[mikeh]

---

I’ve always enjoyed Bridge Movie articles in The Bridge World so I thought I’d try writing one.

You are playing a friendly team game with an expert partner.

You pick up this promising 20 count as dealer, both sides vulnerable.

3 suited big hands can be difficult to bid but you have an obvious start with 1D. Yes, sometimes you wish you were playing forcing club but you’re not.

LHO passes, and indeed the opps remain silent

You’re expecting a 1H response but instead see partner bid 1N, 5-10 hcp but, if 10, he won’t hold 4+ diamonds since he’d make an inverted raise. Your 1D promises at least 4 cards and is often 5 (you play a method in which 1C can be as short as xx)

You have two ways of forcing to game here (other than a very weird 3N, knowing the opps have at least ten hearts between them)

You can bid 2S or 3C.

2S conserves bidding space. It’s not in itself game force but partner can’t pass and you can make another forcing bid next round.

3C is definitely game force

Which do you choose?

2S may complicate matters. You play ingberman over this, so 2N by him would ask you to bid 3C. He might even pass that! Give him something like xx Kxx x QJxxxxx, an unlikely hand, and your 3C would end the auction. Or he might bid 3D, creating a game force, but making it difficult to find clubs if he is say 3=4 or 3=5 in the minors. Yes, you could bid 4C over 3D but he might be unwilling to raise wth Qxxx.

Besides, you can be sure that you’re not playing in spades, so why bid them?

You bid 3C. If he does have great clubs, he’ll raise and you can explore for grand.


He bids 3D.

3D doesn’t say much. It doesn’t promise 4 card support. While 3C is ‘natural’, it’s the kind of bid one makes with a wide range of minor shape. AKx x AQxxxx AQx…..3C seems reasonable, although some might prefer 3H…for me, 3H would show better diamonds.

What now?

It seems pretty clear to bid 3S. If he bids 3N, he should have wasted values in hearts and you’ll have another decision to make

Fortunately he bids 4C

This shows at least 4 clubs…..he’s probably 3334 or possibly has 5 clubs.

He may well have something in hearts, but they may be 5=5 with neither hand feeling safe overcalling.

We have the most critical decision so far staring us in the face.

There are many hands on which slam is either hopeless or poor, but many others where it is very good or cold, and there’s no obvious way to involve partner intelligently.

We could try 4H to see what he does, but we’re likely muddying the waters and it’s unclear how useful his action would be. Yes, we’ve shown a big hand,but maybe not quite this big.

We could bid 4D, clearly forcing, but (again) it’s unclear how partner can cooperate intelligently, given that he has no black suit controls.

You decide that it’s up to you. So you choose 5N….pick a minor suit slam. You could arguably just bid 6C, but 5N seems a little sexier.

Partner not surprisingly bids 6C and you await dummy with interest and trepidation.

---

The lead is the heart Ace, not best for their side.

It looks as if you’re in fairly good shape. If both minors are 3-2, you can pull trump and establish diamonds for spade discards, scoring 5 clubs, 4 or 5 diamonds, and three top tricks in the majors.

If clubs break badly, you’ll need some luck.

You have to start on trump and there are some 4-1 breaks for which you can play, now that the heart King guards that suit. You play the club Ace….both follow low…had east played an honour, you would have cashed the king and, if east showed out, you could play low to the 9.

You cash the club King. They both follow, so you’re in great shape. You draw the last trump.

Now you’re pretty much cold unless west has Q10xx in diamonds. Is there anything you can do about that?

Yes…if east has the singleton diamond 8.

You play a low diamond towards your hand. If east plays the 8, you win the Ace and lead low towards dummy, covering whatever card west plays.

Yes, you’ll lose an unnecessary trick to east whenever he has Q8 or Q108, etc but so what?

You’re in a contract that may be missed at the other table, and your task is to take 12 tricks…not to play for as many tricks as possible.

Note that if east plays low on the diamond, you win the ace…do NOT finesse…and lead low towards the King. If west shows out, you’re perfectly safe…win the king and lead towards J97

East follows low. You rise with the Ace and return one…west playing the 8….you play the king but east shows out. Rats.

You aren’t down yet!

Concede a diamond to west. He knocks out the heart King.

Now you need dummy’s last trump to ruff out the diamonds, so you can’t plan to pitch spades and ruff a spade. Fortunately you can and do pitch a spade on the heart King.

But now you play a spade to hand, ruff a diamond and lead another spade….you inset the Jack, and it holds…phew.

In real life, both minors broke 3-2 so any line would have worked.

[LBengtsson]

Very good problem, mikeh. Its not a easy hand to bid. The 3♦ bid seems only preference but you have enough to make one another bid. In 2/1 it would be also a interesting hand to bid if partner had only♠xxx ♥A109xx ♦xx ♣xxx and had tried to improve the contract with a 1♥ response. How to stop below game now?

Thanks for posting.

