Thursday, September 28, 2006 1:19 AM

Hand Evaluation – Tactics ( NT Interference )

PITBULLS:

The entire Bridge population likes to interfere with your strong NT auction. Here are our thoughts on how to deal with their interference. Throw away Lebensohl in favour of Rubensohl ( transfers ). You have the dual advantage of super accepts & knowing the transfer suit immediately in case RHO interferes further. Rubensohl is far , far superior to Lebensohl & allows extra bidding room where Lebensohl just adds ambiguous auctions. Transfers have a life of their own in the game of Bridge.

When the opponents interfere with your auctions , do not rescue them . They are taking a risk coming into your auction so punish them when applicable & use them as stepping stones otherwise. Here is a hand where the player both rescued the opponents & did not use the opponents to her advantage. ♠QJ10xx ♥1087x ♦x ♣KQx & partner opens 1NT . They overcall 2♣ alerted as showing clubs with a higher ranking suit . Looking at your hand the higher ranking suit looks like diamonds but you are not sure. One thing you do know is that you have 8 HCP’s and with the KQ of clubs well located behind the club bidder. This hand is obviously enough for a penalty double or a game try.

Everybody passes your double except for the bidder who rescues himself to 2♦ so now what ? The opponents bidding your stiff has upgraded your hand. The club location has upgraded your hand. You can now bid 3♠ or 3♦ to force to game in a major. 4♠ makes on the hand so thank you opponents for helping us get there. Bidding 2♠ immediately just rescues them & unilaterally keeps you out of game. How does partner know you have 8 HCP , a stiff in their suit, a good spade suit & well located clubs with a 2♠ bid ??. Their 2^nd suit might even be hearts or spades for all you know so they are really in trouble. Do not make a hasty initial decision to bid as quite often that is fatal because you lack information.

Another hand came up showing how not to handle interference. You hold ♠Q10xx ♥xxx ♦Qxxx ♣Jx , partner opens 1NT so they bid 2♦ for the majors. The opponents partner bids 3♣ & they bid 3♠ so do you make a trump stack double ? Not on your life. The auction is not over so you never double the only contract that you can beat. You double signals to partner that you have values & opens the door for her to double. They run to 4♣ so partner with 3 defensive tricks doubles. This added to your no defensive tricks means –510. With your 5 HCP , was your side ever going to make anything ? They are not stealing from you. With your 5 HCP , you do not even have the balance of power . Bridge is a partnership game so partner has a right to play you for a better hand since you doubled them into game at the 3 level. Trump stuck doubles with no other cards are for ¼ cent rubber Bridge games.

How what does the pass mean of their interference & then a subsequent double ? This double is not for penalty. This double just shows cards & partner is expected to do something hopefully something intelligent. A penalty double is shown by doubling their artificiality initially. This initial double shows the balance of power & one or more of their suits. One exception is if their double or 2♣ is artificial. You just ignore the double so a double of 2♣ is Stayman.

You can have understanding re “invisible Q bids”. What this term means is that you bid the suit in which they are advertising artificially. Say they overcall 2♥ which shows spades. You bid 2♠ before they do which shows the other suits & for T/O. A double of 2♥ would show spades thereby warning partner to let me at them. Remember – do not rescue them by bidding when you have values !! They are taking a risk by entering a NT auction.