July 2018 - 60

Advanced Players

Bidding Matters
BY KAREN WALKER

kwbridge.com

Table feel - part 5
You open 1♦ and partner responds
1♠, both opponents passing. What's
your rebid holding:

❶ ♠J 9 3 ♥A K 7 2 ♦K Q 8 3 ♣7 2 ?
❷ ♠10 ♥K Q J 6 ♦K 9 7 5 3 ♣A 10 4 ?
❸ ♠K ♥Q 7 5 4 ♦A Q J 4 2 ♣K J 5 ?
There's no perfect rebid with any
of these hands, so you have to choose
from imperfect alternatives. How
much time did you take to make each
decision? How quickly would you
choose your bids at the table?
In an ideal auction, the only knowledge your opponents have about your
hand comes from your actual bids.
Being human, however, we often give
away extra information by our body
language, facial expressions and other
behaviors. Your opponents are allowed
to use their "table feel" to interpret
these clues and make inferences about
what type of hand you hold.
The most frequent and valuable

contributor to table feel is your bidding tempo. If you took more than 5-6
seconds to decide on a rebid with any
of the hands above, you've revealed you
had a problem. Your opponents will
know that whatever your choice, you
won't have the classic hand for it.
With hand 1, a slow raise to 2♠
suggests one of two problems: Only
three-card support or a hand with almost enough for a jump to 3♠. There's
a natural tendency to value up when
raising partner's suit, so the three-card
raise is more likely. If your opponents
read this correctly, they'll know not to
make an aggressive balance, and it may
help them on defense.
With hand 2, a hesitant 1NT rebid is
usually based on a distributional flaw,
and your opponents will have a good
guess about what it is.
On 3, it may take some time to decide
on the least of three evils: the threecard club suit, a skinny reverse or a
heavy 1NT. Much of your thinking

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60 Bridge Bulletin July 2018

time, however, may be consumed by
regrets that you didn't open 1NT.
If you want to neutralize your opponents' table feel, you need to make
these decisions smoothly. The best way
to do that is to make them early, before
your first bid. Get in the habit of predicting the auction and planning your
rebid, focusing on the most common
and problematic developments:
⦁ If you open a minor, be ready for
partner to bid your short major.
⦁ If you open a major, expect a 1NT
response.
⦁ If you Blackwood, decide in advance how you'll proceed after
every possible reply.
⦁ If you're responder, assume that
opener won't raise your suit.
⦁ If you're in fourth seat, don't count
on being able to open the bidding.
Consider your options if one or
both opponents bid in front of you.
You can't have a contingency plan for
every possible auction, but it's important to be prepared for the simple ones.
Thwarting the opponents' table feel is
just one reason to avoid tempo breaks.
Another is that they put pressure on
partner. Your opponents are entitled to
speculate about what you were thinking about, but partner isn't, and this
can limit his options. He must ignore
the break and take care not to make
any bid that might be suggested by your
hesitation.
More about solving tempo problems
in the next issue.
◾

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of July 2018