Questions #21 to #30 (from Facebook Page A Teacher First ) These answers are aimed at beginners to keep the bidding relatively uncomplicated. #21 - Your partner opens "1NT." This is your hand. What would you bid? #21 Answer - You have 12 HCPs, plus 2 for length. You know your partner has between 15-17 HCPs. With a good fit in trump, you should be able to make game in a minor (requires 29 pts). But if Partner has only 15 pts and a doubleton in the trump minor, it may be difficult. To open 1NT, your partner is allowed to have 1 doubleton and it could be very likely that his doubleton is in the clubs or the diamonds. Your void in hearts is valuable when you are in a trump suit, but could be dangerous in NT. You will usually get a better score in a NT contract rather than in a minor. So, as a beginner player, bid 3 which is telling your partner that you have 10+ HCPs and 5 clubs. If your partner has stoppers in the other 3 suits, he should bid 3NT. There is no easy way to tell your partner that you also have good diamonds unless you use more complicated bidding rules. Your partner could pass the 3 bid. You could bid 3 instead, but again, your partner could pass that bid if he does not have a stopper in all the other suits. Sometimes, it is luck that will make the difference in what you bid and whether you make the contract or not. #22 - You are South. Right-hand opponent (East) opens 2. You pass. West passes. Your partner (North) doubles. East passes. What will you bid now? (You may notice that this hand is the same as #21, but the bidding is quite different.) #22 Answer - You have 12 HCPs plus 2 for length. You have two good minor suits, but in order to overcall, you have to do so at the 3 level. You could double, but you are lying to your partner because you do not have support for the 3 unbid suits (no hearts). Most partnership agreements would consider that a double of a major is promising at least 4 cards in the other major. You should pass. West passes. This is often the case when the partner opens with a "weak 2" bid. West could have opening points, but unless West has 16+ pts and/or support for spades, he is unlikely to bid higher in response to a weak Questions #21 - #30 From Facebook Page A Teacher First - Pg 1 -
opening. Your partner doubles. That means that she has opening points, is weak in the opponent's suit (spades) and has support for all 3 unbid suits. You could be in game, but you know your partner is weak in spades and you have no stoppers in spades, so a NT contract is not likely to be good for you. Do you bid your clubs or your diamonds? You cannot count dummy pts because your hand will not be the Dummy. I would bid 4 to show your strong hand. If P likes diamonds better, she might bid 4 knowing you have points to bid at the 4 level. Partner could also pass. There is a good chance that you could make 5 or 5 because of your void, but Partner may feel it is too risky to bid game in a minor. If you take 11 tricks, you will have to be content with the score, though you would get bonus points for bidding and making game level. #23 - You are South. Your partner (North) is the dealer and opens 1. What will you bid? #23 Answer - You have 10 HCPs and 1 for length. Your first consideration is to bid a 4- card major at the one level, but you do not have a 4-card major. This is what you know from your partner's opening bid: he could have as few as 3 diamonds, though he likely has 4 diamonds minimum; he does not have a 5-card major; he has opening points or more. Because you have 10 HCPs, you can change the suit and bid it at the 2 level, so you could bid 2 but is that the smartest bid to make? You know for sure that you do not have a fit in a major suit because it is extremely unlikely that your partner has 5+ cards in a major, unless he has a very skewed hand and has decided to bid Diamonds first, before bidding a major. You have the Kx. (Note that x represents a "spot" card, any card ranking below a Jack.) So your hand is a good one to first bid NT. If your partner passes leaving you in 1NT, your left-hand opponent will be on lead and you will hope he leads a spade, which makes your King a stopper. You have a good chance of taking 7 tricks and you may get a better score than you would in Clubs or Diamonds. If your partner bids again, you will have more decisions to make, based on his re-bid. #24 - You are South. Your partner opens the bidding with 1NT. What do you respond with this hand? What is your next bid after that? Questions #21 - #30 From Facebook Page A Teacher First - Pg 2 -
