Saturday, December 09, 2006 6:34 PM

Hand Evaluation - Step Responses

PITBULLS:

System builders like to incorporate step responses in answer to Bridge questions. Why ? Step responses conserve bidding room. As they follow the suit order of Bridge , they should be easy on the memory. If the question was enquiring about a suit , 1^st step ♣’s , 2^nd step ♦’s , 3^rd step ♥’s and 4^th step ♠’s .

General questions are answered in steps again following the rank order of suits , ♣’s the 1^st step etc. Alternatively , we just go thru steps following the rank order above the suit which asked the question. KCB follows step responses with the rank order of suits showing information about Aces & the trump queen. Step responses are a time honoured way of answering systemic Bridge questions.

My partners & I , throw a few wrinkles into our Jacoby 2NT & into our splinter structure. We use step responses as answers so as to leave the responses at the 3 level. Why the 3 level ? This leaves room for the serious 3NT Q bid to show serious slam intentions. After we open a major , a 3♦ splinter response shows a stiff in the other major. That is easy so we do not need Bridge questions to find the stiff as we already know. One of a major followed by 3♣ is a splinter in a minor . Therefore , we must ask a Bridge question via 3♦ . Which minor is your stiff ? Ist step shows clubs , 2^nd step shows diamonds following the rank order of suits. We know by the 3 level & we have left room for the “serious 3NT”. After a 1♥ opener & a 3♣ splinter we use step response to glean even more information. 3♦ asks so 3♥ says a stiff ♣ with a limit raise , 3♠ shows a stiff club with game forcing values, the next step 3NT shows a stiff ♦ with limit raise value & 4♣ shows a stiff diamond with game forcing values.

Our Jacoby 2NT is built around the 3♣ response to 2NT to show all minimum hands. We use 3♦ to ask about the nature of the minimum. Again modified step responses conserve room . 1^st step with hearts agreed , says I have a stiff club , next step a stiff diamond and 3NT shows a flat minimum and 4♣ a stiff spade. With spades agreed, same thing , 1^st step a stiff ♣ , 2^nd step a stiff ♦ , 3NT shows a flat minimum so 4♣ a stiff in the other major. These responses for the most part leave room for the serious 3NT as a convenient slam try.

Bridge bidding reverts to just plain code sometimes. Step responses , following the rank order of suits is the most common example of code in the game of Bridge. It’s an important concept to get your mind around. Minor suit KCB anyone ?