Friday, December 02, 2005 5:20 AM

Hand Evaluation – Partnership ( Undisciplined Bidding )

PITBULLS:

There are two styles of playing Bridge. One is the disciplined style where partnership trust & respect is paramount. You win IMPS not by psychological ploys of forcing the opponents to go wrong all the time but by accuracy in your own bidding or taking advantage of the opponents “risk taking” . To take advantage of the opponents bad bidding ,you must be disciplined yourself , so that you are the one to be believed in competitive situations. People who play the undisciplined style are out to create action. By opening non openers , responding without a response , unsafe pre-empts , ignoring vulnerability , psyches & bad overcalls their style is totally predicated on make the opponents go wrong. This comes at a price of course because the opponents must be believed rather than your partner . This lack of trust & discipline causes other bad decisions in the partnership. Try playing with Steve Willard , Osama or Ray Grace to get an idea of this “pigeon shooting” style of playing Bridge.

When playing against undisciplined players , experts “make them pay” . Not just with penalty doubles but that the fact that they are usually in the auction helps declarer play the hands. They give you information with their tactics on bad pre-empts , bad openers , non responses , bad overcalls etc that you can use to your advantage. Witness this hand playing against Osama & Vince Nowlan. The auction goes 1♣ in 3^rd seat by Vince Nowlan & Osama responds 1♥. I doubled as a passed hand with ♠K10xx ♥AJx ♦109xx ♣Kx , Mr. Nowlan rebid 2♣ . My partner held ♠Q98x ♥Q10x ♦KJx ♣AQx , since partner is showing around 10 HCP’s with spades and diamonds , he decides to bid 4♠ .

K	A	10	K
10	J	9	x
x	x	x
x		x

Partner gets the club 9 lead from Osama . So how do you play the hand ? Card reading is using the information the opponents have given you by their bidding.

Q	Q	K	A
9	10	J	Q
8	x	x	x
x

Partner knows that there is an opener to his left that has 6 cards or more of his hand as clubs. Since he is the opener , he is more likely to hold the spade Ace and with long clubs be may be short in spades. Accordingly partner wins the club king , leads a small spade from the dummy and Vince plays the spade Ace. Vince returns a club , partner wins the club Ace & Osama high lows in clubs which gives Mr. Nowlan 6 clubs. Partner cashes his spade queen & Vince shows out discarding a club. Pattern time ! It is highly unlikely that Vince has 3 hearts as he pulled partner’s 1♥ response doubled quickly to 2♣. Partner gets a tentative count of his hand as 1-2-4-6. Next partner leads the heart 10 , lets it ride & Vince win his King & leads another club. Partner wins his club queen & Osama makes a nice play by discarding a heart instead of ruffing . Partner hooks the spade & leads a diamond. Vince makes a questionable play by bouncing with the diamond Ace & comes back a low diamond. Now what ? You know Osama only has 2 diamonds , 2 clubs , 5 hearts & 4 spades. What HCP’s has he shown up with for his so called response ? Only one lonely jack !. Vince has shown up with the spade Ace , heart king , QJ 6^th of clubs & A?xx of diamonds. Vince has not bid his hand like he had 16 HCP’s so you go up diamond King & drop Osama’s queen for +620. Without their undisciplined 1♥ response , partner would have no chance with this contract. The field played this hand in 4♠ down two probably because they did not get “action” from Osama.

The terrorist style of bidding gives declarer & defenders information they do not deserve. Use this information to your advantage & their “style’ will eventually cost them more & more . Their style was designed to take advantage of weak opponents. Do not let them insult you !!