partner, West, overcalled 2H at the two level. She probably has an opening hand or a terrific Heart suit. North raised opening bidder to the two level, so he has a minimum, probably at least three spades and six HCP. You have 10 HCP and a void in partner’s suit. For partner’s overcall she should have at least 10 HCP (with a big heart suit), or an opening hand of at least 12 HCP. That adds up to 18 HCP for opponents and 22 HCP for you, at a minimum.

The result of this analysis is that you should not pass. This should be your hand, but obviously not in hearts. You have two unbid five card minors. You have two possible calls, one of which is 2NT. But with only one stopper in opponents’ suit and a void in partner’s suit, that’s not a pleasing prospect. The bid here is to double. That’s not a penalty double. You are an unbid hand. You should be telling partner that you feel that you have the preponderance of the points and you can support both of the unbid suits. So your double is for takeout to one of the unbid suits, and to tell partner that you have no support for her suit. This is called a “Responsive double.”

People play this differently, but the requirements for a responsive double are generally:

1.   Opponents have bid the same suit;

2.   Partner has either doubled or bid a suit;

3.   You cannot support partner’s suit;

4.   You have at least four cards in each of the unbid suits;

5.   You have at least 8 HCP if you force partner to bid a major at the one level or a minor at the two level;

6.   You have at least 9 HCP if you force partner to bid a major at the two level;

7.   You have at least 10 HCP if you force partner to bid at the three level.

Here is the four hand layout:

                 North

                        ♠ KQ3

                        ♥ 8654

                        ♦ 42

                        ♣ Q1075

West                                        East

♠ 74                                         ♠ A98

♥ Q10973                                ♥ Void

♦ AK9                                     ♦ Q8653

♣ A64                                     ♣ KJ982

                        South

                        ♠ 106532

                        ♥ AKJ2

                        ♦ J107

                        ♣ 3

Clearly, South took an extremely optimistic view of her hand by opening 1S in first seat with only 9 HCP, but this is a perfect hand for East to make a Responsive Double with 10 HCP and 5-5 in the two unbid suits. Double dummy (looking at all four hands) the hand makes game in either minor, although it’s better in diamonds due to the unfavorable club split.

Be sure that you and partner are on the same wave length. You don’t want to make a responsive double and have your partner take it as penalty, and vice-versa.

What to Lead Against No Trump When Partner Has Made a Lead-Directing Double

Here’s your hand sitting West:

♠ J32

♥ K54

♦ 9643

♣ A97

Here’s the auction with North dealer:

West          North         East       South

                  P            P              1N

P                2C*         D**          2D

P                2N           P              3N

All Pass

*Stayman

**Lead-directing

What do you lead? In the actual hand, West led the club 7. Here is the four hand layout:

North

                ♠ Q976

                ♥ A107

                ♦ Q10852

                ♣ 5

West                         East

♠ J32                         ♠ A107

♥ K54                        ♥ 98632

♦ 9643                       ♦ Void

♣ A97                        ♣ QJ1062

                South

                ♠ K54

                ♥ QJ

                ♦ AKJ7

                ♣ K843

South has seven sure tricks, five diamonds and two hearts. With a club lead, which is certain with the lead-directing double, that make eight tricks because the king will be good. After taking the diamonds he leads a spade to his king. Because the ace was East’s only entry, he ducked, so South had seven tricks and when the heart king is onside, South made 3.

The mistake was West’s opening lead. He must lead the Ace and then follow with the club 9. That forces out South’s king and when South leads a spade, East can rise with his ace and run the three remaining club tricks for down one.

In this situation, West must lead his club ace. His partner has made a lead directing double. He must have a reason. If he doesn’t have the ace or the king, he must have at least five good clubs. Why else make a lead-directing double? But when West does not lead the ace, what is east to think? South bid 3N over his lead-directing double. The obvious conclusion is that he has both the ace and king of clubs when his partner doesn’t lead one of them.

West, an experienced player, was upset that East didn’t take his spade ace and lead a club to his ace, but how was East to know that West had the Ace? He led the club 7. As far as East knows, he has two or three little clubs and is just being a good partner by leading the suit.