[mikeh]

LBengtsson, on 2022-February-07, 02:52, said:

Very good problem, mikeh. Its not a easy hand to bid. The 3♦ bid seems only preference but you have enough to make one another bid. In 2/1 it would be also a interesting hand to bid if partner had only♠xxx ♥A109xx ♦xx ♣xxx and had tried to improve the contract with a 1♥ response. How to stop below game now?

Thanks for posting.

After 1D 1H I think I’d bid 2S rather than 3C, because we could easily have a spade fit, which isn’t the case after the 1N response.

Tbh, I think that if I’ve bid 1H with that hand, I’d be tempted to pass 2S.

I’ve passed a forcing bid precisely once and it was in an analogous situation. Strangely enough that was years ago and partner still plays with me😀

Whether I’d pass or honour the force is a question I couldn’t answer in advance but I’d definitely feel that passing might be the last chance for a plus score.

[Tramticket]

Thanks Mike, very informative.

If you change the hand to 4-1-4-4 (♠AKJ2 ♥2 ♦AJ97 ♣AK84), would your auction have the same start?

[mikeh]

Tramticket, on 2022-February-07, 09:22, said:

Thanks Mike, very informative.

If you change the hand to 4-1-4-4 (♠AKJ2 ♥2 ♦AJ97 ♣AK84), would your auction have the same start?

Not sure. But I think it probably should. After 1N we have at least one eight card minor fit and the opps have at least ten hearts. Even if partner has AQx in hearts, so has two stoppers, he needs magic cards in the rest of his hand, and/or a lucky lie of the cards, to make 3N. Plus after 3C 3D 3S he can/should bid 3N with hearts well stopped.

[lamford]

mikeh, on 2022-February-07, 14:48, said:

Not sure. But I think it probably should. After 1N we have at least one eight card minor fit and the opps have at least ten hearts. Even if partner has AQx in hearts, so has two stoppers, he needs magic cards in the rest of his hand, and/or a lucky lie of the cards, to make 3N. Plus after 3C 3D 3S he can/should bid 3N with hearts well stopped.

What would 1D-1NT-3H uncontested mean? With my Welsh international partner we play it as game-forcing splinter. Partner will bid 3NT with KQx of hearts.

[mw64ahw]

Does anyone open these 23 pointers 2♣ or 2♦ and then bid the suit under the short suit at the 3-level to show the shape?

[mikeh]

lamford, on 2022-February-07, 15:36, said:

What would 1D-1NT-3H uncontested mean? With my Welsh international partner we play it as game-forcing splinter. Partner will bid 3NT with KQx of hearts.

For us, it shows a long, good diamond suit with stuff outside. Say Axx x AKJxxx KQx

Slam interest opposite magic cards…ie a max 1N with no wastage

Say Kx xxx Qxx Axxxx

I doubt we’d ever consider 4441. Indeed, I’m not sure one can play it as either a single suited hand or a three suited hand…the follow ups would be complex.

[mikeh]

mw64ahw, on 2022-February-07, 16:03, said:

Does anyone open these 23 pointers 2♣ or 2♦ and then bid the suit under the short suit at the 3-level to show the shape?

Old fashioned Roman 2D showed 17+ with some 4441.

Some multi 2D bidders still include strong 4441 hands as an option.

As for the Roman, the main problem was that one could play a LOT of bridge before it ever came up. It’s very effective when it does, but in the (long) interval between occurrences your3 basically playing a method in which 2D doesn’t exist.

Since bidding is a highly constrained issue, due to the huge variety of hands possible and the limited number of bids available, the strong Roman has very few followers these days. Indeed, I haven’t run into any good player using it.

As for folding it into multi, two friends of mine, both experts, play this. I played for a few years with one of them but found that it really interfered with multi.

When multi can have a strong variant, responder can’t preempt as aggressively as he might like, when he has weakness but support for both majors, since opener may be 4441 strong.

When responder is truly weak, it’s not a problem. One plays in 4M on a 4=4 fit. But when responder has moderate values, bouncing opposite the normal weak variant, now good slams may be missed.

In addition, the need to ask, almost always eliciting that opener had a weak two, provides information to the opponents, while being able to bounce immediately lessens that problem.

I’ve not heard of 2C being used as you suggest.

For one thing, after 2C 2D, opener needs 3m as natural. Most play 3M as setting trump, but some play it as 4M and longer diamonds.

[mw64ahw]

I have a Multi 2♣ opening, that has:
a) Weak 2 in ♦
b) 22-24hcp
c) 22/23+ with 6/5+ Major only
d) 44(x4+) 22+
With a positive response d) can be shown above 3NT

Alternatively, my bidding would start 1♦-1NT-2♠ as 3♦ would show 6

[DavidKok]

I think most bidding systems over a strong 2♣ (or 2♦) opening are horrible. I know mine are. Making things even more difficult by including some weak types that responder needs to account for is a strange but popular move, as is the desire to describe the strong hand instead of the weak one. Plus, 95% of the time opener has the weak version, and as mikeh pointed out it can harm your preemptive auctions if you restrict which ranges can raise.