#24 Answer - You have 5 HCPs (and 2 for length). With 0-7 pts, in response to a 1NT opening by partner, you should pass unless you have a 5+ card major, which you do. Therefore, you should use Jacoby to transfer your partner into hearts. You know he has at least 2 hearts so you will have a fit in hearts, guaranteed. Your bid is 2, meaning "transfer to hearts." Your partner immediately says, "Transfer." Let's assume that your left-hand opponent passes. (If LHO bids, that would complicate things.) Your partner bids 2. Now you know your hand will be dummy so can count Dummy pts. You have 2 or 3 pts for the singleton and 1 for the doubleton. You cannot count length now, since you've switched to counting Dummy pts instead. With the 5 HCPs, plus 3-4 Dummy pts, that puts you into the 8-9 pt range which should be inviting your partner to Game (4 in this case). Your next bid should be 3, inviting P to game. Partner will pass with 15 HCPs and just 2 hearts. If P has any extra values (e.g. 3-4 hearts to support your minimum of 5 or 16-17 HCPs), partner should raise to 4. #25 - You are South and you are the dealer; This is your hand. What is your opening bid? Partner responds 1. What will you rebid? (You should not pass.) Partner rebids, 2. What do you bid now? #25 Answer - You have 16 HCPs, plus 1 for length. I am always a little leery of a singleton Queen. If the opponents have the Ace, the Queen may be almost worthless and you should consider that. However, you still count it as 2 HCPs and base your opening bid on that. There is a danger of over-thinking too much! Your opening bid should be 1. You cannot open 1NT because you have a singleton. You cannot open with a major because you do not have a 5-card major. You must open in a minor and, since diamonds are longer than clubs, you will open 1. Partner responds 1. You now know that P has 6+ pts and a minimum of 4 spades. He has more spades than hearts. A change of suit by P in the first round is forcing. You must bid again, which you would do anyway. If you rebid 2, P could pass, but you may have to take a chance of that. You could bid 2NT, showing that you do not have 4 spades to support and not enough hearts to bid them, but usually a 2NT rebid by opener promises a few more points. Let's say that you decide to bid 2. Your P rebids 2. Now you know that P has 5 spades and you have a fit in spades. Do you invite P to game by bidding 3 or jump to 4? You can count dummy points for a singleton as an extra 2-3 pts. That brings you to the 18-19 range. There is no perfect answer here. If you bid 3, P could pass and you might make game because of the singleton. If you bid 4, you might take just 9 tricks and go down 1. I would gamble and bid 4. Sometimes you just have to go with your instincts and hope for the best. Questions #21 - #30 From Facebook Page A Teacher First - Pg 3 -
#26 - You may notice that this hand is the same as #25; however, the bidding is different. In this case, your RHO (right-hand opponent) opens 1. What is your bid? #26 Answer - You have 16 HCPs and 1 for length. One possible bid is "Double." That bid tells your partner you have opening points, weakness in opponent's suit (you have just 1 heart) and support for the other 3 suits. However, it is generally recommended that a "double" of an opponent's major suit means that the Doubler has 4 cards in the other major. This is not the case with this hand. So, if you prefer to follow the rules more closely, you should overcall 2. Some players will "double" anyway and bend the rules slightly, maybe even taking the chance of ending up in a spade contract with only 7 trump. If you double, Partner may advance the bidding with 1 if he has 4 of them, in which case, it would be best to bid 2 next bid. However, it is possible that your LHO (left-hand opponent) will bid something after your double. Then your partner could pass or bid 2 over LHO s bid, thinking you have 4 of them. #27 This is your hand. Your left-hand opponent (LHO) is the dealer. LHO bids 1. Your Partner doubles. RHO bids 2. What is your bid? #27 Answer - You have 9 HCPs + 2 for length. Usually, a "double" over a major suit means that the Doubler has shortness in opponent's suit (Hearts), 4 of the other major suit (Spades) and opening points. Looking at your hand, you can depend on a 9-card fit in Spades (or at least an 8-card fit if Partner is bending the rules slightly). So your suit will be Spades. LHO must have 5 hearts and RHO must have 3 hearts to support. You have 4 hearts. That means that your partner has, at most, 1 heart, maybe none. This means you will have a good opportunity for cross-ruffing. You cannot count Dummy points because you will not be the Dummy. However, your shortness in clubs and diamonds, together with the 8+ trump and your partner's shortness in hearts gives your hand extra strength. Your bid -- jump to 4. Hopefully, that will cut off opponents' bidding. You should be able to take 10 tricks, maybe more, based on the bidding. Questions #21 - #30 From Facebook Page A Teacher First - Pg 4 -
#28 - Your partner opened the bidding with "1NT." This is your hand. What do you bid and what is your re-bid? #28 Answer - You have 12 HCPs and a 5-card major. You are now the "Captain of the Ship" and you must steer it correctly. First, you will use Jacoby to transfer your partner into hearts. Your bid is 2. Partner will immediately say "Transfer," then wait for your LHO to pass (hopefully, he will pass). Your partner will obediently do as you say and bid 2. She could bid 3 to "super-accept" your transfer, but would do so only in the rare instances when she would have 17 HCPs and 4 hearts. She must not depend on more than zero points from you until you bid again, so has to be careful to transfer at the lowest level. Since you are the one who knows this contract should be in "Game," you must now show game points. Your partner has described her hand very well. You know your partner could have a doubleton in hearts and a NT contract could be "iffy with your King singleton. However, 3NT may a better contract than 4 in spite of your singleton King. Your partner will be in the best position to decide once you have shown that your hand has 10+ pts. So your rebid is 3NT. Partner can choose to pass and leave the contract in NT if she has stoppers in the other 3 suits, or she can bid 4 if she has 3 or 4 hearts. The final contract is your partner's decision, but you have done your job by steering her in the right direction and conveying the information that she needs to know. #29 - You are the dealer. This is your hand. What is your bid? #29 Answer - You have 11 HCPs, plus 1 for length, so 12 points. Most would consider that sufficient to open. Some may not, because of the poor hearts. For this hand, the "Rule of 20" also applies. To use that rule, you add the total HCPs (11) to the number of cards in your two longest suits; you have 5 hearts and 4 clubs. So 11+5+4 = 20. You can open with this hand even though your hearts are not strong. And don't forget the basic rule: "Bid on length, not strength." Consider first whether to open. Once you decide to open, then you look at the length of the suits. You have a 5-card major, so your opening bid is 1. I sure hope you weren't thinking of opening 1! It's a nice suit, but sends the wrong message to your partner. If you opened 1, your partner will understand that you Questions #21 - #30 From Facebook Page A Teacher First - Pg 5 -
do not have a 5-card major. If your partner has 3 hearts, you will score higher if you can find that 8-card fit in a major. A contract is preferable to a contract, even with poor hearts. Your partner could have high cards in hearts. If you do end up in a contract with P having 3-heart support but high cards in the other suits not hearts, you must plan out how to play the hand and decide whether it is more advantageous to pull trump forcing out the high trump or to cross-ruff. #30 - You are the dealer. This is your hand. What is your bid? #30 Answer - You have 11 HCPs, plus 1 for length, so 12 points. I posted this hand to reinforce the bidding from #29. Here again, the "Rule of 20" applies. To use that rule, you add the total HCPs (11) to the number of cards in your two longest suits; you have 4 hearts and 5 spades. So 11+4+5=20. Now that you know you will open, which suit? Beginners may be tempted to open 1 since the hearts have more HCPs than the spades. However, you open on "length, not strength." Your opening bid should be 1 to show your 5-card major. Questions #21 - #30 From Facebook Page A Teacher First - Pg 6 -
Questions #21 - #30 From Facebook Page A Teacher First - Pg 7 -