Don’t make an ambiguous lead when you can tell your partner something important. One of the axioms of bridge defense on opening lead is “Don’t lead an ace and don’t underlead an ace.” That doesn’t apply when defending no trump when you often underlead an ace if it’s your longest suit. But when you are defending no trump and your partner makes a lead-directing double, always lead your highest card in your partner’s suit, even if it’s ace or king doubleton. That tells him the layout and aids him in the play of the hand. West’s lead of the club 7 (his lowest club) was worse than awful because it told partner nothing and implied that's all he had in clubs.

In the actual hand, just about everybody made 3 or 4 no trump, undoubtedly because no defender made a lead-directing double of the 2 club Stayman bid. This pair got halfway there but was done in by a terribly ambiguous lead.

Evaluating HCP in determining whether to open 1NT

How would you open this hand?

♠ K104

♥ AQ82

♦ Q8

♣ A753

With 15 HCP, it’s tempting to open in 1NT, which shows 15-17 HCP and a balanced hand. This is a balanced hand and it has 15 HCP. But two of the points are the doubleton diamond queen. Is that worth 2 HCP?

Here’s what happened when South, in second seat, opened the hand 1NT:

South             West   North             East

                     P

1NT                 P         2C                   P

2H                   P         4C*                 P

4S**                P         6H                   All Pass

*Gerber (asking for aces)

**Two aces

Here’s the layout:

 North

                        ♠ AQJ

                        ♥ KJ103

                        ♦ 96

                        ♣ KJ109

West                                        East

♠ 9875                                     ♠ 632

♥ 965                                       ♥ 74

♦ AJ1042                                 ♦ K753

♣ Q                                         ♣ 8642

                        South

                        ♠ K104

                        ♥ AQ82

                        ♦ Q8

                        ♣ A753

West led the diamond ace and east signaled she had the king by playing the diamond 7, so south lost the first two tricks for down one. Lots of people don’t go to slam holding a worthless doubleton without confidence that partner has a first or second round stopper in the suit. But North was aggressive and should not have jumped to slam because she only has 15 HCP. If partner is at the bottom of his bid with 15 HCP, there should be no slam and that’s the situation here.

The question is, how to invite? The answer is not an ace-asking auction. After South bids 2H, North can cue bid her spade ace. That would not be showing a spade suit because if North had four spades but not four hearts, she would bid 2N, then if South has four spades as well as four hearts, he can bid 3S. And if North had five spades to go with her four hearts there is no reason to bid the spades after finding the 4-4 heart fit. So for her to bid the spade ace, that should be confirming a heart fit and showing slam interest and South could either accept the invitation by cue bidding an ace or just going directly to blackwood. In this instance, with a minimum, South would close out in four hearts.

However, South arguably erred by opening this hand 1NT. His doubleton diamond queen is not worth 2 HCP. A doubleton king would be worth 3 HCP because it is a trick unless the ace is behind him. The doubleton queen cannot be counted on as a trick or even a possible trick, so it is an illusory 2 HCP. The hand could (and probably should) have been downgraded to 13-14  HCP and opened 1C. When North bids 1H, South would then bid 2H showing a normal opening hand with seven losers. North would forget about slam and close out in four hearts. However, many players would still open this 1NT.

The hand was played 13 times in a club game. Five pairs were in slam, all going down. I don’t know how the bidding went elsewhere but I would bet that all slam players opened the hand 1NT and those that were in four hearts (five pairs; two others played in 3NT and one played in 5 hearts) opened it 1C because if it’s opened 1NT by South, any good player holding the north cards with 15 HCP opposite at least 15 HCP will look for slam.

6-5 Hand and Unfairness at the Bridge Table

You are West, in third seat. How would you open this hand:

♠ 4

♥ 6

♦ A10743

♣ AQ10654

Only 10 HCP but 6-5 distribution. Many players who play reverses would open 1D and then rebid 2C because a reverse (opening 1C and rebidding 2D) would promise 17 HCP at least. But if you have 6-5 distribution and an opening hand, you may still reverse by opening 1C and then rebidding the diamonds twice to show that your distribution is 6-5 rather than 5-4.

