September 2020 - 54

Advanced Players

Bidding Matters
BY KAREN WALKER

kwbridge.com

Relearning bridge - part 6
One of the cardinal rules of basic bidding is to be sure you find your majorsuit fits. For responder, this means that
when partner opens, you should (almost) always show a four-card major
if you can do so at the one level. There
are a few exceptions - most common
is bypassing a four-card heart suit to
respond a longer spade suit - but there
are others that aren't so obvious.
With experience, we start recognizing the types of problems that can't be
solved by the simple rules we learned
as beginners. Here are situations
where your first impulse might be to
follow those rules and bid your major,
but concealing it - temporarily or forever - rates to be a better strategy.
Partner opens 1♣ and you hold:
♠K 10 3 ♥9 7 6 5 ♦A Q 3 ♣9 4 3.
1♥ is the standard response, but
it's not a crime to ignore a weak fourcard major when your hand is perfect
for notrump. This one has the right
combination of features - flat distribution, maximum high-card values and
tenaces that you want to protect from
the lead. If partner happens to have
four hearts and a ruffing value, 1NT
may not be your best contract, but it's a
reasonable one.
Partner opens 1♦ or 1♥ and you
hold:
♠A K 10 8 ♥J 7 5 ♦4 ♣K Q J 9 6.
Respond 2♣. There's no reason to

54 Bridge Bulletin September 2020

skew your distribution when you have
forcing-to-game strength, If you have
a spade fit, you can find it later, but if a
club slam is in the cards, you won't get
there unless you bid the suit now.
By setting up a game force, 2♣ leads
to an easier auction, especially after a
1♥ opener. If you instead respond 1♠,
most of opener's rebids will leave you
with no clear way to force and show
heart support. You'll have to bid the
fourth suit and hope partner doesn't
think you're showing a doubleton when
you finally bid hearts at your third
turn. Even with a 4=3=2=4 pattern, 2♣
is a better response with this strength.
Partner opens 1♥ and you hold:
♠Q 7 6 3 ♥- ♦5 4 ♣K J 10 9 5 4 3.
This is another decision that requires you to consider potential problems later in the auction. Your plan
should be to get to a club partscore,
but that will be almost impossible if
you respond 1♠. When you bid clubs
later, partner will rightly interpret it as
forcing and possibly artificial. You may
be at the five level before he lets you off
the hook.
The surest way to make clubs trump
is to give up on spades and respond
a forcing 1NT. Over partner's rebid -
you're expecting 2♦ or 2♥- you can
bid a natural, non-forcing 3♣. Even
if you've missed a 4-4 spade fit, clubs
will probably play better.

Your LHO opens 1♦, partner
doubles and RHO passes. You hold:
♠K 5 ♥J 6 5 4 ♦Q J 9 3 ♣Q 10 2.
When partner opens one of a suit,
he's not always interested in majors,
but you show your length just in case
there's a fit. When he makes a takeout
double, he's showing his length and
asking you to confirm a fit. Is it ever
right to conceal a four-card major
when you know partner has support?
It can be with a hand like this one.
A 1♥ advance is a bit of an underbid
with 9 points, but a jump to 2♥ seems
too much with such weak hearts and
only 6 of your points in partner's suits.
You can't even be sure that any number
of hearts will be the right contract, as
partner's double doesn't promise four
cards.
You can avoid this dilemma by
looking past hearts and considering
notrump. 1NT is the only advance that
accurately shows this balanced highcard strength, and notrump is the only
contract where your diamond honors
rate to be of value.
Partner opens 1♣, your RHO
overcalls 1♠ and you hold:
♠K 10 9 3 ♥K J 10 4 ♦J 7 3 ♣10 2.
Does the same reasoning apply when
you can show your major with a negative double? More about these decisions in the next issue.
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September 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September 2020