August 2010 - 46

Play & Learn

Pat Harrington

It's the economy
A minimum opening hand can
cramp your bidding style, just as
a minimum wallet can cramp your
lifestyle. In life, you want the goodies, but - as our recent economy
has proven - you should not go into
debt to get them. In bridge, you might
want to bid something, but you could
get into trouble if your bid misleads
partner about your strength. I can't
do anything about your finances,
but I can keep you out of the hole in
bridge by trying to improve your bidding. Let's look at some hands to see
how an opener's strength affects his
choice of rebid.
Let's agree that each of the hands
shown below could open 1 as
dealer.
1. K 6 7 3 A 6 3 K Q 9 7 5 3
2. 8 6 A 9 3 A 6 3 K Q 7 5 3
3. A K 9 7 3 9 7 2 A J 5 4 3
4. A J 5 A Q 6 3 3 Q 9 7 5 3
What will you rebid with each when
partner responds 1?
Hand 1 has an easy 2 rebid to
show six clubs and a hand of no more
than 15 high-card points. After a onelevel response, the bid of an old suit
at the two level shows a minimum
46 Bridge Bulletin August 2010

hand. Also, the fact that opener did
not rebid 1NT implies unbalanced distribution. You should have at least six
cards in any suit you rebid.
Hand 2 can rebid 1NT to show a
balanced hand too weak to open 1NT.
Hand 3 has the shape and minimum
strength for a 1NT rebid, but 1NT isn't
very comfortable with neither unbid
suit stopped. What else can you do?
Rebidding the clubs isn't attractive
either. Would it occur to you to support responder's spades? Partner will
expect you to have four spades (although he might have ways to cater
to your supporting with three cards
when he has a good hand). New players fear playing in a 4-3 fit but it often
works well when the hand with only
three trumps can ruff. Your good
trumps and doubleton heart make a
2 bid my choice.
Hand 4 often leads my students into
temptation. Showing hearts is tempting, but you can't afford to rebid 2.
The bridge explanation is that 2 is a
reverse, a mystery to many players.
I have heard some duplicate players
say, "We don't play reverses." Reverses are bridge. If you play bridge, you
have to have some concept of what a
reverse is, so here is a simple rule for
opener. After a one-level opening bid
and a one-level response, a minimum
opener cannot make a rebid higher
than two of his first suit unless he is
raising responder's suit.
What does that mean for opener
with Hand 4? After opening 1 and
hearing partner respond 1, allowable rebids are 2 and 2 (forget
about rebidding 1NT with that hand).

2 is out because it is higher than
two of opener's first suit and is not a
raise of responder's suit.
Opener's rebid of a new suit on
the two level tends to show an unbalanced hand. If responder is minimum,
he will often choose to play in one of
opener's suits. When partner reverses,
you must bid again - even with only
6 HCP. With extra spade length, responder can rebid 2, but what if he
hates hearts and can't rebid spades?
To show that responder likes clubs
better, he will have to bid at the three
level.
Without extra spade length, any
rebid by responder will take the pair
to 2NT or higher, but a minimum
opener and a minimum responder
should strive to stop the bidding in
a reasonable contract below 2NT.
Opener's reverse often makes this
impossible. Therefore, opener needs
more than a minimum hand to reverse.
Now that we all understand reverses (she said optimistically) what
is your best rebid with Hand 4: 2
or 2? 1NT is out because of the
singleton in an unbid suit, and 2
isn't much better on the weak fivecard suit. Again, raising responder's
major with only three cards is the
best choice. Being able to ruff diamonds is likely to make up nicely for
the lack of a spade. You'll be hearing
more about reverses in future articles.
Meanwhile, stay out of trouble by bidding and buying only what you can
afford!
r
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of August 2010