But is this an opening hand? It only has 10 HCP. According to modern bidding practice, this qualifies as an opening hand because it has 10 HCP and 10 cards in its two longest suits (called the Rule of 20). With only five losers and 2-1/2 quick tricks and satisfying the rule of 20, this hand clearly qualifies. So the corollary to this rule is that if your hand is 6-5 and you have enough points to qualify for an opening hand, it is strong enough to reverse. Here’s the layout followed by the bidding:

East dealer

North

                        ♠ AQJ32

                        ♥ KQ9832

                        ♦ --

                        ♣ K9

West                                        East

♠ 4                                           ♠ 10987

♥ 6                                           ♥ A4

♦ A10743                                ♦ KQ92

♣ AQ10654                            ♣ 872

                        South

                        ♠ K65

                        ♥ J1075

                        ♦ J865

                        ♣ J3

But as played at a local bridge club, North opened the bidding out of turn with a conventional Precision opening bid of 1C which shows 16+ HCP and says nothing about clubs. The director was called and East did not accept the bid so North was advised that when the bidding came around to him he could make a “comparable” call but if he did anything else his partner would be barred for one round. East and South both passed and West opened 1C. North bid 1H, which the director ruled was a “comparable call.” This was incorrect (see below), but the bidding went on as follows:

West  North East   South

                            P          P

1C       1H           1NT      P

2D       2H           3D       4H

5D       All Pass

At this point the director showed up and pulled the boards, saying everyone would get a “No Play” because the next round had already begun. West protested, saying that they had to wait more than five minutes to start the round because NS was slow in playing the previous round and then north’s bid out of turn caused an additional delay of a few minutes while the director was called and had to make a ruling, so EW should not be penalized, but should be protected. He also said that his opinion was that 5D making would be a top board and a “No Play” would damage EW. The director was not persuaded.

After the game the printout revealed west was correct because at all 11 tables the NS pairs were in 4 or 5 hearts, making. No E/W was in 5D. 5D is cold, but even if it goes set one trick it would be a top for EW. The only problems are the 4-0 trump break to the jack and playing clubs correctly. But normal play when there are four trump to the jack missing is to first lead to the hand that has two of the top three honors to discover the distribution of the missing cards because that keeps a two-way finesse in play. When west leads to dummy’s KQ and reveals that South holds all four trump, the finesse is easy to take back to west’s hand to the A-10. Played correctly, West loses only the spade ace and the club king. Had North had all four diamonds, West could come back to his hand with the ace and finesse through the board which would still have the Q-9.

As to playing the clubs, the correct play is to put the king in North's hand since he showed a big hand and finesse by playing the 10. If North wins the jack, then play the ace hoping that North had KJ tight. As the hands exist, though, the finesse of the 10 forces out the king and the jack falls under the play of the Ace and the queen.

Even though it is clear that fairness requires that EW get a top board since all the scores (except one where North bid 6H and went down one) are NS and the delay was clearly not the fault of EW, the director refused to grant EW equity.

In a telephone call to the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), West was advised that once cards are pulled from the board, the hand must be played, either immediately or as a late play, further buttressing the EW claim that they should have been awarded the top score on that hand. The ACBL said that at the very least EW should get an average plus, but the director only awarded the average of their game, which was less than an average plus.

The ACBL further stated that the director was wrong in ruling that North’s 1H overcall was “comparable” to a Precision 1C opening bid and that his partner should have been barred from bidding for one round. Since his partner passed anyway, that didn’t matter, but she took her unauthorized information (that North had 16+ HCP) to jump to game when she only had 6 HCP, something she’s unlikely to do without knowing that North had a huge hand, which she could not know from the bidding as it existed.

Do You Rebid 1 No Trump, or Make a Support Double?

Here’s your hand sitting west as dealer:

♠ KJ5

♥ AK2

♦ Q8632

♣ 74

Here’s the bidding:

West            North           East   South

1D               P                 1H     1S

?

Many players play a convention called “support doubles.” This means that if you open and partner bids a suit and your RHO overcalls, if you double you are promising three cards in the suit your partner bid. Since partner may have only four cards in the suit, you should not raise with only three cards in her suit, so this gives you the opportunity to tell her that you have exactly three cards in her suit. This is a nice conventional bid, but it can cause problems.

Without a support double, you would have to decide whether to raise her suit with only three cards, or to bid 1NT over South’s 1S. This 1NT call limits your hand to not more than 14 HCP but promises a stopper in your RHO’s suit.

