2012 in bridge has started out opposite of 2011

My first tournament of 2011 saw me win over 23 points at the Macon sectional. The first tournament this year yielded only a little more than 6 points, most of which was won in a pair game that I had estimated at 49% (but was actually 65%). Anyway, I got the 6.47 points that I needed for the next masterpoint milestone (2500 and Gold LM) by coming back from a miserable start to squeak into a tie for 9th in the Swiss.

It continually amazes me that Emory and I (and especially other top players who have played together for decades) still have so many disagreements about what certain bids mean. On the first deal of the tournament for me, I doubled a weak NT and LHO bid 2C. What is this? If you play strong notrumps, there isn't a great need for runouts so you would assume systems are on and this is stayman. Playing weak notrumps (good 11-14), it is common to have some sort of runout structure when they make a penalty double directly behind the 1NT opener. So, in addition to stayman, common ways to play 2C are that is is drop dead showing a 5 card suit or to show 4-4 in clubs and another suit. Strangely this pair with a decades-long partnership and 25000 mp combined did not know their agreement.

Another auction that apparently has no consensus of meaning is 4th suit by a passed hand. I had never had any discussion about what this means until yesterday. The specific auction was an uncontested P-1C; 1H-1S; 2D. I thought Emory probably thought it would be naturalish and forward going, something like a 2-5-4-2 10 count and was right. I can definitely see a good argument for it being an artificial 1 round force and playing Walsh-style responses to 1C, I can definitely see good arguments for 2D being drop dead (a minimum response with 4 hearts and 6+ diamonds).

Another one that came up was 2C-2NT; 3NT-4D. 2NT showed 5+ hearts with 2 of the top 3 honors. Should 4D be natural or a transfer? At the time I thought it should be a transfer (I am unlikely to bid over 3NT without extra heart length and if we play hearts, the big hand should be declarer) but in retrospect, it may make more sense to play it as natural and forcing. You lose right-siding a heart contract but gain the ability to explore for a diamond slam. Again, opinions were very divided even amongst us people who play together frequently.

Impossible Auctions from a GIB

North	East	South	West
1♥	Pass	2♥	Pass
Pass	2NT	Pass	3♣
3♥	Pass	Pass	5♣
X	Pass	Pass	Pass

North	East	South	West
1♥	2♦	2♥	Pass
Pass	X	Pass	2♠
3♥	Pass	Pass	4♠
Pass	Pass	Pass

Needless to say, the GIB (robot) was west in both of these deals. Both contracts went down 2, and I must say I had a mighty fine dummy both times.

I also love finding people who are frisky bidders to play against on money bridge on bridge base. The GIBs simply don't understand sacrifices, psyches, and other such bidding tactics. Yesterday I had the pleasure of getting +2000 when my RHO human opened 1S on a 1-6-3-3 hand with 3 hcp. Unfortunately, I was only at the 1/2 cent per point table.

Our team (including Sean Gannon, Richard and Andrew Jeng) performance in the GNT’s was less than stellar. Each pair had one horrific round and 2 bad losses were just enough to keep us from making it to the semi-finals. That may well be the last non-open event I ever play in. For years, I’ve thought I should be able to win flight B but have yet to make it through the qualifying stage. Narrowing the field from 20 to 4 is a pretty big cut and the teams were divided into two groups to play a round robin Swiss with 10 teams and 7 rounds.

There was an interesting dilemma in the other group. Go here for my article about that.

So, the sectional running concurrently had 188 tables and Sean and I played 3 out of 7 sessions of that, winning the Friday night pairs with 69.57% and the Sunday Swiss with 80% of the possible VP’s. Those 2 wins were enough to put us at the top of the masterpoint race for the sectional.

We had numerous interesting hands over the 2 days. Here was an auction from perhaps our worst result of the tournament. 1NT-X-P-2D; P-2H-3D. 1NT was 15-17, X was penalty, 2D was a transfer to hearts. You have agreed that all systems are on over the X but that’s about all. Without any other discussion, what is 3D? Does it matter that it’s vulnerable at imps?

