Saturday, July 27, 2002 3:02 AM
Tactical Bid Defense - Part 1
PITBULLS:
This is the first of maybe 50 e-mails on defense
against the opponents tactical bids :Finely tuned partnership
understandings are the only defense
against opponents whose mission is to destroy by swinging tactics .
Suicidal pre-empts are a popular tactic for certain types of players who have a
strong club game background.
1. Pre-empts at the 3 level or 2
level
The purpose of these bids are
to be entirely destructive for players like Osama , Maurice & Cabay. They
may have a good suit or a bad suit or outside
stuff or not outside stuff, a 6 or 7 or
8 card suit . They are not interested in getting to their own correct spots
and it would be hit and miss for them if they did. They do not respect
vulnerability and have a “catch me if you can mentality” .
There are tons of
defenses invented for bad pre-empts . Fishbien ,
Smith & Weiss are the most popular . With Fishbien the cheapest
overcall is for takeout and double is for penalty . With Smith the
cheapest club bid is for takeout and double is for penalty and Wiess is cheapest
minor for take-out and double for penalty . These apply in direct seat
only and not in the balancing .
My opinion , if the
opponents have light pre-empts marked on their card or have a "reputation"
, then play one of the 3 gadgets above . I like the cheapest
minor for take-out as that keeps the natural 3♥
and 3♠ overcalls in effect . You only
lose on some minor overcalls which does not seem to be a big loss to me . Dbl
for penalty and 3NT overcalls with long minors and to play come with
the territory .
Playing one of the
gadgets makes balancing easier as partner does not have a stack in the
pre-empters suits . Partner does not have bend over backwards and double with 9
points in the balancing seat . There are some positives in playing one of
these gadgets so I recommend you adopt one of them to play against known "bad
pre-empters" .
O.K.
you do not want to play one of the gadgets above . The best we can
defend against these bids is to treat them like psyches . The best way
to handle psyches is the quick pass and let nature take its course . The
partner of the pre-empter may hang the partnership and let the doubling
commence . The bad pre-empters prey on people who just bid and get
into trouble themselves as they have huge duplication of value in
the pre-empters suits . With a huge stack in the pre-empters suit , do not
bid no matter how many HCP's you have . Partner will have to "sniff
the air" in the balancing seat and make some light doubles for them to
be properly punished . Trapping is the best counter defense to these types of
bidders. Let them destroy themselves or have their partners do it for you !!
Again the
philosophy of not pre-empting over pre-empts apply . 3♦
by the opponents and a 4♥ bid by partner is not
a weak hand .Partnerships differ on how to handle flat NT hands over pre-empts
. Some like to overcall NT directly as it is unlikely partner has a stopper but
is played for values on these auctions . Others like to double with the NT
hands but 3NT is quite often missed . You can go for some pretty horrible sets
for overcalling with a NT hand and some people like a NT overcall to be more
playing strength oriented.
I have a strong
opinion that you do not Michaels over a pre-empt . It is a Goren Q bid showing
a very strong playing hand ( 1 or 2 suiter ) . With Michaels hands you just
overcall and take out doubles are really take out doubles and not a
distributional demand 2 bid that might get converted for penalty or the
opponents jam you from describing it anyway .
4♦
Kx AKxxx void AKQxxx
3♦ 5♦
?
As partner shows a rock ,
forcing passes are on . You do not have to double to show points as
that just shows the opposite .
xxxxxx xx QJ109 x
You can double 5♦ and partner can reluctantly
pass knowing that her distributional
rock has already been shown . 99 out of 100
people who made a take out double will be playing this in 6 clubs going
down instead of plus 800 in 5♦ doubled
The key to bidding
in pre-emptive auctions is describe your hand as quickly as possible
by risking getting into the auction. This puts partner in a
position to make a judgment call . Swingy opponents do not trust each other
anyway so the risk of being doubled is minimal. A take out double or a Michaels bid just confuses things
further . The opponents try to take advantage of you nv vrs vul. On this
vulnerability get in the auction as quickly as possible as it takes pressure
off partner vul in the balancing. Tom Gandolfo opened 2♦ nv vrs Maurice & Susan vul. Maurice held
AKx 109xx AJx Qxx so what should you do ? This is a takeout double on this
vulnerability. Get in quickly to take pressure off partner. You do not have a
diamond stack per se and you have reasonable help for the majors. Susan
balanced 2♥ on a hand that it is very dangerous
to do so on the vulbnerability but the vulnerable game was still missed. When
defending against a bid that could be a pre-mpt like the mult-2♦ get in the auction quickly. Lisa opened 2♦ vul and BJ held Kxx Q9x Axx KQxx not a great
14 HCP. However on this vulnerability get into the auction. A double describes
a NT opening and in this case 14 HCP will have to suffice. BJ passed and Stan
bid 2♠ which is a systemic run out
showing hearts as a preference. Lisa bid 3♥ and
around to be in the balancing so I doubled with a stiff heart , 10 HCP’s and a
5 card spade suit to the Ace. BJ converted for penalties and 3 hooks for them
onside they made 3♥X. Sure they were lucky but
when we opened the score sheet a vul 4♠ game made 3 times. An initial double and we would have reached 4♠ in one bid circumventing a huge disaster.
When partner
doubles a pre-empt what is a Q bid of the pre-empters suit ? One thing it is
not is shortness or a control in that suit . That is silly as the doubler is
supposed to be short in the suit already . It is either a slam try or pick a
suit partner with HCP's appropriate for the level of the bid .
Anyway , I am
writing these e-mails on the premise that Maurice or Osama opened 3 of a suit
and how do you handle it ? If any of you have any other treatments or
understandings that would help us handle these situations speak & write now
or forever hold your peace .