What’s your opening bid in first seat,
vulnerable vs. not at matchpoints, holding
♠Void
♥AKQJ432
♦AKQJ93
♣Void
?
If you were playing in a home game, you might suspect that your opponent had set this up -- and perhaps dealt himself the other six hearts. It was a duplicate hand, however, from the Tuesday, November 10 evening session of the Common Game, a contest where clubs nationwide play the same deals.
You might also judge this to be a simple bidding decision. Barring wild breaks in the red suits, you have a grand slam made in your hand, so open 7H and probably claim at trick one. Is there anything else to think about?
A typical bridge deal begins with routine tasks -- sorting your hand, counting points, checking the board for dealer and vulnerability. Even your first call may not require much thought. Your brain goes into higher gear as the auction progresses and tells you more about your combined strength, possible fits and the opponents’ hands.
If your only concern is bidding to the optimum contract, you can concentrate on just the information that’s available at your table. At matchpoints, though, your real objective is to get a better score than other pairs holding your cards, and that score won’t always depend on how accurately you bid.
This important aspect of pairs play is often overlooked when making bidding decisions, especially those that seem obvious. Before you open an “automatic” 7H with the hand above, stop to consider the likely auctions and results at other tables. You expect every pair will find their way to 7H, but some may be doubled. You might also guess that your opponents have distributional hands. If they have a good sacrifice in 7S, some pairs will probably find it.
With freak hands, your main goal is to declare. At this vulnerability, you’d have to set 7S doubled at least nine tricks (2300) to beat your grand-slam score, so you should be thinking about how to dissuade your opponents from bidding.
One approach is to start low with a 1H opener and let the opponents get all the club and spade bids out of their system. This could backfire if they wouldn’t have overcalled at the 7-level, but it may generate a top on other layouts. The ideal scenario is a long auction where they allow you to play 7H because they pushed you into it -- or they double because they think you’re sacrificing.
Another strategy is to open 2C and manufacture an auction where you use Blackwood. This gives the opponents room to overcall, but your “psychic” 4NT rates to talk them out of sacrificing. An opponent who holds a black ace or two may assume you’ve had a Blackwood accident and double 7H.
A similar gambit is opening 4NT to ask for aces. This has the added advantage of getting to 7NT if partner surprises you by showing two aces.
The straightforward 7H could work if the players at your table are timid bidders. In an expert field, though, it’s the opening that’s most likely to stampede your opponents into 7S. If you open 6H, they might allow for the possibility that you have a super-preempt or a stretch. A 7-level opening, though, doesn’t sound like a gamble. They’ll believe you.
On the actual deal, your LHO’s hand was ♠AKJ876 ♥5 ♦74 ♣8742 . Those who bid 7S went down 1100 and took most of the matchpoints. About a quarter of the 120 players who held the 7-6 hand played in a pessimistic 6H, but held on to some matchpoints because their opponents didn’t sacrifice.
There’s a lot of guesswork involved in
predicting how other players will bid your cards, but it’s worth your attention.
The next time you’re faced with a tough bidding decision -- or even a very easy
one -- you may find the solution by shifting your focus to the possible auctions
and outcomes at other tables.
© 2016 Karen Walker