Saturday, February 26, 2005 2:19 AM

Bridge Assumptions

PITBULLS:

A philosopher once said if you assume something it makes an ass out of u & me . Never assume that the opponents are perfectly rational or assume that your partner is on the same wavelength as you are. If you have a choice of assumptions do not take the more complex case which would probably need detailed partnership discussion before agreed upon. I personally do not like splinters either in competition or after minors but if partner insists , I will play them but after discussion first. . Garozzo says the game of Bridge is a game of suits not a game of singletons. Suits are far more important in the Bridge scheme of things than singletons to announce in my opinion anyway.

You hold Kxxx AQJx Axx Ax and open 1♦ not vul against vul opponents. Your LHO overcalls 1♥ and partner bids 3♣ and RHO vul bids 3♥ what is going on ? Undiscussed , a 3♣ jump should be a pre-emptive bid with a long suit. If it were a splinter , it is a slam try and needs an opening bid or better and you have 18 HCP’s and the opponents are bidding vul to the 3 level . Anyway partner alerts the opponents that I have a splinter with a stiff club. You do not care what the bid means though because they are vul so you double. Partner pulls to 4♣ . Now what ? A rule for leaving in penalty doubles is if you have exactly what you announced , partner is in charge and you leave in the double. So if I had my bid say KQJxxxx and partner doubles 3♥ , I would leave the double in. If I had ½ of a defensive trick say KJ109xxx of clubs I would leave the double in. Pulling the double means I do not have what you think I have . I held Jxx x xx Q10987xx and not vul against vul I thought a tactical bid was in order. Anyway after I pulled the double , partner bid 4NT to play . I can not hold the club suit needed to make 4NT and have pulled the double. Pulling a double is a bid that conveys information that I do not have any defense or in rare cases do not even have my bid. I knew 4NT was a no hoper so I bid 5♣ and we got doubled for –300 and a zero.

Two hands later I held xxxx A1098xxx x x and partner opened 1♦ and the vul opponents passed. I decided that since we just had a bidding misunderstanding involving assuming splinters I could bid 3♥. A splinter over the minors needs to be discussed and a long heart suit would be a default understanding. Anyway partner alerts that it is a splinter and bids 4♣. I retreat to 4♥ . What is the chance that I am re-splintering showing a void or stiff Ace ? Is there not a chance that I have just hearts ? Why assume the most complex understanding possible that I am splintering again ? Anyway partner bids 5♦ and we are not doubled yet so I pass. The opponents can beat 5♦ two tricks but for some unknown reason they lead a trump. Partner has good trump and the Kx of hearts so she makes 7 and +440 . The normal result was 4♥ making 7 for 510 so we did not get many matchpoints for our good fortune.

The opponents are vul and you are not. You are in 1^st seat so you hold x QJ1098 J1098xx x and open 2♥. LHO vul overcalls 3♣ and you decide to stir things up with a 3♥ bid. The opponents now double and your RHO bids 4♠ without alerting the double. You pass and LHO bids 6♣ vul . You partner now backs in 6♦ which gets doubled. You hold Jxxxx AK xxxx xx so you assume the opponents have made an unalerted responsive double. Therefore you assume they have a diamond stack so you pull back to 6♥. This gets doubled by the person who made a heart penalty double at the 3 level and partner goes for -1700 as he loses control of the hand and gets no diamond tricks. 6♦ X goes 3 down for –500 against -1370 their way for a top.

If not discussed , take the bid at face value. My partner held AQxxx xx QJ Axxx and the vul opponents opened 1♥ and you overcall 1♠ and partner bids 1NT. The heart bidder backs in 2♦ which gets passed to partner who doubles. Undiscussed and unless something different has been agreed upon this is a penalty double. You have exactly what partner expects for your overcall and actually more so as you have Aces and the QJ of diamonds as a bonus. You pass and collect your +500 as RHO is 6-5 in the reds as expected. With so many red cards announced in this auction you know the board is going to contain almost all black cards , so bidding a black suit would just be jumping into the frying pan. Pulling a double is a descriptive bid in its own sense. If you pulled the double to 3♣ it would show probably AQxxx x x KQJ109x or the like. Do not make Bridge more complicated than it actually is by assuming complex understandings that have not been discussed. Imaginary demons complicate the proceedings. Default understandings should be the most mundane standard bids possible.