Hi Bobby,

I’m just curious how many top pairs do you estimate would find this play, say in the QF of a major tournament (Vanderbilt, Spingold, Bermuda Bowl)?

In BWTA, how would one bid a spade-diamond two-suiter not quite worth a two clubs opening?

Hi Mircea1,

Yes, of course your proposition is a perplexing one. However, do not underestimate the learned
imagination of a wannabe top player.

This particular spectacular type squeeze is very unusual (I do not ever remember dealing with one, although I am then not sure what to think), but, as you can surely see, the cards remaining with West, except for the low heart spot card, are easily kept up with making the task at hand for West to keep his lowest heart available allowing his partner to win the first heart blowing up the master declarer plan.

In other words a large percentage of great players will see the devastating ending to the defense and this particular hand is very easy to count both offensively and defensively.

However the ending will come down to the offensive and defensive players sitting South and West, testing their attention to detail, with first West feeling the pressure to not throw away his lowest heart, and then South to realize that if he is up to that ploy, then he must know when to cover East’s spot card.

My off-the-cuff answer to you is more than one might think (if the field is up to normal strength), however the last named poisoned flowers will trip some of them up.

Hi Jim2,

Again, you always know what to say and how to say it.

As the TV commercials about various life endangering adventures continually say, “Don’t try this at home!”. Yes, in the absence of previous partnership discussions the 4 diamond bid would only be describing 11 or 12 cards between those 2 suits and a very good hand. However if an aspiring partnership prefers to instead show a self styled great hand with a solid first suit and likely a void in the jumped suit, then “full speed ahead” on to great results, that is, until the first forget which could lead to an immediate bridge divorce.

I certainly wish I knew how to show a smiley for you.

Hi Bobby,
Assuming this was frivolous, 🙂 is one way. Or copy and paste an inserted character from a Word document. If not, apologies for not seeing through it, but I liked today’s hints to Kelsey and Ottlik’s “Adventures in Card Play” plus the quote. Metaphorical minefields are littered with the cratered remains of those who knew they were right and tried to prove it.

Iain

regards,

Iai

Sorry, what I put was : – ) with no spaces and it jumped in. Colon, dash, close bracket / parenthesis if it does it again! I didn’t expect the smiley to come up.

Iain

Too bad the rules of bridge do not allow one to add a descriptor to a bid. Here, “Natural” or “Two-suiter” or “Splinter” would have been nice. Here: the bidding would have gone:

1S (“natural”) —– 1N (“forcing”)
4D (“splinter”)

Then, when one held spades and diamonds, one could say, instead, 4D (“Two-suiter”)

It would make doubles more useful, too, as one could add “Take-out” or “Penalty” to match the occasion.

Redoubles could really benefit from being able to add “Rescue” or “Play”

2D bids could really be great, as one could say “Flannery” or “Precision” or “Weak” or even “Strong” — no longer would one have to open 2C and leave all guessing, as one could say “Strong” and mean a club suit.

One of partners frequently counsels me that “all [his] strange bids are forcing” and I always reply that if I find any bid sufficiently confusing, I reserve the right to pass on the theory that if undoubled, it keeps down the loss while if doubled he would get another bid to rescue himself.

This has brought a measure of discipline to our auctions ….

🙂

Bobby hi
This may be a little flambouyant, but on the BWTA, how about a 2NT response?
The hand has near 7 sure tricks, and hopefully partner can cover the remaining 1.5 tricks needed…

Hi Avi, Bobby,

Is 3N worth a try here if you want to gamble? Occasionally there will be 9 tricks only in both spades and NT; I recall talking myself out of such a bid recently when it would have worked beautifully, albeit after 1H X 2H P when I had a 2-6-3-2 17 count with solid hearts.

Regards,

Iain

Hi Avi & Iain,

Yes Avi, 2NT is a bit flamboyant, but no doubt as Iain has echoed, it might lead to being a bell ringer.

However if so, I prefer to go all the way with Iain’s suggestion to not spare the horses and jump to 3.

To delve deeper, often in reflection, but not always at the table, to do so, at least to me, would be much preferred to not hold a singleton but rather be some form of a 6-3-2-2 hand. The reason being very simply that the double goal of making the contract plus having the more traveled road bid of 4 of the major not be on, is much more likely when no short suits are held since singletons are, of course, often of immense value in suits, but, if anything, a distinct minus in NT.

“You pays your money, you takes your choice”.

Hi Jim2,

I wasn’t trying to neglect your rule change suggestion, only wondering the best way to answer it.

First, many years ago when bridge had captivated interest in the USA and because of Charles Goren and Ely Culbertson, was played by perhaps 40 million Americans as opposed to only about 8 million now (numbers suggested by sample polls), “kitchen bridge” as it was fondly nicknamed was played very close to your recommendation. Instead of Blackwood, yes 4NT was bid, but the vocal bid of however many aces partner had was instead answered vocally in order to simplify the response. Also as a memory enhancer brand new conventions like Stayman and take out doubles were also emphasized orally instead of taking a chance on random memory.

Today, vocal reminders, even with the much more sophisticated attempt at nuances you suggest but were not yet born, (splinters, different meanings of doubles, cue bids, etc) might not be well accepted at bridge clubs since noise travels and at least rabbits would have bugsy advantages.

Of course my deafness is making me biased against, but if you feel so inclined, I promise not to wail out against it.

Is this what they call a ” strip squeeze ” ?