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Intended audience: Intermediate and up

 

N-S vul at matchpoints, as south you hold: ♠AKJ9752 ♥1052 ♦J4 ♣2

 

Intended audience: Intermediate and up

 

E-W vul, matchpoints, North passes as dealer. As East what do you bid with ♠QJ98653 ♥J96 ♦K9 ♣K?

 

 

Analysis

 

Preempts primary purpose is to get in the opponents way. However you need to have some consistency so partner knows what to do.

 

One issue is vulnerability. You should have more high cards/better hand when bidding red. Thinking along these lines, the actual East bid 3♠. This is a poor bid in my view. Two kings and a J9x is way too much to have on the outside.

 

West correctly passed with ♠- ♥AQ10842 ♦AQ7 ♣J762, and E-W missed the cold 4♥ game.

 

A good 2nd seat vul preempt would look something like ♠AKJ10xxx ♥J96 ♦xx ♣x.

 

 

 

 

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Intended audience: Intermediate and up

 

E-W vul, matchpoints, as south you hold: ♠A943 ♥-  ♦KQ98653 ♣74

 

West

North

East

South

1♥

Pass

2♥

?

 

 

 

 

 

What do you bid?

Intended audience: Intermediate and up

 

Neither vul at IMPs, as south you hold: ♠AKJ9752 ♥1052 ♦J4 ♣2

 

What do you bid as dealer?

 

 

Intended audience: Intermediate and up

 

Both vul, matchpoints, as south you hold: ♠AKQ ♥J105 ♦654 ♣J872

 

West

North

East

South

-

1♥

1♠

?

 

 

 

 

 

What do you bid?

  1. Revisiting the Colourful Ape
  2. A Closer Look
  3. Conventional Passes
  4. A 'Tricky' Tricky Problem

Subcategories

Bidding Problems

Both vul, IMPs at IMPs scoring you hold as south: ♠A ♥K93 ♦AK106 ♣AK1063

 

 

 

What do you open?

 

 

 

NOTE:Just to let you know my new book, The Right Bid at the Right Time is has been released and is available for purchase.

 

Here is a hand from a recent match between two tops teams in the Canadian Online Teams Championship. Sitting South was a so-called expert. He decided to open 2NT.

 

Yes, this is close to the right point count. Yes, this simplifies the auction. Yes, this is one of the worse bids I have seen from a high caliber player.

 

Yes, that is unfortunately true. Time and time again I see players showing notrump shape with singletons. (Haven’t seen it with a void yet!) This is lazy bidding. First your auction is easier, but inaccurate. Natural bidding will be beat notrump auctions 9 times out of 10. Another reason players do this is that they can all but guarantee they will be declarer. What that has to do with Partnership Bridge, I am not sure.

 

The best bid is 1♣. One bids are up to 21 HCPs. That is what you have. Having said that the only reason I open 1♣ is that your suits are the minors, which are notorious difficult to describe when you have to start at the two level. Better to open 1♣ and make a one round force with 2♦. You can still force to game.

 

This hand is VERY good. Much better than your high card will indicate. Much better than a 2NT opener. Give partner ♠xxxx ♥Qx ♦Qxxxx ♣xx and 6♣ is an excellent contract.

 

Back to what happened at the table? South got his just desserts in my view. The full deal:

 

 

 

♠ Q108764
♥ A65
♦ 53
♣ Q2

♠ KJ932
♥ QJ10
♦ 82
♣ J94

Bridge deal

♠ 5
♥ 8742
♦ QJ974
♣ 875

 

♠ A
♥ K93
♦ AK106
♣ AK1063
 

 

North transferred into 4♠, down one when declarer’s play matched his bidding.

 

 

 

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