Now you can discuss and reach some general understanding. It’s surely diamonds but is it forcing or not? Would Lebensohl apply here? Is it even possible for responder to have a forcing hand? I think this is one thing Sean and I still disagree upon. I think that unless you are playing a runout system (which we definitely do not do), responder has to do something over the double if he has a game-forcing hand. And even a game forcing hand is likely not worth a game-force once rho announces he has lots of stuff behind opener. I, the responder, had a modest 7-count with 5 diamonds, kind of typical of what I think this bidding shows. Lebensohl here just doesn’t make sense and even if it does make sense to use it, it should be to distinguish between invitational and less than invitational hands.

More hands to come when I get time. For now, I have a busy week to include lots of tennis, and reviewing and applying my knowledge of electrical circuits.

NT Openings and Overcalls

I thought strong notrump overcalls and unusual 2NT jump overcalls were pretty standard and well known but apparently a significant portion of players do not know and are confused about when each applies and when each is alertable or announceable.

I’ve run across some beginners over the years make an unusual 2NT JUMP overcall with a flat 20 and make a 2NT overcall of a weak 2 with both minors, and Iusually take a few seconds to explain to them that that is not standard bidding and the rationale behind it: The reason 1H-2NT isn’t the same as a 2NT opening is that it is significantly less likely that you’ll have 20-21 hcp when RHO opens and it is a hand that we can show by doubling and then bidding 2NT. The reason 2H-2NT is not an unusual 2NT showing both minors is that you are likely to have a strong NT (15-18) and do need a way to show that hand after RHO has shows a preempt. That is more common and generally more important that being able to show both minors.

I am accepting and polite when a new player confuses these things but when an experienced player, a tournament director, playing with someone with whom he has played for decades, claims to not know the rules of their agreements here, it really bothers me and proves that much needs to be done to educate the bridge population.

So here’s a quick run down of NT overcalls in standard bridge.

1NT openings are technically supposed to be announced by the partner of the opener. I’ve never known a director to assign any sort of penalty or chastise anyone for not announce a 15-17 1NT but for all other notrump ranges, it definitely should be announced. And it is better to never announce 15-17 than to announce it only sometimes. This is one of the few things in the ACBL that I strongly dislike. Someone who plays the most basic or standard of methods should always be able to make a non-alertable and non-announceable bid regardless of the situation. There is no doubt that 15-17 1NT is standard. And this requirement to announce and opening 1NT range makes it the only bid that you cannot legally make without an alert or announcement.

Regardless of the opening bid, a non-jump direct overcall of 1NT, 2NT, or 3NT shows approximately a strong 1NT. This includes 1C-1NT, 2H-2NT, 3S-3NT, 1S-1NT, among others. The range is typically 15-18 and more leniencies can be taken with this than with a NT opening because of being more pressed for bidding space in a competitive auction. The overcaller’s partner is not supposed to announce or alert if the overcall shows this. If it shows anything else, it must be alerted.

A balancing 1NT overcall typically shows a weak NT, 11-14 or 11-15 hcp and a stopper. This includes only auctions of the form 1Y-P-P-1NT where Y is any suit. This is not alertable or announceable either. Many inexperienced players apparently have never heard of this standard treatment and some people still play strong NT overcalls in balancing seat anyway, which is fine. Just mark it on your card.

Jump overcalls of 2NT (1Y-2NT) typically show 5-5 in the two lowest unbid suits. Strength is somewhat nebulous. While this is called unusual 2NT, it is very standard and any other meaning of 2NT in this situation is alertable. Jump overcalls of 4NT are also normally understood to show the 2 lowest unbid suits (typically more like 6-5 or 6-6). If you play unusual 2NT when it is not a jump, it is alertable.

Jump overcalls of 3NT typically show a gambling-type hand, something like a running suit with a stopper in the opponents’ suit. Big balanced hands would start with a double.

Impossible Auctions

1♥-1NT-X-2♥

P-3NT-X-P

P-P

I hope to never see this auction again. The cards were lying very favorably for declarer and I think we may have slipped a trick on defense so he only went down 2.

1NT-P-2NT-P

3♣-P-3♦-P

3♥-P-4♦-P

4♥-P-5♦-P

P-P

This is another basically impossible auction. 2NT was a transfer to diamonds, 3♣ was a superaccept, and 3♦ was a signoff. I was actually the notrump opener here – the one making the seemingly ridiculous bids. However, 5♦ was exactly the right spot. My hand: ♠Ax ♥AKJxx ♦Txxx ♣Ax. Partner was 2-1-6-4 with only the ace of diamonds. The contract made easily when diamonds did not split 3-0. However, I do not condone this bidding. At least I should have passed 4♦ when partner tried to sign off a second time.