So what do you do here? You have two possibilities, the support double or 1NT. The answer is that you should bid 1NT. Why? Two reasons; the first is that if you bid 1NT, your partner may use New Minor Forcing to show that she has five cards in her suit and 10 HCP, if she does. The second is that it limits your hand to not more than 14 HCP. If you make a support double, it has two negatives; first is that it does not limit your hand, so your partner doesn’t know if you are minimum or huge. Second, it does not tell her that you have a stopper in your RHO’s suit.

Here’s the four hand layout:

North

                        ♠ 1083

                        ♥ 764

                        ♦ AJ10

                        ♣ A1085

West                                             East

♠ KJ5                                      ♠ Q4

♥ AK2                                     ♥ Q953

♦ Q8632                                  ♦ 4

♣ 74                                        ♣ KQJ632

                        South

                        ♠ A9762

                        ♥ J108

                        ♦ K975

                        ♣ 9

If West bids 1NT, the bidding will probably end there, although with a pretty good six card suit, East might raise to 2NT, which West will pass. That’s the way it should be bid.

Alas, in the actual hand, West chose to make a support double. That really screwed things up because North then raised partner’s 1S overcall to 2S (something he probably would not do with his meager 3 little spades knowing West has a stopper in spades, although he might still bid on since he has two aces) and East bid 3C! The bidding got out of hand and West bid 3NT, which went down one.

The hand was played 12 times. It is unlikely that South overcalled 1S at many of the other 11 tables because it is a very aggressive bid. Five were in 1NT making two. Four were in 3NT, down one. One was in 2H, making two and one was in 4H, down one. One was in 2NT, down two, which is incomprehensible; right contract, but how in the world was it played to go down two?

This hand also shows the way aggressive bidders can mess up opponents’ bidding. South’s 1S overcall was precarious with only 8 HCP. But if South doesn’t overcall, West will bid 1N and the auction will end. South’s overcall enabled North to enter the bidding and get West and East to bid to an unmakeable contract. Good bid, South!

Defense: What do you lead after taking partner's opening lead?

Here’s your hand sitting North, and the bidding:

♠ 82

♥ AKQ864

♦ 96

♣ 1097

West          North   East   South

 P                2H     3S      P

All Pass

Partner leads the JH

Here’s the dummy (on your right):

♠ Q7

♥ 53

♦ KQ432

♣ J652

You take the Queen and declarer discards the 10. What do you return?

If you said that you would take the second heart immediately you probably lost the hand. Partner’s lead of the jack must be either a singleton or a doubleton because declarer discarded the 10. That is probably a false card, to keep you from continuing hearts. If partner has a doubleton (probably), that means that declarer has three hearts and will lose all three unless she can trump your third heart lead. There are two trumps on the board. You want to get a third heart trick so you want to get the queen of trump off the board.

So the answer is that you must lead a trump. Even if declarer has the ace, she has to lead another heart to be able to trump with her queen and you can take it and lead your last trump to get rid of the last trump on the board, so she’s stuck with a losing heart in her hand and she goes down one.

Here is the four hand layout

North

                        ♠ 82

                        ♥ AKQ864

                        ♦ 96

                        ♣ 1097

West                                        East

♠ Q7                                        ♠ KJ109653

♥ 53                                         ♥ 1092

♦ KQ432                                 ♦ A

♣ J652                                     ♣ AQ

                        South

                        ♠ A4

                        ♥ J4

                        ♦ J10875

                        ♣ K843

This is a real unfortunate hand for east because she has only one possible entry to the board, and that’s the heart ruff which you denied her. She can take her ace of diamonds, then the A of clubs, then leading the club Q to south’s king and she’s got good cards in the minor suits to get rid of her heart loser, but she can’t get there after you take out her trump.

When this was played in a club game, three declarers made either three or four because defenders failed to play trump early to keep declarer from ruffing a heart and discarding her losers on the diamonds. If north never leads a trump, the hand easily makes four. Since partner has the ace of trump even if north takes both hearts immediately, if he then leads a trump partner can take the ace and lead another, getting rid of both trumps on the board.

