Sunday,
May 28, 2006 11:47 PM
Hand Evaluation – Tactics ( Patterning Out )
PITBULLS:
The concept of “patterning out” in Bridge
comes up very often. The technique
of bidding your 3rd suit
even if only 3 cards in length
describes your pattern so is commonly called “patterning
out” . This treatment is not done
with a weak hand & trying to improve the partial. There is a standard Bridge understanding that it
shows extra.
Many times “patterning out” is a game try or
a slam try. This concept is one of the assets of standard bidding. As every bid
is natural ,
by bidding 3 suits you show shortness in the 4 th suit.
This bidding technique has another excellent advantage in that it pinpoints duplication of value.
The most frequent use of “patterning out”
is after a forcing NT.
Quite often you rebid 2 of a suit after a forcing NT with an invitational range hand.
Partner gives you a simple preference or bids
a new suit at the two level. What now
? Forget about Q bids in these situations.
Opener now bidding a 3rd
suit is a game try or even a slam try. Pitbull Pat
& I had an auction which shows this concept nicely.♠AKJxx ♥Axxx ♦x ♣KJx , she opened
1♠ so I bid a forcing 1NT .
She bid 2♥ , I gave a simple preference
to 2♠ . She bid 3♣ as a
game try so pinpointing her stiff diamond. I now had something to
work with in an invitational auction . I
now evaluate my hand depending on my diamond
holding. ♠Qx ♥KQx ♦xxxx ♣Qxxx so I leap to 4♠ knowing that all my HCP’s
are pulling full weight. What if I hold a maximum with diamond duplication of value ? ♠Qx ♥QJ10 ♦Q1098x ♣Qxx . I now know to jump to 3NT.
Getting to an alternative game in a major
is a nice side effect of “patterning out” .
♠AJxxx ♥Kxx ♦AKxx ♣x
, you open 1♠. Partner bids 1NT , you bid 2♦ with partner giving you
preference to 2♠. You make a game try by bidding 3♥. Partner has ♠Kx ♥QJ10xx ♦Qxx ♣xxx so bids 4♥ !!
However, the best side effect of making
the “patterning out” game try after a forcing NT is assisting in reaching the
best game contract between 4 of a major
& 3NT. Kiz Fung & I had a classic
auction today in demonstrating a “patterning out “ game try. Kiz held ♠J9x ♥AKxxx ♦Q ♣AKxx , opened 1♥. I responded 1NT, Kiz rebid 2♣ so I bid 2♦. Now what
? Opener can make one stab at game but how ?
Patterning out by bidding 2♠ shows partner your stiff diamond & does not go past 2NT . Kiz bids 2♠ & I hold ♠Ax ♥Jx ♦AJ9xxx ♣xxx . Knowing partner has an
invitational hand with a stiff diamond , I leap to 4♥ which makes +620 . What if Kiz held ♠Kx ♥AKxxx ♦Q10 ♣AJ10x ? She would bid 2NT , I would
bid 3NT so that is our correct contract.
If partner makes a systemic bid showing a fit , patterning out to show extra & guide
you to the best game is the bid of choice. Here is Susan in action with ♠KQxx ♥AQ109x ♦Axx ♣Q . She opened 1♥ & I responded 1NT so as
her club queen is singleton she did not reverse. She chose 2♦ but I bid 2♠ showing a
huge diamond raise. The best bid to now describe your extra is “patterning
out”. Susan bids 3♠ pinpointing her club shortness. I am also weak in
clubs so I bid 4♥ which ends the auction & makes +650.
Here is the classic example of using
“patterning out” after
a 2/1 to
show duplication of value & extra values. I opened 1♠ with ♠AKxxxx ♥KQx ♦AQ10x ♣void
&
partner bid 2♣ . I show strong 6-4’s by bidding
by 4 card suit first so I bid 2♦. Partner bid 2NT so I now
“pattern out” to show by extra strength by bidding 3♥. Partner bids 4♥ which now perfects the
auction as I now bid 4♠ which should showing a very
strong 6-3-4-0 hand exactly what I held. Partner held ♠Qx ♥AJ10x ♦Kx ♣QJ10xx so with his crappy 13 HCP ,
he drives the hand to 7♠. Change partner’s hand to ♠xx ♥J10xx ♦Kx ♣AKxxx so he now knows his 7 HCP in clubs is opposite my club void is horrible duplication of value , so he just passes 4♠ & I make +450.
Here are two recent hands where ``patterning out`` earned about a 30 IMP swing. You hold ♠xx ♥Qxx ♦xxxxx ♣KQ10 & you bid 1NT after my 1♠ opener. You give preference to 2♠ after my 2♣ bid so what do you bid when I bid 3♥ “patterning out” showing a stiff ♦ ? This is now a 30 HCP deck ,all your HCP’s are working so you try 4♠ which makes for +620 ! Very next hand you get to combine two hand evaluation concepts “fast arrival” & “patterning out” . You hold ♠void ♥AKJxxx ♦