Wednesday, November 06, 2002 4:18 PM
Hand Evaluation
PITBULLS:
A guy by the name of Milton Work invented the HCP
system used in Bridge . He did this by studying thousands of hands where a game
makes and came up with the guidelines of an Ace = 4 , K = 3 , Q = 2 and J =1 and a 26 HCP total for a game . These guidelines are
reasonably accurate but in practice the evaluation is slightly off . Aces and
Kings are actually worth more than his scale indicates and queens and jacks
less.
Aces
and Kings are also called controls and control asking bids , Blackwood and Q
bidding attempt to identify them in bidding . These cards are very important
for timing in slams and games, entries for squeezes and suit establishment etc
. If your hand is “rich in controls” in other words a clear absence of queens
and jacks your hand is far more valuable for slam or game purposes . You give
your hand some additional “virtual” HCP and overbid with it . Most of the time
positive results occur.
O.K.
Lorna gave us a hand from Banff .
xxx
KQxx AKx Axx The hand is opened 1NT and partner bids 2♦ . You
bid 3♥ which in your system shows a maximum with 4♥ . Partner makes a slam try of 3 spades and you play
along by bidding 4♣ and partner is “all in” and bids 4♥ . Now what ?
Partner is “Captain of the ship” when you open 1NT and she has just
signed off in 4♥ . You
have already jumped to show your extra and Q bid when asked to do so . You have
a 4-3-3-3 distribution which is not a good feature of the hand .
When
partner has launched a slam try she has relinquished her captaincy and allows the 1NT to bid again . Your hand is all controls whereas you could
have had a number of sub standard queens and jacks and bid the same way . The
only queen in your hand is the trump queen which is also valuable . Your AK of
diamonds might be the cards that stopped partner from bidding again . I think
your hand is just too rich in controls
not to make one last try . I would
bid 5♦ and see what that does .
Partners
hand is A Jxxxx xx KQJ10x and
there is a strong case for that hand to make one more try also rather than bid
4♥ . Suggested bids would be 4♠ ( second round control ) or 5♣ ( second round
control ) . However the 4H bid should not
have ended this auction . The Bartons would have had a field day
with their control asking system and the NT bidder would have answered 6
controls which is two above the average of 4 controls for a 1NT opener .
Blackwood would have found 3 Aces and the queen of trump – all positives for
slam bidding .
Another
hand from Banff where apparently noise could be heard all through southern
Alberta . Peter Jones and Gordon Campbell had a bidding mix up with new minor
forcing .
AQxxxx
KJ Kxx xx
Gordon opened 1♥ and Mr. Jones responded one
spade . Mr.
Campbell bid 2♣ and Mr. Jones bid 2♦ . So far so good . Gordon now bid 2NT and Mr. Jones
showed his 6 card suit by bidding 3♠ . Mr. Campbell now bid 4♣ and here is where the
wheels fell off . Did the 6 card spade suit cause this bid and partner now
loves his Kx of spades or is partner just showing extra which he has not had a
chance to show yet ? Mr. Jones
assumed spade support and Mr. Campbell was just showing extra . This caused a
dangerous decibel reading in Banff which may have stampeded some Elk .
In
my opinion , the problem is with the 4th suit forcing understanding
that 2NT is ambiguous anywhere from 12 to 19 HCP . As I said in a previous
E-mails , this ambiguity causes more experts to screw up then any other bid.
There is no room for such a wide range in one bid . I recommended in a previous
E-mail that a jump to 3NT (15-17)
should get the bid off your chest and you have immediately showed your
extra. You do not have to go into contortions later to convey that message to
partner . 3NT would have ended this auction rather quickly . With no spade
support from partner , Peter would have passed quietly J