You've probably heard the bridge maxim "Never put down an 8-card suit in dummy". And maybe the old joke that asks "What do you call an 8-card suit?" (Answer: "Trumps!").
These quips are often made by a declarer to explain why he overruled partner to play in his own suit. That's an easy decision when you hold an extra-long major and partner is suggesting minors or notrump. You may, however, be hesitant to insist on your suit when it's a minor, especially if you've already found a playable major-suit fit.
At matchpoints, suppose partner opens 1S and you hold ♠Q ♥104 ♦KQJ98654 ♣102. Playing 2-over-1 forcing-to-game, you respond an awkward but necessary Forcing 1NT to limit your strength. Partner rebids 3S and it's up to you to make the critical decisions about strain and level.
4S is the game that will score the most matchpoints if it makes. Your ♠Q is a valuable filler and even your two 10-spots could be helpful, but those rate to be your only assets in a spade contract. Unless partner holds an unlikely ♦Ax, you can't count on diamonds as a source of tricks because your dummy has no entry after trumps are drawn.
When you hold an 8-card suit, your safest assumption is that partner is very short, especially when he's shown a long suit of his own. Starting with the premise that he holds a singleton diamond, construct a typical hand for partner and try to imagine where he'll find ten tricks in 4S. Even if you give him a maximum -- ♠AKJ1086 ♥A85 ♦3 ♣KQ4, for example -- you'll see the problems.
The most obvious is that your diamonds will take one trick at best, and that will happen only if the opponents' diamonds split 2-2 (about a 40 percent chance) and the trick can be established while dummy still has the ♠Q entry. A 3-1 split is more likely (about 50 percent), which will result in no diamond tricks and down two in 4S.
The is the type of deal that demonstrates the wisdom of being a "hand hog" when you hold an 8-card suit. The weaker your hand, the more important it is to make your long suit trumps, so your next bid should be some number of diamonds. It's a bit pessimistic to try to stop in 4D, which could cause problems if partner doesn't think it's passable (many pairs play a new suit here as a control bid that agrees spades). You can send the clearest message -- and go for the biggest reward -- by jumping directly to 5D.
The same principle applies when your suit is six or seven cards and you lack outside tricks. Here's a hand where you need to make an early decision about what the trump suit should be, then violate a basic bidding rule to assure that you can stop low:
Partner opens 1H and you hold ♠Q743 ♥Void ♦J4 ♣QJ109832. In our first bridge lessons, we all learned that responder should never bypass a 4-card major, so 1S is the "obvious" response. If partner raises to 2S, though, you should have the nagging feeling that you aren't in the best contract, whether you're playing pairs or teams.
In spades, your hand can contribute a few ruffing tricks, but your clubs rate to be worthless. A club contract should play at least two or three tricks better, thanks to five sure trump tricks, so your goal is a club partscore. You can't get there if you respond 1S because most of partner's possible rebids will give you an unsolvable problem. Any club rebid by you will be forcing and won't even promise a real suit.
Playing a 2-over-1
system, your best strategy is to ignore the spades and start with a forcing 1NT.
Over partner's rebid (2D or 2H are likely), you can bid 3C to show a hand that
has no interest in any other contract. If you've missed a spade fit, partner
will forgive you when he sees you score +110 instead of the minus 200 being
suffered by the spade declarers at other tables.
© 2015 Karen Walker