Wednesday,
August 18, 2004 1:13 AM
Hand
Evaluation – Suits ( Control Asking Bids)
PITBULLS:
An
established partnership has a huge advantage if they have asking bids in their arsenal. Control Asking
Bids have been around for decades. No , they are not
the Barton type of “control asking” bids
which is just a different form of
Blackwood. These bids ask partner if they control an unbid or bid suit . Spades are the agreed trump suit , the opponents have bid diamonds . A jump to 5♠ asks how you control
diamonds. A pass says I do not . 6♠ says I have a 2nd
round control , 5NT says I have the king of diamonds & 6♦ says I have 1st
round control.
The 2nd most
common control asking bid is after partner pre-empts 4 of a major. Say partner opens 4♥ , you bid 5♣ .
Obviously you are not rescuing a pre-empt . You are
making a control asking bid in clubs. 5♥ by partner says I can not control clubs , 6♥ 2nd round
control of clubs , 5NT the club king and
6♣ 1st round control. In a Q bidding auction
, if you jump to 5 of the trump suit , it is an asking bid in the unbid suit with similar responses. A 4♠
bid after
4♥ opener is not a rescue but an asking bid in the spade
suit.
The
5NT bid is a control asking bid in
the trump suit which is the grand slam force in normal auctions. After a 4
of a major opening , the bid is modified to show the solidarity of the trump suit. 6 of the trump suit is the death response , a bid of 7 means my
suit is solid opposite a void , a 6♦ bid says my suit is
solid opposite xxx or the queen. A 6♣ bid is very interesting & says
I have a solid suit opposite 2 small & possibly after a stiff. Partner now
bids 6♦ with a stiff , 7 of the trump suit with two small and 6 of the
trump suit with a void. With the “normal” Grand Slam force ,
we modify it a bit by having the trump suit as the death response. Ace or King as the first step & the queen as the 2nd
step. Of course the jump to a grand slam shows two out of three top honours..
If partner pre-empts a weak two or three bid , 4♣ is usually reserved for a control asking bid (4♦ over clubs ) with responses involving controls . Since you are a disciplined pre-empter, you will not have an outside ace after pre-empting at the 3 level but you could have an outside Ace after a weak 2. Since 10 HCP’s is the maximum for a weak two , we will only have to consider up to two controls To keep the treatments consistent for both pre-empts , the responses after 4♣ involve the trump queen & consider the Ace or King as a control 4¨=0/0 or 0/1;4©=1/0;4ª=1/1;4NT=2/0;5§=2/1 . The 4♦ asking bid if clubs agreed as the trump suit is similar.
Another control asking bid ( using Kantars lingo ) is the specific suit asking bid. My partners &
I use this bid only in two circumstances . After a 2♣
opener , a jump rebid of a suit establishes the suit
so partner is required to show a control. A suit bid after that asks for
partners holding in that specific suit. A return to the trump suit is always
the death response and
you just go up in steps. Aces are taken out of the equation so steps are defined
around the King and Queen
1st step response shows the queen , 2nd Kxx , 3rd Kx and raise of the specific suit shows both king & queen .
Kantar has specific suit asking bids with KCB which is
the 2nd circumstance that Tom and I use these bids. He has some rules 1) always thru 4NT first
2) A suit bid that is not the Queen ask is the SSA 3) You forego specific kings
if you go this route 4) the death response to the SSA is returning to the trump
suit . The steps are same as above & if the King has been denied ( via
queen ask ), the responses defined
around the queen and the jack can be thrown in , 1st step shows the
queen and raising the suit shows the QJ
of the suit
Bridge should not be a
burden of memory work . However
, the above is an exception that all established partnerships
should have memorized. The stakes are high in these auctions so the strain on
your memory cells is worth it. A Hollywood starlet can memorize an entire
script so you should be able to memorize the contents of one article
!!