Thursday, April 26, 2007 11:26 PM

Terrorist Vulnerability - Sacrificing

PITBULLS:

The opponents are vulnerable and you are not so the mathematics of Bridge are in favour of you “getting in there”. Do Q bids change on the Terrorist vulnerability ? When the opponents pre-empt ( 3 level ) with you Q bid directly , I like to revert to Goren style Q bids. This Q bidding shows a strong playing hand possibly up to strong 2♣ opener range. This direct Q bid is either a demand two bid or a powerful playing hand with two suits. With a two suiter with quick tricks , I prefer to double over a pre-empt as the double gives partner more options I can always equal level convert to get my two suits into the fray. Equal level conversion is just another scrambling mechanism.

What about a belated Q bid ? Is these such an animal ? Yes there is on the terrorist vulnerability and it is defined to be any two suiter. Tonight the opponents opened 3♣ vul & I held ♠x ♥Qxxxx ♦KQJ9x ♣xx on the terrorist vulnerability. You still must be reasonably disciplined on this vulnerability so I passed. They bid 3NT and around to me. It appears you have “630” to play with so what do you do ? Here is where the belated Q bid comes in. You bid 4♣ and partner bids her best suit by scrambling up the line. She held ♠AQxxx ♥K109x ♦xx ♣xx and bids 4♥ . This gets doubled and you go one down for –100 and +630 was cold. The alternative bid is just to bid 4♦ as a sacrifice. As partner has no input, you are just guessing. This contract also gets doubled and with the diamonds 5-1 you go for –800. Quite a difference for not allowing partner to become part of the decision…

Q bids in general are over used. However , two suiters are impossible to describe with one bid. Using the opponents suit as a starting point , brings partner’s input into the decision. No the bid is not Michaels as that is just too restrictive. It could be 5-5 in the majors but not necessarily. Enter the scrambling Q bid to find our best sacrifice !!