Monday, February 14, 2005 8:17 AM

Right Siding Contracts

PITBULLS:

Quite often in Q bidding auctions it becomes painfully clear that a contract must be “right sided” . What do we mean by that ? Here is an auction by Maurice and myself which explains things nicely. I opened 1♠ and Maurice bid 2NT Jacoby and I rebid 3♠ which shows values in our system. Maurice Q bid 4♦ and I Q bid 4♥. Maurice bid Blackwood and we had the appropriate # of controls to be in slam. Maurice held the Kx of clubs a suit which I had a chance to Q bid and did not. Maurice knows we are off the club Ace so instead of bidding 6♠ which gets the lead thru the club king, he bid 6NT to “right side “ the contract .

Normally the hand with the queens and kings should be playing the NT contract. You have Ax xxx AKJxx Jxx and you open a diamond and planning on rebidding 1NT with your balanced hand. Partner responds a heart and RHO bids a spade so do you still bid 1NT ? No , this will wrong side the NT more often than not. I would rebid two diamonds and if partner makes a Western Q bid I will Q bid spades to get her to play the NT. Partner may even hold Qx of spades or J10x and get a trick on the opening lead. Steering the right hand to play the NT pays big dividends. If you have a big hand with lots of controls , it’s a good idea to let the hand with the queens & jacks to get the NT in first. “Opening lead insurance” is even a bigger factor than you playing the NT much better J .

The Western Q bid is a tool to ask for a stopper in the opponents suit. If partner has shown a huge hand , it is best to right side the contract to her. Q bidding the opponents suit again shows a stopper and asks partner to right side the 3NT. Jxx AQ AJ10xxx AQ and the auction went

1♦-1♠-X-P

2♠-P-2NT-P

3NT down 2 with a club lead. Partner held K10x Kxxx Qxxx xx and should bid 3♠ to have partner play the 3NT.

Choice of bids should have “right siding” as input to the decision making process. A tormentee held

Jx K109 Kxx AQJxx and I opened 1♠. She bid 2♣ and I bid 2♠ so what is your bid ? Bidding 4♠ may wrong side this contract. You should bid 3NT to protect your red kings from the opening lead. In NT contracts people lead away from Aces . they do not do that in suit contracts. You get a red suit lead and make +690 as partners hand is AKQ10xx xx xx Kxx . 4♠ can be held to 4 or even go down with a queen of a red suit lead !

Sometimes experts have tools to right side contracts. 5NT is a “depending on context” bid . In other words , its meaning changes depending on the auction. Here is a hand from the Alberta Master Solvers club which shows this bidding tool in action. You hold KJ10 KQxxxx Kxx Q and open 1♥. Partner bids 2♣ so you bid 2♥. Partner bids 4♣ which is forcing and shows great clubs. Accordingly your club queen should suffice as good support in this auction so you bid 5♣. Partner now bids 5♦ so now what ? You have nothing to Q bid so should you bid 6♣ ? Yes you do have something to Q bid if you define 5NT to show the spade king on these types of auctions. You have many kings so would it not be a good idea to protect them from the opening lead ? You bid 5NT and partner gratefully bids 6NT with xxx A Ax AKJ10xxx and 6NT gets +1440. In 6♣ , you lose two spades and a spade ruff for down two and an 18 IMP swing !!