3-3 Fit ftw

What was life like pre-bridge? I mean, what the heck did I do with all my free time before I played bridge? Or at least before I played bridge so much? Was I just bored a lot? I dunno. I still watch lots of TV and do athletic things and have plenty of time to sit around and do nothing. I certainly have not reached a stage where “bridge = life” – I hope I never do, and I do put forth some effort to do social things that don’t revolve around bridge like playing tennis, going to bars and meeting low-lifes (Hillery is still the only person I've first met at a bar who has actually been a good influence on me and that was almost 4 years ago!), and flirting with my favorite waitress at Cheddar's.

The truth is that I frequently feel uncomfortable in a setting with non-bridge players but rarely feel uncomfortable with bridge players. Bridge gives us something to talk about, and there’s rarely a time that I don’t have a few hands rolling around in my head that I can mention at a lull in the conversation. I find my mind more and more wandering off into bridge land during breaks in the conversation, and that really does not interest anyone who doesn’t play bridge. Actually, it only interests people who play bridge well. There was a time - 2nd and 3rd years at GT and 2008, perhaps my 3 happiest years so far - when I felt more like a normal person and I'm trying to remember how I did that.

I’ve gone out and about in Warner Robins a lot more than usual this week and several people have surprised me this week, I have surprised myself with how I reacted, and I’m mostly not happy about it all. I got pretty frustrated last night and not feeling so great today emotionally. But I have a flight to Charlottesville in a few hours and that should be a fun trip. Or maybe just a really awkward one. I dunno. I’ll leave you with a fun hand from Tuesday night.

Dealer: W Vul: NS	North ♠ AKJ ♥ J ♦ AKQ64 ♣ AQ72
West ♠ 9762 ♥ AT9653 ♦ T2 ♣ K		East ♠ 853 ♥ KQ72 ♦ J73 ♣ 984
	South ♠ QT4 ♥ 84 ♦ 985 ♣ JT653

West	North	East	South
2♥	X	Pass	2NT
Pass	3♥	X	Pass
Pass	4♥	X	4♠
Pass	Pass	Pass

I think I have all the important cards correct here. I certainly don’t condone making a habit of bidding games on 3-3 fits but this time it worked out pretty well. Of course, 6 of either minor is pretty easy to make and 4S can probably be beaten if the defense plays hearts at every opportunity, even if it gets to be a sluff and ruff. However, west led his singleton. Emory won with the ace in dummy and played another high club. West ruffed, shortening himself to the same number of trumps as everyone else. Now he could draw all the trumps and have a bunch of good minor suit cards.

In the bidding, 2NT was Lebensohl – in this case, Emory had intended to pass 3C. 3H showed lots of extra values, pass over 3HX should suggest no long suit and probably no 4 card spade suit. My 4H bid should again be passing the decision back to south and would have been appropriate if I had 4-1-4-4 distribution. Eh.

Exclusion

Today’s post is not a new topic to Andre’s blog: exclusion blackwood. Yes, it is something that is not too frequent; however, how many times have you held a hand but didn’t bid exclusion because you weren’t sure if your partner would be on the same page? Or you don’t know what the responses would be? This is a fairly common problem with exclusion.

My personal least favorite thing about exclusion is just how high it is, especially if I am void in hearts. I always feel like I don’t bid exclusion because almost no matter what my partner has I am committing us to slam. On the bright side this problem can easily be solved! Andre and I have started to play a new way of exclusion that is still at the 4 level. When you splinter you have a hand that might have mild slam interest but not enough points to take another bid over partner’s presumed signoff bid – with a stronger hand we would start with Jacoby. So if we splinter and then bid 4NT over partner’s signoff it is exclusion in the suit we splintered in: 1♠-4♥; 4♠-4NT would be exclusion in hearts. I really prefer this method of exclusion because you are not taking away a bid that was previously defined; I assume most people would take this as standard RKC, but that isn’t really a necessary bid in this auction – why splinter if you were going to keycard over a signoff anyway? It also keeps me at the standard blackwood level.