But north should not count on that. The safest and best play is to lead a trump immediately before taking the second heart because if declarer has the trump ace and takes the return, she still has to lead another heart to get rid of the last heart on the board and north can take that trick and lead the second trump. If he takes the second heart immediately and then leads a trump it’s too late because the board is now void of hearts and if declarer has the trump ace (a better than 50% chance) declarer can take the belated trump lead, play the diamond ace and trump his third heart to get to the diamond king and queen to rid himself of his club loser.

Played correctly, NS should take three hearts, the spade ace and the club king, five tricks for down one in a 3S contract.

Your First Play From Dummy Can Make or Break Your Contract

Here is the bidding, NS passing throughout, East dealer:

East  West

1S     2C*

2D    2H

3D** 4N

5C***6N

*Game Forcing

** Showing 5 cards

*** 0-3 Key cards

West                                        East

♠ J2                                         ♠ AKT853

♥ AQT4                                    ♥ 76

♦ KJ                                         ♦ Q9754

♣ KQJ64                                  ♣ Void

Opening lead Club 10

West is declarer. What do you discard from dummy?

While you are thinking about that, let’s discuss the bidding, which was deplorable. The first four bids were fine, 1S-2C-2D-2H. East’s rebid of 3D to show at least 5-5 in the two suits was worse than awful, for several reasons. One is that in a game forcing auction like this, after showing his tentative shape of at least 5-5, his first obligation is to show that he has a six card spade suit. And it is a very good suit, headed by the AK. His diamond suit is terrible. There’s no reason to show a weak 5 card diamond suit before showing a strong 6 card spade suit. When he confirms he has 6 spades, West can confirm spades as trump since he’s holding two and the bidding proceeds from there. West’s bid of 3S shows slam interest. Since they are in a game-forcing auction, 3S is much stronger than jumping to game in 4S.

It went from bad to worse from there. East forgot that they were playing 3014 key card and responded in 1430, showing 1 or 4 key cards (since Trump had not yet been agreed upon, east was responding as if diamonds were trump). West thought he was showing 0 or 3 and assumed it was 3 and went straight to 6N, lacking two aces.

North was on lead. North was one of the best players in Los Angeles, if not the world and made the best lead that could give West a chance to make it, the club 10. Why was it so good? Two reasons: First, it wasn't the diamond ace. Second, it pulls the club ace without having to force it out by playing the King, which, it turns out, would have doomed the slam because clubs would produce only two tricks instead of three.

Now back to my original question, what do you discard from dummy? If you said one of your two little hearts, you just lost any chance to make the slam. You have to discard a diamond because you have to retain a heart on the board to make the heart finesse. If you discard a heart initially, the only remaining heart will be gone if south leads her heart and there’s no way to get her king.

East took her ace and returned the jack of hearts! Manna from heaven! You are holding the AQT4. If North has the king of hearts, you are down two. If he doesn’t, you can make it if spades break correctly, so you have no choice. You must take the heart finesse.

When it holds, showing that South has the king, you first try to run your clubs. You find out that North has six clubs and you only get three club tricks. But that’s OK because you discard three diamonds on those three club tricks and then lead the jack of spades. North covers, so you run the spades, getting rid of your two diamonds and two remaining clubs in your hand on the long running spades and then lead the remaining heart on the board to finesse south’s king and you end up getting six spades, three clubs and three hearts, making a slam that has only a 5% chance of making, at best. If south returns a diamond, you’re dead because north will get the ace he failed to cash at the beginning. In bridge as in any other game it’s better to be lucky than good.

As to the bidding, here’s the way it should have gone:

East  West

1S     2C

2D    2H

2S     3S

4S     4N

5H*   5S

6S     P

*Two key cards without the queen

Even though West signs off because he knows they are lacking two key cards, East goes to 6S because of the club void, even though it’s in partner’s first bid suit. As long as the spades behave, which they do, 6S is a much easier play than 6N, losing only the diamond ace so long as the heart and spade finesses work.

Here are all four hands:

                      North

                        ♠ Q7

                        ♥ 985

                        ♦ A2

                        ♣ T98532

West                                        East

♠ J2                                         ♠ AKT853

♥ AQT4                                    ♥ 76

♦ KJ                                         ♦ Q9754

♣ KQJ64                                  ♣ Void

                        South

                        ♠ 964

                        ♥ KJ32

                        ♦ T863
                        ♣ A7