Intended audience: Intermediate and up

N-S vul at Board-a-Match teams, as south you hold: ♠J9432 ♥AKQ2 ♦93 ♣96

What do you bid?

Many Winnipegger’s had a chance to attend the recent Phoenix NABC’s. Board-a-match events are the highlight for many stronger pairs. In this form of scoring you only have to beat the score of one opponent. You get 1 pt. for a win, ½ for a tie, and and 0 for a loss. The strategy is more matchpoints than teams, where even if you get a really bad score you only lose 1 point.

The above problem is easily adaptable to matchpoints. The automatic bid is 1♠, as made at this table and most other tables. I admit I might do the same. But the correct bid in my view is 1NT!

In any auction, but more so in competitive ones, you want to describe your hand so partner knows what to do. 1NT says you have 8-12 HCPs and at least one stopper in their suit(usually it is 8-10 opposite an opening bid, but partner has overcalled at the one level, which can be made on less values). This is what you have. Bidding 1♠shows less values, but partner will expect your values to be good on offence. The other issue is partner will never get your hand right.

The real problem with 1♠is revealed when the bidding continues:

The full deal:

We went down in 3♠ where hearts is down 2 or 3 for +200 or +300, instead of -50.

There were a couple of questionable bids in this auction, besides the highlighted one. West had his 2♥bid, but should pass 2♠. West showed a good hand for hearts, but East his partner chose to pass 2♠anyways. Also north erred and should pass 3♥. Partner heard him raise spades. The singleton heart (along with the good defensive values in clubs) should alert him to something similar to the actual holdings.

Lessons to Learn

1. Always beware of different strategies for different forms of scoring.

1. Choose the bid that best describes your hand.

1. Choose the bid that best copes with thelikely future auction.

1. Chose a bid that will help partner make the right decision(s) later in the auction.

1. In a competitive auction partner’s pass is like a yellow, or flashing red lights at intersections, – PROCEED WITH CAUTION!

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