Many of my readers, like myself, are still stuck in the
depths of “Intermediatesville” trying to get better as we learn from our
mistakes. Some wag once wrote that in order for something to become a habit,
you have to do it 19 times. It is hard to find anything in bridge that you can
do correctly 19 times other than pass, and even pass has its own problems. So
it doesn’t hurt for us to reinforce basics one in a while. Here is a thought
about responding to 1NT forcing bids.
Most
duplicate players today play the 1NT response to one of a major as forcing for
one round unless by an unpassed hand. That means that opener has to come up
with one more bid. On a good day you will be delighted to come up with another
bid reflecting your 6 card suit or extra values, on a bad day you will have some
less appealing choices to make. How about a little quick review? Music maestro!!
1. If you rebid your major suit, it shows a suit that is 6
cards in length and no significant
extras. A jump in the major suit shows 6 good cards in the bid major and 16+, but is non-forcing.
2. If the hand is 5433 you rebid your lower ranking 3 card
minor.
3. If you opened 1 heart, a 2 spade rebid is still a reverse
and shows 16+ hcps. Why is it a
reverse? Because partner must now go to the 3 level
to take a preference for your original suit. Don’t confuse this with 2/1 sequences where most players
do not play reverses as showing extra
values, just hand shape.
4. If you make a jump shift, it promises a hand of about 19
hcps or shape with equivalent playing
strength. Definitely forcing!
5. A raise to 2NT shows a balanced hand of about18-19 hcps
and almost forcing; pass it at your peril. Have a back up partner. If your partner is your spouse, it is forcing!
Those were supposed
to be easy choices, but reading this blog post counts as one of the 19 repetitions.
With the basics behind you, take shot at these: You open 1 heart, your partner
responds 1NT: “Your bid Syd!” Remember that Max Hardy is looking over your shoulder from that big bridge table
in the sky.
(i) KJxx, AQxxx, Jx, Qx
(ii) K4, AQJT9x, 5, QJ43
(iii) K4, QJ7643, 5, AQJ3
(iv) K4, AKQJ63, Q7, J95
On hand (i)
you have 4 spades but to bid them would be a reverse – not with 13 hcps! In 2/1
game force, it is not systemically correct to rebid your 5 card heart suit, so
you “suck it up” and bid 2 clubs. The
rule says you bid your best 2 card minor and hope for the best. Somehow
this often works out.
On hand (ii)
you have a 6 card heart suit which is rebiddable, but also a 4 card club suit
you could show Note that hand (iii) has the same feature. How do you decide
whether to show the club suit or just rebid your hearts? There is another rule for this. Here is the standard: Opener
will only show the 4 card suit when the 6 card suit is not solid enough to play
against a singleton. Opener bids 2 hearts with hand (ii) and 2 clubs with
hand (iii). If you are responder and have a singleton in openers major (which
happens with alarming frequency), it is important to understand the implication
of opener rebidding a second suit. Opener is telling you that he does not have
a 6 card major, or if he does it is not good enough to play against a single in
your hand. If you have a single in opener’s major, you have 12 cards in the
other suits. Remember opener’s bid of a new suit at the 2 level does not show
extra values nor is it forcing, so you can pass, and with 4144 that may be the best
thing to do. These situations come under the “catch all” that “sometimes you
just gotta do what you gotta do.”
Hand (iv) is
even more twisted. I would guess many readers would bid 3 hearts over 1NT
forcing. You are not going to like that matchpoint choice if the hand makes 10
tricks in both NT and spades. Opener should bid 3NT showing 16-18 hcps, solid
hearts, and no single or void. This asks responder to pass if his hand is
balanced and otherwise correct to 4 hearts.
The wind up
is what to do when responder has a good heart hand and the auction goes
1s/1NT/2c. Below are 4 rebid hands for responder, what is your rebid?
(i) 7 KQJ876 54 42
(ii) 76 KQT975 AJ5 43
(iii) 87 KQ98 AQ87 432
(iv) T6 KQJ87 543 765
With hand (i),
bid 2 hearts to play. It tells partner to please pass. With hand (ii) you have
6 hearts and 10 hcps. It is too good for 2 hearts, so invite with 3 hearts.
With hand (iii) bid 2NT since you have stoppers in the unbid suits and 10-12.
How about hand (iv)? Good hearts but a single in partner’s bid suit and only 6
hcps. Partner’s 1 spade opening did not guarantee anything about his hearts and
the rebid of 2 clubs may well be 4 clubs which tends to reduce the chance of
holding hearts. This is a judgment hand and only the quality of the hearts
makes them a consideration. Still, my experience in matchpoints tells me to
ignore the hearts and take a false preference to 2 spades where you are
guaranteed a 7 card trump suit. After all, responder has a 6 hcp, 9 LTC minimum
hand. Disaster could be impending.
If you don’t
like my analysis, the specimen hands or the responses send an e-mail to maxhardy@bridgeinheaven.com. Be
patient, he may not respond immediately. It may be more productive to write to
me at tommy@rochester.rr.com or tsolberg@tampabay.rr.com. If you are
on my blog notice list, do not use the “reply” button unless you want the
entire list to read your comments. That could be ugly.
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