Wednesday, October 01, 2003 12:20 AM

Splinters in Competition

PITBULLS:

Going against a long standing Edmonton tradition , I do not like splinters in competition. The first reason is 1) frequency . Splinters need 4 card support or more and limit raise values . These hands are a lot less frequent then playing the bid as a natural weak jump shift . The 2^Nd reason is

2) concealment in competition . Why help the opponents out with their opening leads , sacrificing and defense by describing your singleton ? The third reason is that you always have a 3) Q bid of the opponents suit as a way of immediately describing your fit with partner. With slam tries you can always make a belated splinter or Q bid the singleton as a control later in the auction. The 4^th reason is that Bridge is a 4) game of suits ( like Garozzo says ) not a game of singletons. Preserving a jump as a weak suit describes your hand in one bid and can get you to slams , games and sacrifices with ease. The bid also further describes your 2/1 in competition as stronger than these kind of hands

Weak hands with a long suit can easily get shut out by the opponents bidding. Some hands like void 109x xxx KQJxxxx and partner opens 1♥ and they overcall 1♠ is it not nice to bid 3♣ as a descriptive bid to put partner in the picture. You can almost predict LHO will bid 4♠ looking at your void. If you pass or bid 2♥ partner will have no idea what to do over 4♠. If they bid 4♠ you can single handedly back in 5♣ but you are shooting dice. Partner has AKx AQxxx Q10x x and just loves your 5♣ -500 pseudo sacrifice.

After a minor opening and a competitive auction it is silly to play splinters. You have a Q bid to describe those hands with a minor fit and quite often you have a weak jump shift hand you would like to describe in one bid . Playing this treatment helps in interpreting 2/1 bids in competition as it eliminates a class of hands. A weak jump shift in competition is a negative free bid and has many competitive advantages.

x KQJ10xx xxx xxx 1♦-1♠-3♥

Describes your hand in one fell swoop and is pre-emptive

x xx KJ1098xx Q10x 1♥-1♠-3♦

Describes a weak diamond pre-empt . Now a 2/1 in diamonds has to be more healthy .

xxx AKxx x Jxxxx 1♥-1♠-2♠

Why bid 3♦ as a splinter to help them with their competitive decision , opening lead and defense ? You are chasing a rare slam with a “magical fit” is the only plus and you throw away the natural diamond WJS. Revealment vrs concealment in competitive auctions and put pressure on their defense.

Splinters not in competition are a good idea. You do not have the luxury of Q bidding the opponents suit and it describes your hand very nicely for close games and slam tries. In competition the rules change. Having a Weak Jump Shift helps define your 2/1 structure in competition and allows you to get in their with your suit for pre-emptive or descriptive purposes. Negative free bids are hard to play against. Finding a secondary fit fast and “showing where you live” helps for sacrificing purposes and also leaves you better placed to make decisions in competitive auctions.

For those who want to know if partner has a splinter in competition they can use modified Mathe asking bids or something similar. I just prefer a singleton being considered a control and bid as such. Kokish game tries can be used in competition so a singleton is shown by those methods . Why show a splinter if partner is not interested in slam ? Partner has tools to ask for a singleton if he has ideas of bigger & better things...

1♥-1♠-2♠-P

2NT

If partner is slamish , she can bid 2NT which can ask for a singleton after a Q bid.

Mathe used spades to ask for a singleton if hearts were trump and NT to ask if spades were trump . The “serious 3NT” allows you to show your singleton as a control

1♠-2♥-3♥-P

3NT

I have slam aspirations , do you have a singleton or other control so we can investigate duplication of value ?

A jump Q bid is still a splinter whether a minor or major has been opened . 1♥-1♠-3♠-P is obviously a game forcing heart hand with a stiff spade .

Splinters or weak jump shifts as a passed hand are not a good idea. Fit showing jumps are far more useful and the structure allows you to ask for the singleton by using NT if you are interested. You can modify Drury or 2NT to ask for the splinter with the appropriate hands.

When partner overcalls at the one level this is considered “in competition” so splinters should not apply. I like jumps to the two level in a major after partners one level overcall to be strong and forcing one round. This allows one level responses to overcalls to be passed. What about jumps to the 3 level after partner overcalls ? Since a two level bid is forcing one round , these bids can remain as splinters if the partnership agrees.

Splinters over a takeout double are O.K. This is because the opponents have shown the unbid suits so jumping in that suit as natural is not a good idea. This splinter can setup a useful defense as a lead director if they but the contract.

To summarize , more and more bidding tools have ways of asking partner for a singleton . Why announce to the table that you have a singleton if it may be more helpful to the opponents ? Fit showing jumps have minimum NT to ask for singletons , Drury can be modified to ask for a singleton , Mathe asking bids ask for a singleton so preserve the immediate jump to show a natural weak jump shift. A singleton is just a control and can be bid later playing the Italian style of Q bidding. Partnerships then have a piece of the negative free bid pie without actually playing them.