Saturday, January 20, 2007 4:48 AM
Hand Evaluation – Suits ( 2nd
Fits )
PITBULLS:
One
of the advantages of describing all balanced hands with a NT bid , is your opening bid
must be a natural suit.
The 5 card major system forces us to open 3 card minor suits with balanced
hands. This restriction gets in the way of natural bidding. However
, if you always rebid NT with these hands ( except for a simple raise of
partner’s major at the two level) , all
is well. In other words
, your minor opening must
be 5 long if your rebid is a major at
the one level or a jump raise of partners
major to the 3 level.
One of the bids that really gets
clarified with this understanding is the jump raise of a major or even a minor after a 1♣
opener..
My partners will never make a jump raise to game of my
major response with a balanced hand. They will bid 2NT to
describe the balanced
hand first & then support later. A jump raise to the 3 level
is impossible with a balanced hand as 1NT would have been opened initially . This approach is good for many reasons. One advantage is that you
identify the hand type immediately
( balanced ) . Another is that you
prevent jumping to game with good hands thereby pre-empting responder, the 3rd
advantage is that you identify the original
suit as natural with at least 5 cards in length when you keep the
bidding at the 3 level. This is an added understanding for all jump raises now. Natural
bidding at its finest.
When
you have found a 4-4 major fit sometimes when the trump holding is
not too robust , a slam in the minor
is a better alternative. Here is an excellent auction from a Spingold. The opener had ♠x ♥A10xx ♦KJx ♣AKxxx , opened 1♣.
Partner responded 1♥ , they bid 3♥ ( not quite strong
enough for a 3♠ splinter ) . Partner
held ♠AQxx ♥Kxxx ♦Q ♣Q10xx so Q bid 3♠. Partner Q bid 4♣
so responder from the bidding , knows that partners clubs are 5 or longer
from the jump raise inference. Partner cannot have a 3 or 4 card club suit on
this auction or she would have bid NT first
instead of supporting . Responder ,
knowing that they have a minimum 9 card fit in clubs, bid 6♣
& not 6♥. This worked out beautifully as the heart losers were
discarded on the diamonds & +1370 resulted. It was sweeter still when the
opponents were in 6♥ going down at the
other table.
Your
overall bidding system dictates how easy it is to find a 2nd fit after you have found a
4-4 fit. Quite often you can offer a
choice of contracts at the 6 level. In some instances like this one , you know you have a good
minor fit when partner raises your major. This understanding comes
from keeping all balanced hands in the NT family.