Friday, July 14, 2006 5:55 AM

Hand Evaluation - Refinement ( Forcing pass )

PITBULLS:

One of the worst bidding faults in Bridge is “bidding your hand again”. You have announced your hand to partner , she has heard you , but you bid the same hand over again anyways. D.S.I.P. & forcing pass theory allows you to bid your hand again legitimately. You make a T/O double , an opening bid , or an overcall but a competitive auction ensues. You compete by making a D.S.I.P. double. This is in effect a refinement of your previous bid. You show defense with a good hand rather than just what was expected with your previous action. If you just bid again , you are competing so you are probably showing the same values that you have shown already.

Forcing pass theory also allows you to refine your previous bid. Tonight I held ♠AJ109 ♥K1098 ♦J ♣ KQ98 , vul vrs nv opened 1♣ . They overcalled 1♦ , partner made a negative double & they showed a limit raise by Q bidding 2♣. I liked my singleton in their suit , so I Q bid 2♦ & partner jumped to 4♥ vulnerable. They now decided to sacrifice in 5♦ against our vul game. So what is your forcing pass decision ?

Forcing pass theory has given you a chance to refine your previous Q bid. Do you have a minimum Q bid , an average Q bid or a rock Q bid ? If you had ♠AJ109 ♥AK109 ♦J ♣KQ98 , you have a 6♥ bid. Partner jumped to game opposite your invite , you have a gorgeous hand. Alternately you could pass & pull in an effort to get to 7♥. OK say you have an intermediate Q bid . ♠AJ109 ♥KQ98 ♦J ♣KQ98 so after a 5♦ bid I would make a forcing pass to “refine” my previous Q bid. I passed with the original hand rather than making a double. I should double 5♦ saying that I am minimum for my previous Q bid action. partner would pass so we collect our +500. With my pass , partner took the push , misguessed the trump queen & went down one for a 12 IMP loss.

Checking the scores , we would have lost 4 IMPS anyway if I had made the correct bid of a double. Much better than a 12 IMP loss though . L