Saturday,
November 05, 2005 2:21 AM
The sandwich position is a
unique position in the game of Bridge as the opponents have opened &
responded before you can take any action. The position is also unique to the opening side also as
bidding in the sandwich position hinders
constructive bidding. For the opening side, two new bids have
been invented to assist in more
accurate bidding. The support double
& redouble assists in showing
3 card major
support instead of 4 card support . Very useful
information to have in judging further competitive action .
The 2nd bid invented to clarify auctions when the opponents
have bid at the two
level in the sandwich position
is the “good bad 2NT” .
Since their action has taken away your ability to make invitational
jumps to the 3 level , you cannot describe your opener properly. The
answer is to define an old bid “2NT” to have a new meaning for the opening
bidder. 2NT is “bad” - meaning that all you want to do is
compete & make a nuisance of yourself. Partner must relay to 3♣ when
you make that 2NT bid unless she is too strong & “breaks the relay” . Since you have all competitive bids covered by the 2NT bid , when you do bid at the 3 level it is equivalent to
hands that you would have jumped
to the 3 level i.e. invitational to game.
Lets
discuss sandwich bidding by the non opening
side. People open on 3 card minors with nothing in them .
People also respond on 4 card majors like xxxx . To prevent this style from being problematic
, experts define biding the responders
major or the openers minor
in the sandwich position as natural. ♠xx
♥Axx ♦AQJ109x
♣xx .
The auction goes 1♦-P-1♠-2♦ 2♦
is a natural bid. You do not need the bid as a Q bid as you have doubles &
unusual NT bids to describe unbid suits. If the auctions goes 1♣-P-1♠-2♠ You have ♠KQJ10xxx ♥Axx ♦xx
♣x or the like.
What about the 1NT bid in the
sandwich position ? In the “old days” of Bridge it was considered
suicide to bid 1NT as natural in the sandwich position. The opener had 14 HCP’s , the responder 7 HCP so if you had 17 HCP partner has
at most 2 HCP ! . Playing 1NT when there is two or
less HCP’s in the dummy is not pleasant
& most likely you would play it doubled.
Not so it the so called “modern game” . Many
partnerships do not care about discipline .
They open non openers with 10 HCP’s with no defense & respond without the
HCP’s required for a response. You side
could easily have 25 HCP’s when they have opened
& responded !
The 1NT is a picture bid & allows an excellent start to an auction. Passing
with 16-18 vul means you are falling prey to their nv tactics.
If we are vul & they are not ,
we prefer 1NT in the sandwich
position to be 16-18 HCP. In other vulnerabilities ,
I prefer 1NT to be a weak takeout
for the unbid suits.
It’s highly unlikely , vul
opponents would try their non openers & non responses when they
are vul & you
are not. Equal vulnerability , their non
openers & non responses are a silly tactic also. Sandwich NT bids are best for the
unbid suits in these vulnerabilities as they are more frequent . Since
you are not vul
& they are ,
you want to make a nuisance of yourself rather than describe 16-18 HCP.
When they are vul , we prefer
trapping with 16-18 HCP as it is a win-win situation. If they go down vul that is nice or you can double if they get too high.
Bidding 1NT with these vulnerabilities quite often will just rescue them (
misfit auction ) , so you go for a
minus.
There are special understanding for bidding in the Sandwich position when the Opponents Bid and raise their suits. Extreme leeway is given in this position to the point where they call bidding in these situations is called “balancing in the direct position”. Experts have even given a name to this OBAR. Quite often partner needs to get a lead director as the next bid is game by the opponents. Susan had ♣AKxxxxx & the auction goes 1♥-P-2♥ so OBAR comes into effect. You bid 3♣ & partner will not punish you. There is also some safety in this understanding in that partner should bid 2♠ on any excuse playing OBAR . So if 2♥ is passed out , you know partner does not have spades when you are considering your balance !!