October 2012 - 54

Bidding Matters

Karen Walker
www.kwbridge.com

bid 3, which gives partner a fairly
accurate picture of your trump length
and point count. It's not, however, the
best description of where your high
cards are. The problem is that you
would also bid 3 with:
2. 5 3 K J 9 5 J 10 7 4 3 9 3.

Not vulnerable at matchpoints,
what's your call holding:

Like the first hand, this has four
trumps, nine losers and minimum
point count. The big difference is that
Hand 1 has tricks outside the trump
suit and is therefore not really a weak
preempt. If you bid 3 with both of
these hand types, partner will always
be guessing about your defensive
strength.
Suppose you raise to 3 and the
opponents bid 4. If partner holds a
hand such as:

1. 5 3 J 10 9 5 K Q 7 2 10 9 3?

A 6 4 A Q 7 6 4 3 6 5 K 4,

Good advice for competitive auctions is to raise to the maximum level
right away when you find a fit. The
Law of Total Tricks suggests that the
"safe" level is equal to your combined
number of trumps. With a nine-card
fit, you're usually willing to bid to the
nine-trick level.
On this deal, you can be fairly certain you won't be allowed to play 2.
You expect to be pushed to the three
level later, so your strategy is to get
there immediately, before the opponents can exchange more information
about their strength and trump fit.
The most popular agreement here is
that a jump raise is weak, and a cuebid (2) shows at least invitational
values. That might convince you to

he'll be wondering who can make
what. Is their 4 a sacrifice over our
making 4? Or should we be sacrificing? If partner could be sure you had
the weaker preempt (Hand 2), then
4 is probably making and a 5
sacrifice could be profitable, even at
equal vulnerability. If you hold Hand
1, though, he'd like his chances of
beating 4.
You'll have the most success with
jump raises if you reserve them for
hands that are "classic" preempts
- extra trumps and good playing
strength, but no outside ace or king
(Hand 2). That agreement requires
that you find a different way to describe Hand 1.
One alternative is to raise to 2,

The 12 Habits of Highly
Effective Bidders
10. They allow their opponents to
make mistakes (cont.).
LHO
1

Partner RHO
1
Dbl

54 Bridge Bulletin October 2012

You
?

then take the push to 3. That will
tell partner you have constructive
values, but it gives LHO more room
to describe his hand. Over 2, he can
bid a comfortable 2 or 3 with a
minimum - or cuebid 3 or jump to
3 to show extra values - and leave
his partner well placed to make later
decisions.
If you want to create opportunities
for your opponents to make mistakes,
you need to be able to bump the auction to the three level with both of
these responding hands. One way to
do that and still distinguish between
the two hand types is to add a simple
convention called the "mixed raise,"
which is a jump cuebid of opener's
suit (3 in the auction above).
This jump shows more than a preempt but less than a limit raise - a
hand similar to the first example with
four trumps and at least one outside
trick. It's usually around 6-8 high-card
points. As long as you can jump to
the three level, the mixed raise can be
used anytime your opponent opens
and partner overcalls.
Many experts advise that you can't
have too many ways to raise partner. The more specific the meaning
of each bid, the better the chances
that the opponents will be doing the
guessing, not partner. By adding the
mixed raise, you'll always be able to
quickly take the auction to the three
level when you have extra trumps,
and your partner will find it easier to
avoid taking phantom sacrifices.
r
http://www.kwbridge.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of October 2012
