Wednesday, June 08, 2005 4:06 PM

6-4's & 5-5's

PITBULLS:

There are two patterns in Bridge to which you should pay special attention 6-4’s & 5-5’s. Contortions have been made in HCP systems to give them the respect that they deserve. The rule of 20, ZAR points have tried to properly evaluate these powerful playing hands. With controls , these hands should be opened with as little as 10 HCP . AJ10xxx AJxx xx x or AJxxx xx AJ10xx x are both opening bids. Their playing strength is just too great not to fire the first shot in the bidding. These distributions without the controls are not openers though and will only cause headaches for partner.

OK you do open these hands and partner bids a forcing 1NT. Now what ? A demented match point player advises that with weak 6-4’s you just rebid your 6 card suit and with intermediate 6-4’s you can show your 4 card suit . Wrong , wrong & wrong ! A 1NT response says I do not have a fit for you so pick another suit. So bid your second suit ! A 6-4 is not a single suited hand, it has 2 suits ! You open 1♥ on x AJxxxx xx AJ10x and partner bids 1NT . If you bid 2♥ partner is going to pass with xxx x Axx Kxxxxx . You play 2♥ going down and +1370 in clubs has a good chance. Especially if you are 6-4 in spades and hearts do not even think of bypassing your 4 card heart suit. I have seen spade partials go down when +620 in hearts is against the wall !

Tom Gandolfo in the Calgary Calcutta had ♠Qx ♥AKJxxx ♦x ♣QJ10x and opened 1♥ and Peter Jones responded 1♠ . Tom bid 2♣ and Jones has a hand that evaluated to 18 HCP’s for clubs. They bid 6♣ which was cold and won 12 IMPS. The rest of the field treated their two suited hand as a one suited hand. An aspiring player held this hand ♠KQJ987 ♥x ♦Jx ♣KQ109 and she opened 1♠ & partner bids 1NT . She bid 2♠ which made the bidding difficult for partner. You would be surprised how many times a rebid of 2 of a major sends a forcing NT into contortions. Partner would have passed 2♠ with ♠x ♥xxxx ♦Ax ♣Axxxxx or similar hands where you want to be in 5♣ or even high but in clubs.

OK you agree to open these light 5-5’s and 6-4’s you need a way of handling them after a 1NT response. There is such a wide range with these openers up to a strong jump shift range that standard bidding can not handle them properly. You need a bidding fix to describe the variability of the range. Relays to the rescue. Do not let the word relay scare you. It is the old familiar Lebensohl concept with a different name. Relays follow Lebensohl principles. Natural is strong and if you relay by bidding clubs , it shows the weaker range hands. Very simple. The strength of relays comes from not using them. Bidding naturally as strong pays big dividends.

Lets try a few auctions. Relays always show up when an invitational 2NT bid rears its head. You open 1♠ with AJxxx AQxxx xx x and partner bids a forcing 1NT. You rebid 2♥ and partner bids 2NT. You want to escape to a 3♥ partial with partner leaving you alone. So a relay to the rescue. You bid 3♣ which forces partner to bid 3♦ and then you bid 3♥. Partner has been trained to be wary of these auctions and puts the green card on the table. OK you have a nice 5-5 AKxxx xx AKxxx x . 1♠-P-1NT-P 2♦-P-2NT-P 3♦ This bid is absolutely forcing to game somewhere as you bid naturally and did not relay. Very simple !

6-4’s follow the same simple relay principle. AKxxxx xx K109x x You open 1♠ and partner bids 1NT. You bid 2♦ and partner bids 2NT. You want to tell partner to get lost so you relay to 3♣. Partner dutifully bids 3♦ and you bid 3♠ which ends the auction. Bidding naturally with a 6-4 is game forcing after 2NT. OK things have been going too smoothly. There is one rough spot. Since clubs are the relay suit , a complication arises when you have clubs as you 2^nd suit. Do not despair there is a work around with diamonds as a relay to hearts. x AJ10xxx xx AJ10x You open 1♥ and partner bids 1NT with a rebid of 2♣ . Partner bids 2NT so you bid 3♦ as a relay. Partner is forced to relay to 3♥ so you drop the auction. With a weak 5-5 with clubs you must have the understanding that in this one special instance bidding naturally is not strong. xx AKxxx x K109xx 1♥-P-1NT-P 2♣-P-2NT-P 3♣ all pass.

Tom , BJ and I use relays after every invitational 2NT bid in our system. It fixes holes in standard bidding and allows alternative meanings to bids. If the word relay scares you , just try the above as training wheels. With practice you will incorporate relays in all sorts of places in your system. They are well worth the effort . Experts have relays peppered throughout their system.