Monday, July 22, 2002 11:21 PM
Defense against Tactical Bids
PITBULLS:
I have mentioned the Jacob/Mcormand tactical bids seemingly to work against the Edmonton expert teams . I refuse to believe that they were "just lucky" . I think we have not discussed defense against these tactical bids as much as we should as we are not used to good opponents putting that degree of pressure against us .
In the regional , I kibitzed Doug Deshner playing with Pitbull Susan . In one hand the opponents got plus 450 against them . So what , that is not such an abnormal result . It is , if you are Doug and you just played 6NT voluntarily bid going down 9 !
Well how did they get this highly unusual result ? Well the opponents made a tactical bid of 5 diamonds and the partnership was on different wavelengths on the auction. Pitbull Susan held QJ10x AJxx void Q109xx and opened 1♣ . Doug responded a heart and LHO leaped to 5♦ . What would you bid with Susan's hand ? Susan bid 5♥ and Doug had a flat 16 HCP with Kx of diamonds . He bid 6NT and with the heart King offside the defense took 1 heart and 9 diamonds for -450 ?
I discussed this hand with Subash , Klimo and a number of experts including Doug himself . What do the basic bids mean against a tactical bid such as 5 diamonds in these auctions ? This is not a forcing pass auction per se but all the experts agreed that some of the principles still applied . This is because the one heart responder has an unlimited hand and will be under a great deal of pressure on the auction. Therefore declarer should double with any hand that is unsuitable for hearts . This may result is some minus 550's once in a while if responder has only a minimum but they will accept that as "coming with the territory" . A pass is a 5♥ bid or encouraging a 5♥ bid . A direct 5♥ bid shows extras. Why , well if the opponents did not bid 5♦ were you going to leap to 4 or 5 H with your minimum ? You were going to just bid 2♥ were you not ? The pass at the 5 level should convey the same message and a 5 heart bid can now show the extra that Doug Deshner expected .
In previous E-mails we have discussed forcing passes against tactical weak NT's , 4NT not being Blackwood against a tactical 4♥/♠ by the opponents and Lebonsohl against their tactical 4H/S bids. I gave over 50 ways that the opponents can put pressure on you . This means in time , we should discuss over 50 ways to minimize the effect of these bids or else we will always be pushed around by the Jacob/McOrmands or similar swingy pairs . What to do in competition , forcing passes etc is what distinguishes a top partnership vrs an average partnership . Understandings against the opponents tactics will pay dividends .
By the way , as you have noticed I have started up these e-mails again as I find writing them fun and you might find them worthy of some discussion value . If any of you do not want to receive these e-mails then let me know . Also , there is nothing preventing you people from writing similar e-mails . They are to stimulate discussion and maybe we will all benefit from the comments ...