E-W vul, at IMPs, you hold as south: ♠Q542 ♥AK107 ♦4 ♣J1076

W      N       E       S

-        -        -        1♣

1♦      3♣¹    Dbl²   ?

¹ 5+ clubs, 5-9 HCPs

² Responsive, usually 8+ HCPs and support for unbid suits.

What do you bid?

One of the interesting aspects of high-level team matches, experts versus experts, is that sometimes bidding is meant as constructive, sometimes meant as non-constructive and sometimes as a two-way shot. Non-constructive bidding is primarily aimed at talking the opponents out of what you think they can make. This is sometimes a part-score, often a game and occasionally a slam. As here, ‘talking the opponents out of something’ is easier to achieve when the vulnerability is favourable.

In a round-robin match at the recent CNTCs I opened 1♣ in 1^st seat. Bidding is much harder when the other side opens. I was hoping to buy the hand in a 4-4 major suit fit, keeping them out of the auction. The actual bidding was both good news and bad news. On the plus side they may have a game, as I know they have 21-25 HCPs. If partner has something like ♠xx ♥xxx ♦xxx ♣KQxxx the opponents are likely to make 3NT or possibly 5♦. On the minus side, whatever contract they are in partner will be on lead.

I found a creative solution to both of these potential pitfalls, I bid 3♥!! This bid is ostensibly a good opener trying for game. From the opponents perspective, my having 16+ points is plausible as neither one has a well-defined idea as to their partner’s assets. I think that I can get out in 4♣, or maybe 5♣ not doubled. And in case they declare, I have almost guaranteed a heart lead.

It goes pass and partner bids 3♠! Whoops, I guess I caught him with a maximum. Oh well. Looks like my plan has back-fired. I hopefully bid 4♣, but partner promptly puts me in game. It goes all pass. I get the 3♥ lead. The full deal:

Partner sure had his bids. I look at the lead again and realize it looks like a singleton! If so I can pick up four heart tricks, pitching a spade from dummy, making my contract if clubs are 2-2. Alas, West won the first round of clubs and underlead his diamond to get his ruff. We were -50. We won 2 IMPs as our teammates stopped in 2♦ making!

Although we didn’t get a big gain, we didn’t lose anything. Had East’s spades had actually been ♠AK7 instead of ♠K107 he would have had a difficult bidding decision over 4♣. Two of the three choices would result in minus scores (pass and 5♦). Either way it would be a sizeable gain for us, as with South passing initially, the opponents would have ended up to 3NT unencumbered, with 9 top tricks for the taking.

Lessons to Learn

1)    If you are vul, vs not vul opponents, pay attention to their bidding! They may try to ‘steal’ from you by bidding on less than normal values, or preempting with less length and/or poorer suit quality that normally expected!

2)    Remember that when you are ‘stepping out’ (not ‘with my baby’) partner will be fooled as well. Make sure, as here, that you can handle him being fooled.

3)    Stepping out too frequently is a bad strategy. First the opponents make start to get wise. But much worse, it may destroy partner’s confidence in your calls.

4)    Regardless of the vulnerability, always try to show your values, the earlier in the auction the better.

5)    Trust partner, not the opponents!

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