Over this 4NT Andre and I use 1430 as our responses, but I also want to mention another way of answering. This way loses some of its value if you are playing 4NT as exclusion, but for anyone who may not be convinced enough to switch it is a good thing to think about. The responses are 0 key cards, 1 KC without the Q of trump, 1 KC with the Q of trump, 2KC w/o, 2KC w/, 3 key cards – abbreviated 011223. This seems a little strange at first, but since you are void in a suit there are fewer key cards to be concerned about. Plus, the Q of trump is often a more valuable card that you don’t have room to ask for nor do most people have agreements about. Many people use this response structure over preempts but it may be worth considering over exclusion.

Take the auction: 1♠-2♣; 2♠-3♠; 5♦. Opener has a very strong hand with hearts and a diamond void while responder has a game force with clubs and some heart support. Responder is not very likely to have 2 key cards when opener has this powerhouse, but he could have something like ♠Qx ♥KQ ♦Kxxx ♣Axxxx. Playing standard 3014 responses the auction would continue 1♠…5♦-5♠. Opener has no knowledge of the ♠Q which could easily be the card that would sway the odds in favor of 6. With 011223 responses you would respond 5NT and you could investigate grand if you want to. These responses can get you higher than you are expecting which means you can only bid exclusion if you are willing to go to slam with 1KC and the Q usually, but I think the benefit of knowing about the Q is well worth while.

Anyway I’m writing this on my flight to Louisville for the Nationals where Andre and I will be playing the IMP pairs. This is one of my favorite events and although Andre does love his matchpoints I do think he is fond of IMP pairs as well. Should be a good long weekend before headed back to school!

What is Forcing in Standard American

How long is it going to be before 2/1 game forcing becomes part of Standard American? It is overwhelmingly the most popular system played at tournaments while at clubs it is probably still the preferred system for only about 40% of the players. It’s not really any more difficult than Standard American, and if we teach people 2/1 game forcing from the start, they’ll probably even get the hang of it quick because beginners like guidelines such as “don’t pass until you’ve bid game.” However, almost all beginning bridge classes and bridge books teach Standard American first so I guess we have to adhere to that. But I was playing SA a few days ago and realized that I don’t know what is forcing and what isn’t. I have become so accustomed to 2/1 game forcing or other funky systems that don’t use 2/1 game forcing (but it isn’t a big deal because opener’s and is limited in big club or small club or Polish club or Swedish club or big diamond systems).

I haven't played Standard American with any regular partner since I was 15 and a beginner so tons of things that I think a lot about now didn't even cross my mind back then. I had always heard that in Standard American, a 2/1 bid was forcing to at least 2NT or sometimes people would say responder promises a rebid when he makes a 2/1 (and 2NT is opener’s only non-game rebid he can pass). So, 1S-2D-2S would still be a one round force but 1S-2D-3C would not be forcing. Is that right? That doesn’t make sense. And is 1S-2C-2H-2S forcing? My instinct says no. Another one I’m not sure about in Standard American is whether jump rebids below game are forcing or not. Without new minor forcing or fourth suit forcing, I realized I don’t know how to bid hands as responder when I’m not ready to settle on a strain or level by the second round of bidding. I guess with the people I have taught, if they ever got to the level of being able to ask questions like this, it was time for them to play 2/1.

I looked up the Standard American system on the ACBL website. Jumps to 3 of a previously bid suit are all invitational (except when responder made a 2/1 and then jumped to 3 of opener’s first suit in which case it is forcing) and jumps to 3 of a new suit are game-forcing. 1D-1H-1NT-2C is natural and non-forcing. The booklet makes no comment on auctions where opener rebids 3m (but does not jump) but it does say that “Responder promises to bid again if he responded with a new suit at the two level unless opener’s rebid is at the game level.” I think that pretty well sums it up.

On another different note, what’s your style on what to bid over partner’s 1S holding: Txx, AQJx, AQJ, Kxx? Many people play that 3NT shows this kind of 4333 hand but usually has a range of 13-15 or so. This might be too good for that and most players probably don’t have such an agreement. Would you ever consider a forcing 1NT response (and then a jump to 4S next time) or a 2/1 (and if you make a 2/1, would you bid 2C, 2D, or 2H) or Jacoby 2NT? I think this is an interesting dilemma. My instinct is to bid 2D with this particular hand and bid a forcing 1NT with a similar hand but a few fewer high cards.