June 2014 - 56

Intermediate Players

Better	Bridge	with	Bergen	
BY MARTY BERGEN

 www.martybergen.com

Slam bidding in review - part 9
Regardless	of	how	good	your	partnership	is	(or	isn't),	this	checklist	will	be	
helpful	if	you	use	splinter	bids.	This	
is	the	first	part	of	the	checklist.	My	
recommendation	is	Yes	in	all	of	the	following	situations.

Partnership checklist -
Splinter bids

Section	A:	Splinter	bid	essentials

	 1 It	is	OK	to	splinter	with	a	singleton	
honor.
❏ Yes ❏ No
Because	many	teachers	and	authors	
have	been	so	vocal	in	advising,	"Don't	
splinter	with	a	singleton	king	or	ace,"	
and	because	I	feel	so	strongly	that	their	
advice	is	impractical,	I	must	reiterate:	While	splintering	with	a	singleton	
honor	is	not	perfect,	neither	are	most	
bids.	A	splinter	tells	your	partner	a	
great	deal	of	useful	information	about	
your	hand.	That's	good	enough	for	me.	
	 2 Other	than	a	few	logical	exceptions,	
a	splinter	shows	at	least	four-card	
support	for	partner's	suit.
❏ Yes ❏ No
Even	when	partner	promises	a	fivecard	suit,	you	should	have	four-plus	
trumps.	Otherwise,	when	you	make	
a	splinter,	partner	will	not	be	able	to	
correctly evaluate a holding such as
J-x-x-(x),	as	in	the	following	example.	

56 Bridge Bulletin June 2014

If	you	have	splintered	with	only	three	
trumps,	you	might	not	have	enough	
trumps	to	ruff	all	of	his	losers	in	the	
suit.	Here	is	a	deal	from	a	recent	tournament.
♠97653
♥A98
♦ 10
♣ 10 8 6 5
♠	Q	10	8	2	 	
♠	J	4
♥76
♥42
♦	A	Q	9	8	5		
♦K732
♣	J	2	
	
♣	Q	9	7	4	3
♠AK
♥	K	Q	J	10	5	3
♦	J	6	4
♣AK
West
	
	
	
	

North

Pass	 2♦	
Pass	 4♦	
Pass	 5♣	
All	Pass	

East
Pass	
Pass	
Pass	

South
2♣
2♥
4NT
6♥

The 4♦	splinter	bid	was	music	to	
South's	ears.	Opposite	a	hand	with	one	
key card, heart support and a singleton
diamond,	South	was	happy	to	be	in	
slam.
Unfortunately	for	North-South,	
West	was	listening	to	the	auction.	
Knowing	that	dummy	was	short	in	
diamonds,	West	correctly	led	a	trump.	

When North delivered only three
trumps,	declarer	could	no	longer	ruff	
two	diamonds	in	dummy.	He	correctly	
tried	to	recover	by	setting	up	spades,	
but	when	that	suit	did	not	divide	3-3,	
he	had	to	concede	a	second	diamond	
for	down	one.
In	a	future	installment	of	this	checklist,	I	will	discuss	the	few	logical	exceptions	to	this	important	guideline.	

3 When partner opens 1♥ or 1♠, a
splinter	bid	should	be	well-defined	
as	13-16	dummy	points.
❏ Yes ❏ No
A	splinter	bid	gives	partner	a	specific	description	of	your	hand,	and	he	
becomes	the	boss.	But	if	you	have	more	
than	what	you	promised,	he	will	often	
make	the	wrong	decision.	A	splinter	
uses	up	a	lot	of	valuable	bidding	room,	
and	making	the	big	jump	with	more	
than	16	dummy	points	goes	against	the	
principle,	"Go	slowly	with	big	hands."	
With	17-plus	dummy	points,	respond	
using	Jacoby	2NT.	It	may	be	imperfect,	but	it's	practical	and	much	more	
economical.		
◾
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of June 2014
