If you’ve ever felt mentally exhausted after a bridge game, it was probably a session where you had to make more than the usual number of difficult decisions. We play bridge because we enjoy solving these problems, but the process can be tiring. Even a relatively easy set of deals requires us to pay attention to hundreds of details, and just a few extra problems can tax our powers of concentration.
Good partners try to help each other conserve mental energy. One way to do that is to analyze the auction from partner’s point of view. If you anticipate problems and want to lighten his mental workload, here are bidding strategies to consider:
When in doubt, limit your hand.
The earlier you can make a natural, limited bid, the simpler your auction will be. The easiest bids for partner to handle are notrump bids, raises of his suit and rebids of your own long suit. The most difficult are new-suit bids.
Suppose you open 1D, partner responds 1S and you hold ♠3 ♥AQ ♦AKJ1097 ♣Q753. The ambitious but risky rebid is 2C, which works if partner bids again and you can then show strong diamonds and extra values. Simpler and more straightforward is a jump to 3D, which gives partner an immediate picture of your hand’s main feature and overall strength.
Ask simple questions.
Raises, suit rebids and notrump bids are “telling” bids that describe your values and involve partner in choosing the final contract. The alternatives are asking bids, which extract specific information from partner, usually so you can make the decision. Stayman, Blackwood and Western cuebids are examples of asking bids that allow partner to give you a simple answer and sit back while you decide what to do with it.
Your choice between an asking and a telling strategy may depend on your assessment of who can make best use of knowledge about the other’s hand. The more you have to show – and the less you expect partner to hold – the better it will be to go with an asking bid, especially at higher levels.
Partner opens 1H and your right-hand-opponent overcalls 2NT, showing the minors. What’s your call holding ♠AQ8 ♥Q10942 ♦3 ♣AK54 ?
The telling bid is 4D, a splinter showing heart support, diamond shortness and slam interest. That’s a good description of your values, but it forces partner to decide how to describe a hand that probably has very little to show.
You can make the auction much easier for partner – and yourself -- if you take control and bid an immediate 4NT. Besides saving a round of bidding, a keycard ask may help you find a grand slam. 4NT could also be a now-or-never bid. If you make the 4D splinter raise and partner decides to cooperate with a control bid of 5D, you won’t be able to ask about trump honors.
Suggest a strain for the final contract rather than trying to describe specific features of your hand.
Space-saving bidding systems and conventions offer many opportunities to give partner extra information about your hand. This can be valuable on many deals, but it can also complicate the auction unnecessarily.
You open 1D and partner responds 1S. What’s your call holding ♠J3 ♥KQJ6 ♦AKJ104 ♣K8 ?
Jump to 2NT. A 2H reverse rebid describes your strength and suit length, but it muddles the more valuable message that you have a good hand for a notrump game. 2NT also gives partner clearer options. It will be easier for him to find a rebid if he knows you have a balanced hand of exactly 18-19 points instead of an unbalanced hand of roughly 16-20 points. If you have a heart fit, he’ll help you find it.
In the next issue: More
brain-saving bidding strategies
© 2016 Karen Walker