Suddenly developing strip squeeze
On Board 14 of yesterday’s club matchpoint duplicate, I misjudged the auction but then received a couple of breaks in the opponents’ best suit that allowed for a nice recovery.
My partner and I are playing a weak notrump. Accordingly, an opening bid of 1 of a suit will be either a distributional hand (meaning a singleton or void somewhere; a six card or longer suit; or some 5-4-2-2 hands) or, if a balanced hand, a strong hand (meaning 15 or more HCP).
Partner opened 1♦. I responded 1♥ on QJ73, J872, QJ2, A7. My left hand opponent decided to overcall 2♣ and my partner made a support double, telling me that he held exactly three hearts but otherwise not describing his hand. What should I bid?
I reasoned that 3NT could be a reasonable contract whether partner is strong and balanced or has long diamonds. If the former, I should be able to make on power; and if the latter, perhaps my diamond holding would solidify partner’s hand and help produce enough fast tricks to make game. I considered finding out a bit more about partner’s hand, but was finally persuaded to just jump to 3NT by two factors: (1) avoiding giving “information leak” to the opponents; and (2) placing the overcaller on lead, which could be critical if partner holds some innocuous club holding such as Jxx or Qx.
Well, the first factor did apply, as North decided not to risk a club lead but rather tried a safe diamond.
I won the diamond in hand and forced out the ♠A. North now led a club but it was the ♣6, forcing his partner to play the jack (causing dummy’s ♣T to become quite powerful). I won the ♣A.
After one club, three rounds of spades, and four rounds of diamonds, everyone is down to these five cards:
I cashed the spade in hand and North had no good discard. When he chose to discard a club, I threw him in with the ♣T and the forced heart return ran to my jack. A finesse of the ♥Q next produced eleven tricks for me: one club, four diamonds, three hearts, and three spades, losing only the ♠A and one club. 8 matchpoints on an 11 top, losing only to three pairs who, somehow, made twelve tricks in spades.
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You deserved better, Jeff. Very nicely played.
This hand does, however, bring up an interesting point about support doubles. When playing a weak notrump, I think it is proper to describe the hand immediately with one’s rebid. A support double, pass, raise to 2H, or 2NT bid should show that you started with a balanced 15-17. The hand that opened on diamonds and more diamonds should, IMHO, rebid 2D.
That way, you (responder) would not have to guess which of those hands partner held, although as you pointed out in this case you want to be in 3NT regardless.
When playing weak notrumps, an opener of 1 of a suit will have two distinct hand types that include three card support for a major suit bid by responder. One type is a strong notrump. The other type is a distributional hand for which the prototype distribution is 5-4-3-1, where the five card suit was the suit of the opening bid and the three card suit is responder’s major.
An expert has recommended to me that the two types be identified by opener’s choice of rebid. With the strong notrump type and three card support, opener should make a support double. With the 5-4-3-1 type and three card support, opener should raise responder’s major. Yes, this means that the raise of responder’s major can be showing either four card support or three card support. However, in either case (assuming the partnership is not playing KS), the strength of opener is limited by opener’s failure to have jump raised responder. And the singleton can compensate, in terms of offensive playing strength, for the absence of a fourth trump.
With partnerships with good system memories, I would support the expert’s recommendation.
Where would you suggest an absolute novice go to learn the basics of the game before getting to the advanced techniques.
Thanks
Thanks for the question, Vincent.
I have two suggestions. One is software-based: Learn to Play Bridge (volumes 1 and 2) by Fred Gitelman, founder of Bridge Base Online. You can go to Bridge Base Online website … although then you have to do bit of poking around to find the right software titles. I would definitely recommend this software rather than the ACBL software targeting the same audience. The Gitelman software is free. My second suggestion is book-based. Eddie Kantar offers twin books entitled Introduction to Declarer’s Play and Introduction to Defender’s Play. They are available from Eddie’s website http://www.kantarbridge.com.
Good luck!