12th December – Board 22: East/West
Game. Dealer East.
Freak hands are notoriously
hard to bid because there is very little guidance in the textbooks due to the
infrequency with which they occur. I have to be honest and say I have no idea
how the featured hand should be bid, only how we did bid it to a sub-optimum contract.
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North:
S K Q 6 2
H Q 7 4
D 8
C J 9 8 6 2
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West:
S A J 5
H K J 9 3 2
D J 6
C A Q 7
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East:
S 9 7
H none
D A K Q 9 7 5 4 3 2
C K 4
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South:
S 10 8 4 3
H A 10 8 6
5
D 10
C 10 5 3
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West
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North
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East
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South
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1D
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No
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1H
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No
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5D
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No
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6D
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End
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We
gained a swing because they opened 5D at the other table, which was passed out,
but the hand is the king of clubs too good for that. Also the hand is totally
unsuitable for any strong two opener because there is so little defensive
value. Hence the rather agricultural sequence we adopted. Feeling that perhaps
I hadn’t done enough as West I was relieved when the ace of hearts was led but
saddened when declarer ruffed and claimed the lot!
Dave
ReplyDeletewhat do you mean no defensive value?
chris s
When you open an old fashioned Acol 2 with eight playing tricks you are expected to have a hand not only with a good suit but with several high cards outside - or defensive values as they are know.So you would consider SAKQxxx HAxx DKQJ Cx to be an Acol 2 but not SAKQJxxxx Hxx Dxx Cx even though both have eight tricks.
DeleteAs I see it there are at least three ways to bid it:
ReplyDeletea) 1D then jump to 3.
b) 1D then keep the bidding open with forcing bids (for example 2C), to extract as much information from the partner as possible.
c) I would use Benji Acol for every hand that can almost make a game on its own, from almost entirely one long suit. So in the next bid I'd bid 3D. This defines the suit and every subsequent bid is que bid.
Nick M
The trouble with opening 1D and then rebidding 3D is that the bid is not forcing if partner has only responded at the one level. And bidding suits you haven't got just confuses partner to an alarming degree. While I agree that opening 2D (Benji) with a game going hand is an excellent idea, on the hand in question you don't even know that you can make more than 3D as you could easily lose four black tricks on a different layout. So to my mind it comes down a little bit to luck.
ReplyDelete