You LHO
Partner RHO
Pass 1D Pass 1S
None vulnerable at matchpoints, what’s your call holding *S*Q *H*K865 *D*K74 *C*Q9643 ?
Aggressive bidders tend to look for excuses to enter the auction. If you’re one of them, your first thought might be that this is a good opportunity to make a light takeout double or “sandwich” 1NT overcall. You’re not vulnerable, you have the right shape and you’re a passed hand, so partner won’t expect much more than 10 points.
We often rely on instinct and experience to make this type of bidding decision. If a call seems easy or obvious, it’s natural to trust our initial reaction, especially early in the auction. For tougher problems, we call on our logic and reasoning skills to analyze the situation and find a solution.
These two stages in the decision-making process are sometimes called System 1 (intuition) and System 2 (reasoning). If you make the first bid that pops into your head, you’ve stopped at System 1. It may well be the best choice, but if it isn’t, you need to move on to System 2 to figure out why and evaluate alternatives. The challenge is making a conscious effort to slow down, be objective and consider all the consequences of your decision.
If your instinct is to bid or double with the hand above, the first question to ask yourself is what you hope to accomplish. You could find a fit and a possible partscore, but since the opponents hold the master suits, they’ll probably find it easy to either outbid or double you. With half your high-card points in their suits, you really don’t want to encourage partner to compete too high.
Light actions can have obstructive value, but here, neither of your choices uses up enough auction space to create much of a problem. Your interference could even help the opponents by allowing opener to use a support double or redouble to show a 3-card spade raise.
When weighing the pros and cons of your choice, consider how it will affect not just the rest of the auction, but also the play of the hand. This is especially important when you expect your attempt to declare will be futile, and it’s the strongest argument against bidding with this hand.
If you advertise your two-suiter and end up on defense, it won’t help partner, even if he’s on opening lead (he surely would have led an unbid suit if you had passed). The only beneficiary will be declarer, who will have valuable clues about who has the spade shortness and the missing club and heart honors.
Think twice, think fast
Like many bidding problems, what appears to be a simple do-you-or-don’t-you decision actually offers a lot to think about. At the table, you need to do this in tempo if possible, without revealing that you have something “biddable”. If you think a long time and pass, you’ve given away almost as much information as if you had bid.
There will seldom be time to analyze every possibility, but you may need only a few seconds to test your System 1 impulse and predict possible outcomes. With experience, you’ll recognize similarities to problems you’ve solved in the past and you’ll be able to zero in on the most critical issues.
When you’re in the sandwich seat between two bidding opponents, the most practical and important question to answer is “Does this call rate to benefit us more than the opponents?” If the answer is no, your System 2 reasoning has given you a fast answer.
In my beginner classes, I often ask students to face their hands and have a conversation about what the trump suit should be and how many tricks they expect to take. They decide what contract they want to declare, then we back up and discuss how to use bids to get there.
We all try to achieve that accuracy in "real" auctions, too, even though it's seldom possible to describe every feature of a hand. The closest you may come to doing that is when you're the opening bidder and hold a two- or three-suited hand. Some auctions will give you the opportunity to bid your two longer suits, then show length in a third suit (it may be a 3-card fragment).
This sequence, called "patterning out", pinpoints the location of 12, or sometimes all 13, of your cards. It helps partner evaluate all possible fits and identify sources of tricks in notrump and suit contracts.
Here are some guidelines to consider when making a pattern bid:
Suit quality matters. In general, pattern rebids don't promise great honor strength in any suit, but since you're forcing the auction higher, you don't want to land in an ultra-weak trump suit. This is especially important if partner hasn't raised any of your suits.
Strength matters. Unless partner has forced you to bid, your bid of a third suit always promises at least moderate extra values. This also applies after invitational bids.
You
Partner
1S 1NT (Forcing NT)
2D 2NT
3C
Your 3C is forcing. It's a pattern bid on the way to game, showing 3+ clubs and warning partner about your heart shortness for 3NT.
Evaluate your singleton. A pattern bid is most helpful when it identifies shortness in an unbid suit. If your singleton is in the suit partner responded, there's rarely any point in bidding out your pattern. Treat it as a notrump hand and let the opponents guess what to lead.
The "best" singleton for suit play is a small card. A stiff honor is often more useful as a notrump stopper than a ruffing value. Suppose you open 1S with ♠AQJ54 ♥K ♦A82 ♣KJ54 and partner responds a forcing 1NT. If you plan to show your full pattern (by bidding clubs, then diamonds), you'll communicate heart shortness, but you may talk partner out of a good 3NT. He'll know he's getting a heart lead, and holding ♥QJxx or ♥Axxx, he'll fear there's only one stopper.
This strategy also presents you with an uncomfortable choice for your first rebid, as you're heavy for 2C and a bit light for a forcing-to-game 3C. You can avoid these problems -- and make the auction easier for partner -- by making the value bid of 2NT, which shows 17-18 balanced.
Choose notrump rebids with hands that lack shortness, even those with iffy stoppers. With a hand such as ♠943 ♥Q3 ♦KJ64 ♣AQJ7, open a minor and rebid 1NT. If you instead open 1D and rebid 2C, you suggest 9 cards in your suits. You also risk falling into this trap:
You
Partner
1D 1S
2C 2H (4th suit-force)
When you now bid 2S to show 3-card support, partner will assume you've "patterned out" with a 3-1-5-4 hand. That may lead him to bid the wrong game, or the right game from the wrong side, or even a slam off the ♥AK .
Avoid "practice" pattern bids. If you
already know what contract you want to be in, get to it quickly, without
revealing extra information about your distribution. If slam is a long shot,
forgo a try that might help the opponents find the killing lead.
© 2014 Karen Walker