Friday, February
11, 2005 5:11 AM
Hand Evaluation - Systemic
( 4-4 major fits )
PITBULLS:
It
must be matchpoint paranoia that you must
respond with a bad 4 card major.
This fear of missing +140 instead of +120 gets negatively re-enforced way more
often than not. Here is a pair against us tonight that shows this silliness in
action. ♠xxxx ♥xx ♦KJx ♣AKJx Partner opens 1♦ so what is your
response ? Say you have bought into the 4 card major silliness so you respond a
spade ( which is what happened) now partner bids 2♦ so now what ? The
player said she did not want to bid 3♣ because she did not want spade
preference so she leapt to 5♦. This goes down
& 3NT makes 4. Let’s back up & bid this hand properly by bidding 2♣
& showing where you live. If partner cannot
bid spades , who cares about this suit ? 4-4 fits can
be found via either side of the table ! Partner bids 2NT so you bid 3NT . A simple auction that gets complicated when you
respond a non suit.
Partner
opens a minor , you have a huge fit for her but you have
a 4 card major. Forget about the 4 card major as it just complicates the
auction. ♠Axxx ♥Ax ♦AKxxx ♣xx partner opens a
diamond so make your systemic bid that shows your strong diamond raise. If 4
spades is the spot , perhaps you might get there from
partners side but slam exploration is severely impeded when you start
proceedings by ignoring your huge fit with partner. Same principle with this
kind of hand , with interference. Q bid to show your fit rather than making a
negative double to get your spades into the fray.
Garozzo says Bridge is a game of suits . You hold ♠K109x ♥x ♦KQJ10xx ♣Qx , partner opens 1♥ so what do you
respond ? I do not like a spade as you may lose a beautiful 6 card suit which
is exactly what happened. If you respond a spade , you
have bought into the philosophy that Bridge is a game of HCP’s , not suits. Very non Italian of you !! The opponents responded a spade ,
Tom Gandolfo interfered with 2♣ & the opponent Q bid with 3♣ so
I interfered with 5♣ which got doubled. The doubler
wanted to warn partner that he only had a 4 card spade suit. Subsequently they
went to 5♥ which makes +680 . 7♦ is a lay down but
diamonds were not even mentioned in this auction ! The culprit is this silly urge to bid a 4 card spade
suit which I will hereby refer to as the “matchpoint sickness”. Sometimes you must
make the best lie. It’s not much of a stretch to bid 2♦ with this hand even
though you play 2/1 forcing to game. You must give some value to a beautiful 6 card suit as suppressing these
suits complicate auctions later on.
Same
with pre-empting . If you have a systemic pre-empt do not let a 4 card
major deter you. Partner opens a club , you have ♠xxxx ♥x ♦xxx ♣KQJxx make your system 3♣ bid if that is weak. If
partner has the rare hand that 4♠ is cold so be
it. The many other times by describing your hand . You may jam them out of a red suit game or find a 5♣ sacrifice or game early etc,
etc.
When
I have a hand that might prove difficult to bid
, I take a chance & suppress a 4 card major
after a heart opener. Think about it. The only time you might lose is if
partner has a weak Flannery. If a stronger Flannery hand ,
partner is going to bid the spades anyway. I held ♠AQxx ♥void ♦J109x ♣KJxxx playing with Nancy. I
decided that even if Nancy had 4 spades , 3NT might
still be the better contract so I bid a forcing NT. Nancy bid 2♣
so now I was glad I bid 1NT going in because I had a chance of showing a strong club raise with a 2♠ bid. We ended up in
3NT for +690 which was a good result but a shaky 6♣ makes for +1370. I
confused Nancy enough that she now knows how to show strong
minor raises after a heart opener & a forcing NT J