Saturday, September 09, 2006 5:42 PM

Hand Evaluation – Partnership ( Hiding your hand )

PITBULLS:

Part of modern bidding or bad bidding ( I do not know which ) is the tactic of “hiding your hand” from partner. This is a poker tactic called “sandbagging” . You are bluffing by concealing your strength & distribution from the opponents. By not realizing how strong you are , you may induce a double you or not take an easy sacrifice. I hate this style of Bridge with a passion. It is a single handed tactic that shows a distinct lack of respect for partner. It announces to the table that Bridge is no longer a partnership game so I going to fool partner along with the opponents.

The worst bidding I have seen is hiding an 8 card suit from partner by making a simple rebid or a simple overcall at the two level. How does that inform partner that you have an eight card suit ? Partner mow is in no position to judge the auction as you are master minding. Every Bridge player knows that jump bidding to at least the 4 level shows 8 card suits to partner.

Another single handed tactic , I see quite often with modern bidders is to overcall at the one level or two level when they have a pre-emptive jump overcall at the two level or a pre-empt at the 3 level. This tactic immediately puts partner in a bad position and gets the auction off to the worst start possible. If you have a 7 card suit pre-empt or a 6 card suit pre-empt, why overcall at the one level ? You are only fooling partner. Partner bids so you say surprise partner I really had a pre-empt. Nonsense bidding.

The difference between an overcall at the one level & a pre-empt should be defense. As every Bridge player knows there is the 30 HCP rule. When you have concentrated HCP’s in one suit , the hand is destroyed defensively. ♠xxx ♥AKQxxx ♦xxx ♣x . They open a minor or 1♠ is this an overcall or a pre-empt ? I would pre-empt with this hand as all the HCP’s are in one suit. This gives me a safety factor for my pre-empt but also lets partner into the picture that I do not have outside defense. Say you had ♠void ♥xxx ♦KQJ109x ♣Jxxx , you are vul & not a passed hand . They open 1♣ & respond 1♠ so what is the best lie ? Lying about your defensive strength or lying about being 1 diamond short for a 3♦ pre-empt. If you wish to introduce this distributional suit into the fray , doing it at the 3 level is best. Partner does not get fooled that way.

Another tactic of hiding your hand from partner is bidding distributional hands the same way as you would flat hands. In Red Deer a while back , a local player had a 6-5 in the blacks & bid it like he was 4-4 by just bidding his two suits. A jump bid by him would have announced his 6-5 to partner so she would have made the right decision in a forcing pass auction. She was not aware of his 6-5 distribution , so she doubled 4♥ which made. 4♠ made at the other table for a double game swing.

This same player held ♠AQ109xx ♥AKxxx ♦xx ♣ void recently. You are vul , they are not & they open 1♦. You play Michaels either strong or weak so you decide that this is an intermediate hand. You overcall 1♠ , partner bids 1NT so they now bid your void. Bidding 2♥ is “hiding your hand” from partner . How does 2♥ come even close to describing this hand ? You are deliberately sandbagging hoping to “fool the opponents” . Partner makes the wrong forcing pass decision again because you are taking the partnership element out of the game. I do not understand “modern bidding” . In my day , we called it single handed master minding.

A player who should know better held ♠xxx ♥QJ10xx ♦Axxx ♣x . I opened 1♠ vulnerable & he made the obnoxious bid of 4♠. This bid pre-empts partner out of 6♥ , 6♦ or 6♠ if it is there. You have 7 HCP with an outside Ace , so why are you pre-empting partner ? A pre-empt with an outside Ace is a horrible bid . You are one or two spades ( trump ) short of your bid so what is going on ? By bidding 4♠ you are hiding your real hand from partner & playing single handed. What if they came into the bidding , would I have a clue in making a competitive decision ?

A Tormentee held this hand which shows the ultimate in “hiding your hand” from partner. 1♣-1♦-P-? & you have ♠AKxxx ♥xx ♦xxxxx ♣Q so you bid 1♠. They bid 2♣ so around to you. A 2♦ bid is a psyche as you are hiding your 4^th & 5^th trump from partner & the stiff club from partner with the playing value of this hand. Partner now bids 2♥ so you now hide your hand again by bidding 3♦ which again can be described as a psyche. 5♦ is of course cold & you made a partial. When have you shown your phenomenal length in partner’s suit , source of tricks in spades & a stiff in the opponent’s suit ? You have done an excellent job of hiding your hand from partner & not allowing him to make a right decision.

I can see why single handed modern bidding makes a mockery of forcing passes. Partner has no clue what your hand is anyway , so the chances that she makes the right decision on a forcing auction is almost nil. Therefore , just throw the dice & bid or double. “Modern” forcing pass theory , I think they call it..