Splinters

    A splinter is a bid by responder (generally, although opener may splinter, also) that shows four card trump support, a singleton or void and opening hand values.  It is generally made in response to a major suit opening, although it may be made in response to a minor suit opening.

     Let's say your partner opens 1 Heart and you hold the following:

♠ KQJ

♥ A987

♦ 4

♣ KT987

That's a pretty good hand, don't you think?  It's one you'd open.  If you didn't have a specialized bid, you'd probably bid 2 Clubs, then jump to 4 Hearts, depending on your partner's response.  However, is there a way to tell Partner that you have a singleton diamond?  What do you think?  Can you think of a way?  Maybe kick her twice under the table?

     OK, that's illegal, so you don't want to do that.  How do you tell partner that you have an unusual hand here and describe it in one bid?

     Give up?  The answer, as you might have guessed, is that you make a bid called a splinter.  I love this bid.  How do you splinter?

     You make a double jump bid and bid your singleton (or void, as the case may be). 

A double jump is a bid that skips 2 levels of bidding.  So if you open 1 Club and partner bids 2 Spades, that's a jump, but only skips one level (it skips 1 Spade).  So a double jump would be a response of 3 Spades, because that skips two levels of bidding, 1 Spade and 2 Spades.

     So in response to Partner's opening bid of 1 Heart, you bid 4 Diamonds (skipping 2 Diamonds and 3 Diamonds)!  That tells partner three things in one bid:

1) You have a singleton or void in diamonds;

2) You have at least four cards in her opening bid, hearts; and

3) Your hand has opening values, at least 13 HCP.

All that information in one bid! The bid is obviously game forcing and it's exploring for slam.

The bid may also be made by opener. Assume you are opener with the following hand:

♠ AKQ

♥ AQ87

♦ 4

♣ KT987

and you open 1 Club. Partner responds 1 Heart. You may jump to 4 Diamonds promsing 4 Hearts and a singleton (or void) Diamond. This can be a little risky since partner could be responding with only 6 HCP, so it shouldn't be made by opener unless opener has a strong hand with extra values, like the hand above that can play for game against 6 HCP. With the singleton Diamond and at least a 4-4 trump fit, this hand re-evaluates to 21 points, giving three for the singleton. When you have at least a 4-4 trump fit, shortness values increase to the following:

void 5 points

singleton 3 points

doubleton remains at 1 point

     The problem with the bid is that if you're not used to it, your partner could misinterpret it and pass.  Then you're playing the contract in your singleton (don’t laugh; it has happened to me).  That's not much fun.  So if you decide you want to play splinters be sure you and your Partner are on the same wave length.

 

Partner Opens a Minor, you bid a major and opener supports you

Look at the following hands when Partner opened 1 Diamond, you responded 1 Spade and Partner rebid 2 Spades:

1. ♠ AT43    2. ♠ AT432     3. ♠ AT43   4. ♠ AT43

    ♥ KQ7         ♥ K73            ♥ K32        ♥ T43

    ♦ J87          ♦  KT5            ♦ K73         ♦ KQ7

    ♣ 963         ♣ T5              ♣ JT4         ♣ A83

What do you do?  Lots of players just bid 3 Spades and leave it up to opener. But wouldn’t it be nice if there were a very specific series of bids that defines your response? Well, guess what? There is!

Here are the rules for this series of bids. By the way, this is nothing unusual. This series is just standard bridge. It’s just that not too many people are aware of it.

1) If you, as responder, have four Spades and 10 points or less, pass.

2) If you have four Spades and 11-12 points, bid 2 no trump.

          If partner is at the top of her bid (at least 14 high card points) she goes to game.  If she has 13 or less points, she closes out in 3 Spades.  This bid of 2 No Trump is a very limited bid.  It tells partner specifically the hand you hold.  It says nothing about playing the hand in No Trump.  It is inviting one of two bids, either 3 Spades or 4 Spades.

3) If you have five Spades and 10 points, bid 3 Spades.

4) If you have five Spades and 11-12 points, bid game.

 

Applying these rules to the hands above:

Hand 1:        Pass.  You have ten points and four Spades. Even if Partner has a maximum hand at 15 points, you don't have enough for Game unless you're lucky.

Hand 2:       3 Spades. This describes your hand specifically.  You have 10 HCP and five Spades.  It invites Partner to bid 4 Spades if she's at the top of her bid.

Hand 3:       2 No Trump.  This also describes your hand specifically.  You have 11-12 points and four Spades.  You are asking partner to bid 3 Spades if she has 13 points or less, 4 Spades if she's 14 or better.  She cannot pass 2 No Trump unless she supported you with only three Spades, which is not a good idea unless she has a singleton. This should be easy to remember because when responder’s second response is 2 No Trump in any bidding situation, it generally always promises a balanced hand with 11-12 HCP.

Hand 4:        4 Spades.  Don't get excited and think about Slam just because you both have opening hands and a major suit trump fit.  Partner has told you that she has a minimum hand by her just supporting your major suit bid.  You have a 4-4 fit and probably a maximum of 28 points.  Forget Slam and be content with a fairly safe Game.

     This is a standard bid but my experience is that very few players use it.  If you use it you must have a firm understanding with your partner about what the bids mean.  But you will find that you will arrive at the correct contract much more often than others who get these types of hands.  

