The Aces on Bridge: Sunday, November 1st, 2015
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One of the issues I struggle with is whether to open borderline hands in first seat. For example I held ♠ Q-10-7-2, ♥ A-8-3, ♦ Q-7-3 ♣ A-9-4. First seat vulnerable, do you open? And does vulnerability affect your call? Head-Scratcher, Pleasanton, Calif. While to a certain extent this is more about style than anything else, you DO have two quick tricks and a good holding in the master suit. Your aces are undervalued even though your honors are scattered and the 4-3-3-3 pattern is a negative. Incidentally, I always like jack-less hands, if you can find a fit. In summary, though: get in cheaply at low risk, at any vulnerability if you can.
I am organizing an in-house duplicate game, and wonder how long to allow for a bridge hand to be played. My weekly rubberbridge group always goes too slowly for me, what with players chatting and too much time devoted to eating and drinking. How are tournaments timed and organized? Martinet, Sunbury, Pa. Fifteen minutes for two hands is a decent pace, with 17 minutes the most you should allow. In serious competition eight minutes a deal is what is generally budgeted for.
What would you open with ♠ A-9-7-4-2, ♥ A-Q, ♦ A-K-J-9-6-5, ♣ —? I opened one diamond, planning to reverse or jump shift over a response of one heart, then bid spades again. My rationale was that the suit quality was such that the length difference was more like two cards than one, and I would never be able to show my true strength if I opened one spade. My partner felt that with five spades I should open one spade. Canape Diane, Olympia, Wash. |
You are right and they are wrong. Contrast the inelegance of bidding spades then jumping in diamonds (when you won’t know which suit to play if you receive preference to spades) That is by contrast to bidding diamonds then jumping and rebidding in spades, when you can trust your partner to make an informed decision.
Recently in a club game I determined after both sides had taken several bids that my partner was balanced and “had” to have points in clubs (which were never bid). That was all I needed to bid and make three no-trump, which duly scored us well. Would an expert ever make such a bid in normal circumstances? Riverboat Ron, Lorain, Ohio With enough high cards you can sometimes gamble out a stop if you are sure partner is balanced. You might even play no-trumps without a stopper in the opponents’ suit if you have a source of tricks, and can infer neither opponent has more than four cards in the danger suit. This is not unknown after for example, a Flannery opening, or after the opponents raise opener’s second suit.
In the Fayetteville Observer a recent column mentioned how to tell your partner when answering Blackwood if you had a void. Could you run through the scheme again for me please? Merry Andrew, Nashville, Tenn. With no aces, ignore the void. With one or three aces (or keycards) jump in the suit you have a void in, or if that suit is higher than the trump suit, jump in the trump suit. A response of five no-trump shows two aces and a void. Caveat: it must be a useful void, thus not in partner’s suit. |
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Dear Bobby Wolff,
Love you to bits… but you’re a fink for not completely answering Head-Scratcher in today’s column. So what would you actually bid with their cards? Weak no trump??? One spade??? Or do carry another bid in your arsenal to cover this type of situation?
When I moved to Texas in 2000, one of the joys I knew I would be having is being able to daily read your column in the Dallas paper – all this before I got computer savvy enough to realize I could find you on the web. And BTW, one of my dreams is/was to actually play bridge with/against you or observe your play somewhere. I’d drive to Houston (isn’t that where you are?) to be able to watch you or more. Do you have something set up like that?
Most sincerely , a great fan for years,
Keith Fleming
Coordinating Dance Musician at Texas Woman’s University
Controversial questions this week.
Frank Stewart would scoff at opening a flat 12 count in first or second position. He would worry about being driven to game with any old opening hand. Even opposite Axx/Kxx/Axx/Kxxx I don’t really like my chances. In pairs these hands inevitably produce a swing one way or another. Some people open on almost anything and others insist on soundness. It is a total guess who can make anything.
Steve Robinson noted that he would open 1S holding 65432/-/-/AKQJT987! That’s not my style personally but more because I would pretend the straight was only 4-cards. Save that hand for poker, Richard Pavlicek once told me. But with a halfway decent suit as in the question hand, I’d be inclined to bid it figuring that if we have a fit there, we might as well be in the boss suit.
Great question SLAR.
Looking forward to Mr Wolff’s response.
In the column response he mentioned it being somewhat a matter of style. From this Blog, and other reading, over time, I have fully bought into the value of getting in there to fire the first shot if you can find a good excuse to do.
Having said that, perhaps one has to balance aggressive bidding against one’s playing ability to pull it off in the play. Seems possible that an Intermediate Pair’s bidding could outrun their playing ability.
Hi Slar, Bobby,
That black suit hand strikes me as either a really twisted gambling 3N or a more sensible 5C opening. Any thoughts,
regards,
Iain
Hi Keith,
Great stuff, but coming clean, I was born in San Antonio, attended college in both Austin and San Antonio, moved North to Dallas in 1968, West to Ft Worth in 1999, back to Dallas in 2002 and finally West again to Las Vegas since 2005.
However, my mother was born and lived in Houston, so I paid that great city homage also.
In deciding whether to open the bidding or not, my preference is to favor aggression since bridge, being a bidder’s game, seems to follow the luck in bidding as often as one can muster.
Is Texas Womens University in Denton or Austin? Whatever, it is exciting to hear from you and do appreciate your keeping in touch. Our paths have yet to directly cross, but since both of us are still very young who knows what may happen?
Never let your positive enthusiasm decline. The world is sorely in need of more like you.
Best to you and yours!
Hi Slar,
When one either opens the bidding or declines, it is merely a step toward communicating. There are so many random events which happen later which, together with adept card play and experienced judgment, can produce a winning style. However the first move is totally random like meeting a new person and guessing what may happen, good or bad, later.
Hi Clarksburg,
Yes, to play the dummy well, does help in bidding often. However one also learns more when he is aggressive and thus gains more experience at dummy play.
Aggression feeds on aggression, but the end product takes time, making it so in bridge to usually be well worth it.
However, to each his own. One’s individual style is most certainly his own, but whatever.
Mind the discipline and whichever direction one chooses will be OK, at least that is what it says here, and I listen to myself.
Hi Iain,
I would open that 5-0-0-8 black hand either 5 clubs most of the time, but if I felt in a gambling mood, perhaps instead, 6 clubs.
The only other alternative would be one club (a more sensible handling) but all that would likely do is create problems later instead of sooner, when the opponents would be more likely to have lost the bidding room they need to compete effectively if something high by your hand starts it off.