Thursday, May 01, 2003
4:43 PM
Judgment in Bridge
PITBULLS:
Bridge judgment is not teachable . This comes from years of experience which the Pitbulls
obviously have ( No Pat I am not taking a shot at your age J
) . Hand evaluation , duplication of value , the art of passing when
appropriate , misfits , the 4th trump , pre-emption . sacrificing ,
game tries , slam tries . penalty doubles , balancing , safe overcalling ,
forcing passes , lead directing bids , taking cheap insurance , D.S.I.P. , risk
taking are all judgment calls. The
team that gets this right in the heat of battle will be Canada’s
representatives. Experienced teams have the self confidence and Bridge skills
to get most of these judgment situations
right .
Forcing passes are an excellent tool to get
some judgment situations right . I
know I have addressed forcing passes ad nauseum in past E-mails , but one last time with a hand Tom and I had in
Calgary .Forcing pass theory comes into effect when your side “owns the auction”
. You own the auction when partner shows a limit raise or better hand and you
have opened , 2♣ openers & after penalty doubles . It is also in effect if you bid a vulnerable game and the opponents interfere also at the
game level but nv.
O.K.
once you have the forcing pass criteria in place and you have a fit with
partner , the opponents now enter your auction . Five elements constitute
forcing pass theory . 1) the double is the worst hand – maybe losers in their
suit or just an unsuitable hand . 2) the pass invites partner to bid if she
wishes as you hand is suitable to be pushed to another level 3) the direct bid
– why leave up to partner what you can do yourself ? This means you have extra
and expect to make the contract. 4) Q bid or new suit as a slam try 5) pass and
pull the double – the biggest hand
and a slam try .
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Tom held this hand vul against not . I opened
a diamond and Tom responded a
heart . Klimo doubled and I jumped to 2♠ . Nick jammed with 4♣ and Tom bid his vul 4♥ game . Klimo now bid 4♠ nv and I made a forcing pass encouraging Tom to bid
rather then double . Without forcing pass
theory , Tom might make the wrong decision and double or
pass . We can make +680 on a hook and Klimo goes for –50 in 4♠ not
doubled .
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Even with my
11 HCP , I am close to bidding 5♥ myself
but Tom has the right to expect more . My pass says I am perfectly happy with a
5♥ bid . I am not saying that Tom should bid 6♥ over my pass ( King of ♥ makes 5 dicey ) . If I had bid 5♥ directly
, Tom should seriously consider 6 for +1430 with his two Aces . The
opponents broadcasting all the spade and club cards should
help in that decision . If I
had heavy club cards instead of hearts , I should double to slow the auction down . If they own the black
suits, my pass should say we own
the reds. Two suited fits always should encourage bidding one more time .
This
hand shows a tool ( forcing passes ) to assist in bridge judgment . These tools
do not replace Bridge judgment
but are tools to assist your partnership. These kind of hands cost 12 IMPS all
the time . Established partnerships
, armed with forcing pass theory,
should get these types of judgment
decisions right 9 times out of 10 .