So the result, at least with the hand with 10 HCP, is that while you are in 2 spades making, others are in 3 and 4 spades, down one or two.

Takeout Doubles

Takeout doubles on the first call by an unbid hand, with rare exceptions should only be done in the following three instances:

1.  You have 17 HCP and a self-sustaining suit, like


♠ 53

♥ AKQ762

♦ A87

♣ A42


RHO opens 1S. You double and bid hearts no matter what your partner responds.

2.   You have an opening hand, shortness in RHO’s suit and can support anything partner bids. RHO opens 1S and you hold:
♠ 53

♥ AK7

♦ K974

     ♣ K865

 

    You double. Unless partner jumps in her suit, you will pass anything she bids. If opponents compete and partner has bid one of your 4 card suits, you can then raise once to force opponents up one level to a contract they might not be able to make (if they bid 3, though, don’t go up to the 4 level to compete).

     

     3. You have a 4 card major and a 5 card minor and an opening hand, like

♠ 53

♥ 9873

♦ AKQ65

♣ KJ

    RHO opens 1S. Instead of overcalling 2D, you double trying to find out if partner holds 4 hearts. If partner bids 2C, you bid 2D. With partnership understanding this does not promise 17 HCP. Rather, it says that you probably have 4 cards in the unbid major, and at least 5 cards in the minor you bid. You might have 17 HCP, but you might just have an opening hand with 4 hearts and 5-6 diamonds. Many people don’t play this but it’s a good understanding to have with your partner because it allows you to find a 4-4, or better, fit in the unbid major so you can play or compete in the major instead of the minor. If you don’t’ double before bidding your minor, you have virtually no chance of finding the 4-4 heart fit. Be sure that your partner understands this, though. If she thinks you’re promising 17 HCP when you might only have 13 HCP, you could get in big trouble.

How to determine your “longest and strongest” suit for an opening lead against no trump

Leading fourth best from your longest and strongest suit is a preferred standard opening lead in defending against a no trump contract. But how do you determine what your “longest and strongest” suit is? Look at the following hand, sitting south:

♠ AQ97

♥ T6432

♦ T6

♣ T2

Here’s the auction:

West	North	East	South
			P
P	P	1N	P
2N	P	3N	All Pass

So what is your longest and strongest suit? Your longest is hearts, but it is woefully weak. Your strongest in terms of points is spades, but it is shorter than your heart suit. Which should you lead?

The answer is that you should the heart three. Why? Because if hearts split 3-3-2 and your partner has an honor or two you have the possibility of taking three heart tricks. Here is the four hand layout in this hand that was played in a team game.

                North

                ♠ 532

                ♥ QJ5

                ♦ K542

                ♣ Q95

West                         East

♠ KJ8                         ♠ T64

♥ 98                          ♥ AK7

♦ J873                        ♦ AQ9

♣ KJ63                       ♣ A874

                South

                ♠ AQ97

                ♥ T6432

                ♦ T6

                ♣ T2

Bidding: As standard as standard can be. East opens 1N with 17 HCP and 4-3-3-3 distribution. West invites with 9 HCP. East at the top of his bid, accepts the invitation and bids 3N, which makes if South leads the spade 7, which is what happened at the other table, because a spade lead gives declarer two spade tricks.

Play: The best chance to beat the contract is to lead the heart 3, and hope that the four higher honors get played in the first two leads of hearts, giving you the ten to pull the last heart. In your favor, dummy did not bid Stayman, so you know she has less than four hearts, so the chances of the positive split for which you are searching are enhanced. In response to your opening lead, partner played the heart jack, taken by declarer’s king. She leads the Club ace and then takes the finesse. Partner wins the club queen and properly returns the heart queen (when returning partner’s opening lead when you started with three cards in the suit, you lead back your higher card remaining, not your lower card; that tells your partner that you only had three to start with and in this case it also unblocks the suit; if you led the low heart, when partner got in you would be forced to overtake his lead of the ten with your queen and his remaining two good hearts would go wasted), which declarer takes with the ace. She takes two clubs and leads the diamond jack, which partner covers with his king, declarer winning the ace in her hand. She takes the two remaining diamonds in her hand (when south’s ten falls, her 9 is the high diamond out) but now needs to get to the board for her ninth trick to make the contract.  Here’s the situation at this point:

 

                North

                ♠ 53

                ♥ 5

                ♦ 5

                ♣

West                         East

♠ KJ8                         ♠ T64

♥                               ♥ 7

♦ 8                            ♦

♣                              ♣

                South

                ♠ A

                ♥ T64

                ♦

                ♣

The only way to the board is spades and when she leads the ten south takes his ace, leads the ten of hearts, pulling the last two hearts making the last two hearts in his hand good for down one.

If your opening lead is a spade, you will never be able to set up your hearts. You must start with your first lead or you can forget about hearts.

So the moral here is that when determining your “longest and strongest” suit in defending no trump, 95% of the time your longest suit is your strongest suit regardless of the high cards you might or might not hold in the suit. But in making this determination, you must hold cards in your hand to get the lead to make your small cards in your long suit good. This means you must be able to take at least one trick with a card in another suit. In this hand, it was the ace of spades (and maybe the queen, depending on the location of the king), which you must preserve until after you’ve set up the long suit.