Thursday, April 28, 2005 2:12 AM

Diamond Openers

PITBULLS:

Standard bidding has many “holes” and inconsistencies that you either have to live with or fix somehow. Relays are an excellent tool to patch bidding holes. Take the humble diamond opener for instance. 1♦ followed by a response and jump to 3♦ is invitational and non forcing showing 16-18 points including distribution. This means that a good 14 HCP with a nice suit and a stiff qualifies for a 3♦ rebid. What about all the other single suited diamond openers that have more points than an invitational 3♦ bid ? How do you bid those hands ? Answer there is no way . Experts have tried a variety of band aid solutions. The one that I have used is a light 2♣ opener with diamonds and then back pedaling . Another solution is a phony reverse and then bidding diamonds . Not pretty either. Again relays to the rescue to solve a bidding problem . After a diamond opener play a 3♣ strong jump shift as a relay to 3♦ ! This allows a number of nice things to happen . If you now bid 3NT is means you have a legitimate club jump jump shift and the strong hand is probably right siding the NT. If you have more distribution 4♣ shows a distributional strong jump shift with diamonds and clubs.

Now the best part. If after the relay , partner bids the other major or a major if the first response was 1NT, the bid shows a 3♦ bid too strong for an invitational hand. You hold AJx x AKJ10xxx Ax or many hands like it. You open a diamond and partner responds a heart. A 3♦ bid is ludicrous with this hand so you bid 3♣ which forces partner to bid 3♦. You now bid 3♠ which shows this class of diamond hands ! Note you do not bypass 3NT !

Another stupidity in standard bidding is the leap to 4 of a major after a diamond opener and partner responding a major. You hold AKxx Ax AKxxx xx or AKxx Ax AJxx Kx and open 1♦ . Partner bids a spade so Goren says bid 4♠ with both these hands. This is silly and is what drives people to artificial club systems. Bidding 4♠ just kills slam exploration and drives slam tries to the 5 level. It is much better to have a jump to game as distributional & almost pre-emptive. A hand like AKxx xx Axxxxx x qualifies for a 4 spade bid in my opinion. The fix is to rebid 2NT with these hands and somehow tell partner later in the auction that you were just kidding and have 4 trump or the relay to the rescue again ! With these hands make a strong jump shift to 3♣ . This forces a 3♦ relay by partner and now you have a convenient bid of partners major to show these type of hands. Problem solved at the 3 level. When you force partner to relay you can define a series of new bids without partner getting in the way. The relay is a “waiting bid” in these auctions.

With a club opener you need to lie somehow when you have a balanced 18-19 HCP and 4 card fit for partner. Tom & I prefer the 2NT lie as opposed to a phony reverse lie. At least you have described your balanced hand and HCP range. 3NT might be a better contract anyway. The effectiveness of the 3♣ strong jump shift always demanding a relay spurs me to open 1♦ when I am equal length with clubs and a strong hand. AKxx xxx AJx AKx I open a diamond so if partner responds a spade I can bid 3♣ . When she relays to 3♦ , I bid 3♠ which shows the Goren 4♠ rebid. After a major opener , a 3♣ strong jump shift demanding a relay to 3♦ solves a multitude of problems . These have been covered in previous articles. This treatment is now consistent with all 3♣ strong jump shifts ( easy on the memory )

Relays . Do not leave home without them !!