Thursday, July 25, 2002 2:51 AM

Tactical Bidding - Captain of the Ship

PITBULLS:

Tactical bidding is not single - handed operations that do not involve partner . I have had a series of E-mails with Osama discussing that point and I define "tactical" bidding that does not involve partner as "terrorism" .  If partner gets "blown up" then your tactics are just plain destructive to the partnership and are suicidal . Having defined that term lets examine partners role in tactical bids.

Lets review the concept of “Captain of the ship “. Whenever you have described your hand accurately to partner , she is captain of the ship. The most obvious example is opening 1NT or making a pre-empt . Partner has heard you so let him steer the bidding. Other examples are leaving in penalty doubles. If you have what partner can reasonably expect you to have on the auction and partner makes a penalty double you leave it in. Another not so obvious situation is partner is captain of the ship if you just have just your opening bid. You open 1♦ on xx KJxx AJxxx Ax and LHO the infamous Mr. Willard overcalls 2♣ vul against non vul and partner bids 2♠ as a passed hand. RHO bids 3♣ so what do you bid ? The answer is nothing as you have exactly what you described for your opener and no more. You pass and I re-open with a double . With your doubleton spade and your defensive tricks you pass and you are rewarded with +800 !!

First , it is an obligation that partner be "at the table" . That means be aware of the vulnerability , be aware that partner is a passed hand and know that the opponents own the hand or are competing for it . Being at the table also means  to give some respect for the opponents  bidding ( depending on local knowledge) and drawing inferences from what they did not do or are doing.

I had a very bad result with Subash as we were both operating on the same hand . In tactical bidding , with one exception that I will discuss shortly , only one of the partners should be "captain of the ship" . I was a passed hand not vul against vul opponents and I held

Jxx x AK10xx J10xx      4th seat RHO bid 1♠ and I bid 1NT and LHO doubled . Subash who was not vulnerable and could not open in 3rd

seat but  jumped to 3♦ and RHO passed . Well I thought , partner has got nothing and he hit my 5 card suit and I have my hand degraded defensively so I thought I should put maximum pressure on the opponents by leaping to 5♦ .

Wrong !  Subash was operating , stacked in both majors and he wanted to push them to game  !  He was the "captain of the ship" as he knew more about my hand then I did of his . However after this zero out of 30 match points against the eventual winners of the event , Subash discussed an exception where both sides can enter the fray . He said if he bid 4♦ then he was inviting a sac from either side of the table . This is an interesting nuance .

Subash said that this applied in all conventional bids . Normally when you pre-empt at the  3, or 4 level or use a systemic toy like unusual 2NT , partner is in charge of the auction . The preempter can simply not re-preempt . Subash said there are exceptions with unusual 1NT or 2NT or Michaels bids , weak 2's and pre-emptive jump overcalls .  Subash also agrees with most experts that it is stupid to make unusual 2NT or Michaels bids with intermediate hands so he plays them as pre-empts or very strong hands .

The exception is the jump to the 4 level . If partner bids 2NT and partner jumps to 4 of a minor it suggests a sacrifice from either side of the table . 3 of a minor partner can not bid again as partner is captain of the ship . Subash says the same theory applies over Michaels . A jump is not invitational as a pre-empt is assumed with the original Michaels bid .

                                            2♦

                                   1♦              dbl or pass

                                             3♥                            Suggests a sac from either side if the opponents get to game

 The following treatment I am throwing out for discussion . It is a time honoured tradition that once a weak 2 bid or weak jump overcaller has made his bid and partner has jumped to game he is captain of the ship and only he can bid again . The jump to game is tactical and might bring some unwary opponents into the bidding and a disaster might occur for them. I am rethinking this concept and weak 2's and weak jump overcalls are so variable these days . I think that if partner has the goods he should take the time to bid 2NT first . If he leaps to game then he relinquishes his "captaincy" and either side can bid again .

An example of this bid was Tom and I at the Calcutta in Red Deer . Tom opened 2♠ not vul against vul and I leaped to 4♠ . LHO was the infamous Mr. Willard who bid 5♦ . I had a distributional 4♠ hand but I did not think that 5♠ would make and I did not have the values to punish 5♦ so I passed . 5♦ goes 1 down but 5♠ does make !! Why , well Tom had a void in diamonds . It would be nice that Tom could bid 5♠ based on his void knowing that my 4♠ bid was based on distribution rather then HCP's (i.e. I did not bid 2NT to force ) .

I think the jump over 2NT , Michaels , weak 2's , weak jump overcalls should relinquish the captaincy if the opponents bid and allow both sides in the auction. I know that this negates the concept of “trapping” the opponents into the auction but they seem to come in regardless anyway . Your comments ?