2007-10-26 16:33

Hand Evaluation - 2/1 Natural Bidding

PITBULLS:

The strength of a natural bidding system as opposed to a forcing 1♣ system is that the system is natural. This means , in part , that when you bid a suit as a 2/1 you have that suit thereby showing where you live & the length in the suit. You can eventually “pattern out” by bidding naturally thereby giving partner a complete picture of your hand. There are two broad categories of Bridge hand’s , distributional or balanced . If you can remain disciplined & try to show all balanced hands with a NT bid , the partnership will be better off.

A 2/1 bid in a natural bidding system should be a suit of 5 or longer & more often than not, deny a balanced hand. Of course, adhering to this standard 100% , is impossible as there are fix hands that crop up. It is good Bridge bidding to use the forcing NT as a tool to preserve the sanctity of a 2/1 . We do not go overboard with this concept but the top end for a forcing NT should be a bad 13 HCP’s. If you have a balanced hand above this range , you can leap to 3NT or in some cases be forced to bid a 2/1. Why forced ? A 2/1 that is not showing a suit with a flat hand is a distortion & not describing your hand to partner. In other words , bad bidding.

Here is a terrible auction brought about by not preserving the sanctity of a 2/1. ♠Kxx ♥Kxxx ♦Qxx ♣AJx & partner opens 1♠. You want to describe your hand type , suits & HCP to partner . You have a bad 13 HCP ,a 4-3-3-3 hand so why not let partner in on the secret of the nature of your hand ? This is a simple auction as a forcing NT followed by a leap to game in spades describes this type perfectly. If partner bids ♥’s , you can bid game in that suit.

1♠-P-1NT-P

2♣-P-4♠-P

You are too strong for a limit raise so you should have a balanced opener. What could be more simple ? Say you distort your hand by bidding 2♣ . Partner raises to 3♣ & you bid 3♠. Partner bids 4♣ KCB & the auction has made a turn for the worse. Partner can never visualize a 4-3-3-3 with a 3 card ♣ suit. Since Bridge is a partnership game , you do your best to describe your hand to partner. If the opponents asked opener to describe what he thinks this particular 2/1 is all about , he would be wrong 100 times out of a 100. Silly bidding.

Final Utterance Lawrence had this hand ♠AKx ♥Kxx ♦Qxxx ♣xxx & his partner opened 1♥ against Tom & I. This is an obvious forcing 1NT bid so he decided to “show where he does not live” by bidding 2♦. I doubled & his partner bid 3♠ showing a splinter in diamonds. Tom bid 4♠ so now he shows his two suited fit with partner via a double. This brings a pull to the 5 level by his partner & they play 5♥ which goes down one . Truly a silly auction. Back up & bid a forcing NT which gets doubled. Partner bids diamonds & you can leap to 4♥ describing your balanced 12 HCP hand. You have now put partner in the picture of the nature of your hand . What a concept.