September 2010 - 54

Bidding Matters

Karen Walker
www.kwbridge.com

The 12 Habits of Highly
Effective Bidders
9. They analyze the auction from
partner's point of view (cont.)
You
1
?

LHO
1

Partner RHO
2
4

Vulnerable vs. not, what's your call
holding:
A 5 Q 9 K Q 7 4 2 A K 10 3?
Your choice may depend on whether you believe this is a forcing-pass
situation. If it is, you and partner are
both bound by the agreement that the
opponents cannot play 4 undoubled. This gives you the option to pass
and see what partner wants to do.
A forcing-pass auction allows you
to describe a wide range of hand
types. The standard meanings are:
❖ An immediate bid says you don't
want to defend. It's usually based
on extra playing strength, not
extra high-card points.
❖ Double is the most discouraging
action. It warns partner that your
hand isn't suitable for the five
level, often because you have two
quick losers in the opponents' suit.
❖ Pass encourages partner to bid
54 Bridge Bulletin September 2010

and suggests at least second-round
control of the enemy suit. If partner judges not to bid on, he must
double.
❖ Pass and pull. You pass, partner
doubles and you overrule his
decision by bidding: This is the
strongest auction. It's at least a
mild slam try, promising more
values than if you had bid immediately.
These strategies can dramatically
improve your decisions in competitive auctions, but they're also a
frequent source of misunderstandings. By far, the most difficult aspect
of the forcing-pass structure is knowing when it applies. A forcing pass
can be a spectacular failure if one
of you thinks it's "on" and the other
doesn't.
There's no standard definition
of the exact conditions that set up
this force, but there are three main
schools of thought.
1. It's our hand. This is the most liberal interpretation, which specifies
that a forcing-pass situation is "on"
if we've shown at least 23 high-card
points. The typical auction is one
where we open and make a game
invitation. It also applies if the opponents are "obviously" sacrificing.
2. It's our hand for game. For a pass
to be forcing, our auction must
have shown game-forcing strength
- a 2 opener, a forcing raise, a
2-over-1 forcing-to-game response,
a reverse by responder. A game invitation must be accepted to set up
a forcing pass.
If your partnership follows the
guidelines in Approach No. 2, it will
be clear to both of you that your pass
of 4 in the previous auction would

not be forcing. You haven't yet shown
full values for game, so the only way
for you to reveal extra strength is to
bid or double.
If you prefer No. 1, you can make a
forcing pass if the auction meets the
23-point guideline. Using the "book"
ranges for your bids, your opening
showed 13-plus points and partner's
competitive 2-over-1 promised 10-plus
points, so that may convince you that
this auction qualifies.
Your focus, however, should be
not on your own computation, but
on partner's. No matter how certain
you are that a pass would be forcing,
you always need to consider the possibility that partner will analyze the
auction differently.
From partner's perspective, you
might have opened with 11 or 12
points and his freebid could be made
with as few as 8 or 9 points and a
good suit. Looking at:
4 2 K J 10 8 6 4 J 9 Q J 6,
he may believe the opponents have
the balance of power and that your
pass shows a dead minimum. He'll
pass, too, and you'll be plus 150 instead of plus 500.
This type of miscue is just one of
the pitfalls of forcing-pass agreements. It's impossible to discuss every
situation in advance, so unless both
you and partner are totally in tune
with each other's thought processes,
your communication won't always be
perfect.
That's why many experienced players have adopted Approach No. 3:
3. The caddy would know this pass is
forcing. This is the most conservative treatment, but it also requires
the fewest mind-reading skills.
More about this in the next issue. r
http://www.kwbridge.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September 2010
