2008-01-28 02:24

Hand Evaluation – Partnership ( The Best Lie )

PITBULLS:

Sometimes Bridge hands “fall thru the cracks “ & there is no standard bid to describe the hand . With these types of hands you sometimes must pick the “best lie”. Kiz Fung held this hand ♠10x ♥AKxx ♦KQJx ♣J10x & RHO opened 1♣ . You should not trap with this hand as you do not have extreme duplication of value in the opponents suit. You also do not trap just because you do not have a “book” bid , you pick the best lie. Kiz reasoned that she would bid for a lead so she overcalled 1♦. If they get to 3NT or a game contract , a diamond lead would obviously be the killer. In matchpoints , she could also lie & overcall 1♥ in case they buy the hand , hearts score better for matchpoint purposes. Perhaps this is an IMPS vrs matchpoints lie. Overcall 1♦ in IMPS & 1♥ in matchpoints ?

Her partner Tom Gandolfo on the same auction also had a hand that you must also pick the best lie. ♠xx ♥QJ10x ♦xxx ♣AQ98 so do you respond 1♥ or 1NT ? Tom Gandolfo bid 1NT & I agree 100 % with that bid. You are describing your balanced hand , your HCP range & your heavy values in the opponents suit with one bid. Why bid up the line with a 1♥ ? This lie introduces ambiguity as most of the time 1♥ promises 5 or more cards in the suit. It does not describe your flat hand , your HCP range or where you live in the opponents suit. Also bidding 1♥ could be a matchpoint disaster as partner might bid 2♦ thinking that their side lacks a club stopper. 1NT scores +120 & 2♦ scores +110.

Here is a hand where a player picked the worst lie possible. In my mind , there is no excuse for playing single handed Bridge in a partnership game. This player with both sides vul held ♠QJ10xxx ♥x ♦AQxxx ♣x . The auction went 1NT & partner overcalled 2♣ which shows the minors . RHO bid 3♥ forcing to game for their side so what is your worst lie ? Playing singlehanded & concealing your 5 card diamond suit fit from partner. You should bid 4♦ as a prepared bid since you will never play it there & the expected bid by the opponents should be 4♥ ( you have a stiff ♥ & partner denies hearts) over your 4♦ bid . Applying patterns around the table with your stiff heart , the opponents have identified 9 or more hearts for you. This leaves 3 hearts for partner so along with her possible announced 10 cards in the minors , this leaves a spade void in her hand or at most one. Therefore , the absolute worst bid ( lie ) you can make is 4♠ which would bring giggles from the table. Bridge is a game of probabilities , so you bid in accordance with the most probable hand partner could hold. You also bid anticipating the expected bid by the opponents. Partner & the opponents do exist during Bridge auctions.

So after you bid your prepared 4♦, the bidding goes 4♥ so around to you in the balancing. Now you can bid 4♠ with the boss suit as you give partner an option of playing spades vrs diamonds against the higher ranking heart suit at the 4 level. The auction shows managing the rank order of suits in Bridge nicely. Bidding the hand this way takes out insurance that partner has some spade support say a 3-1-5-4 or 2-2-5-4 . Partner must make this decision to play spades , not you as her spade holding is the great unknown. Your ♠QJ10xxx empty of spades certainly does not qualify as a self sufficient suit . A spade fit is unlikely though as the opponents must hold around 11 hearts for that to work. However, it does not hurt when you have decided to bid 5♦ anyway against their vul +620 in hearts.

Partner could easily hold on this auction ♠void ♥xxx ♦K10987 ♣Axxxx & 5♦X wraps with an overtrick for +950 !! . Instead, if you pick the worst lie of 4♠ & even a worse bid of 5♠ when the opponents take the push to 5♥. You bid the hand like the Hideous Hog & go for +1100 when 5♥ goes one down !!!. Strange how single handed guesses leads to disasters in a partnership game like Bridge. You are just making a single handed guess rather than legitimate Bridge bidding by allowing partner some say earlier in the auction.