What to Respond?

Playing matchpoints. Neither you not the Opponents are vulnerable.

Here is your hand:
♠K764
♥96
♦QJ83
♣T52

Partner opens the bidding 1♥. The Opponents are silent during the auction. What is your call?

Show Answer

1♠.

You have to bid -- you have at least six points.

Bidding 1NT shows your weak hand but denies having a four card ♠ suit. Partner could also have four.

What to respond?

Playing matchpoints. You are NOT vulnerable and the Opponents are vulnerable.

Here is your hand:
♠KT84
♥KJ
♦J94
♣Q982

Partner opens the bidding 1♦. Your RHO (Right Hand Opponent) overcalls 1♠. What is your call?

Show Answer

The bid I would choose is 1NT.

You do technically have enough points to bid a new suit at the two level but you really should have a five card suit in this auction PLUS your suit just isn't that great.

Plus you are balanced with a stopper in the Opponent's suit. Tell Partner about that without getting too high.

I recommend

For those of you who are bored at home with no bridge to play but don't really want to go online and play with a bunch of strangers I'd recommend the following:
Bridge Base online has a nice set of Declarer Play problems that many players don't know about.

First log onto www.bridgebase.com. If you are not a member you will have to create a membership to do this. (You can play without becoming a member but this is different.) The membership is free and quick and easy to do.

Once you are on the Home Page you will see several options under "PLAY OR WATCH BRIDGE"

You want the last option -- "Practice"

When you click on Practice it gives you three options.

You want the last option -- "Bridge Master"

Yes, they could have worded that differently (like maybe "Declarer Play Problems"?) so you'd know what you were getting into but they didn't.

This is the section that you want.

This part contains a series of DECLARER PLAY ONLY problems. You are shown the bidding and presented with the final contract. Now you have to make it. I like that because you are not allowed to slack off and play in game only when there is a slam to be had!

You have five difficulty levels -- Level 1 (Beginner) through to Level 5 (World Class). Each Level is further subdivided into A, B and sometimes C and D. Each sublevel has about 30+ Declarer Play problems in them. That is quite a few to keep you entertained.

Don't be fooled by their names. These are TOUGH. Even the Beginner ones I would say start off easy and beginner like but quickly turn into what I would consider more Intermediate.

These are all about MAKING YOUR CONTACT. Don't worry about those overtricks -- play safe to make.

You are allowed to try them as many times as you'd like and if you get stumped there are solutions available that you can click through. You can even get a first little hint and then just try the problem again.

Anyhow a nice change from playing online and you will definitely learn something from these! Enjoy!

P.S. If you don't want to play with strangers on BBO but do want to play then you and your friends can set up a nice, fun table and just play amongst yourselves. Just make the table PRIVATE. Email your friends and ask them what their userid is. Then set up a time to play with people you know. That way when we all go back into the clubs you won't have forgotten what an Ace is!

What to Rebid?

Playing matchpoints. Both you and the Opponents are vulnerable.

Here is your hand:
♠KQJ96
♥Q93
♦9872
♣A

Your RHO (Right Hand Opponent) is Dealer and says "Pass". You decide to open the bidding 1♠. The Opponents are silent during the auction. Your Partner responds 2♥. Just a Standard American 2♥ bid. Not game forcing.

What is your call?

Show Answer

I'm happy with pretty much any bid you are willing to make that has a ♥ beside it. (I'm confident you won't bid too high!)

So 3♥ is a fine bid (perhaps is an underbid but just how good is your singleton A♣? You'd much rather that Ace be in the ♦ suit. But it's not.

If you are not worried about these pesky little details and wish to count three points for your singleton then bid 4♥. This is perhaps an overbid.

However you DO need to support Partner's ♥ suit! They should have a FIVE CARD SUIT. This is the one auction where Responder promises a five card suit right away...

and you do have three card support.

Climactic finale

Playing matchpoints. You are vulnerable. The Opponents are not vulnerable.

Here is your hand:
♠AQ84
♥AK9
♦K954
♣J4

This is the thrilling conclusion to this hand.

So far the bidding has been:

Opener	US!
1NT	2♣
2♥	4NT

To review. Partner opened the bidding 1NT. WE had a 1NT opening hand! WOW! So since we do have a four card major we started with Stayman. Partner has to respond. Partner responded 2♥ to let us know they have four ♥. We didn't have a fit there so bid 4NT to find out if Partner was minimum or maximum -- plus we were secretly hoping they would be able to support our ♠ suit. Over our 4NT bid Partner says.....

5NT.

What they heck? That isn't even a response!

What is your bid? What do you think Partner is showing? Maybe think about what they DON'T have. Might make it easier.

Show Answer

First of all I don't think Partner has four ♠. We've got no fit or Partner would have said some number of ♠. So that suit is out.

I also don't think Partner has 17 HCP. If they did then they should just man up and bid 6NT.

Plus I don't think Partner has 15 HCP. If they did they could have said "Pass"

Hmmm. Partner is probably in the middle. They can't quite decide whether or not to go and want us to make a call.

We've got our maximum (17 HCP) so we should say 6NT.

Partner's hand:
♠JT7
♥QT84
♦AQ
♣AKT3

Our Hand:
♠AQ84
♥AK9
♦K954
♣J4



The important card is the K♠. The finesse was on so you had four ♠ tricks which means 12 tricks in total. Good job!

Even if the ♠ finesse lost you had other finesses to try so it was a good slam to be in.

Now what?

Playing matchpoints. You are vulnerable. The Opponents are not vulnerable.

Here is your hand:
♠AQ84
♥AK9
♦K954
♣J4

Partner opens the bidding 1NT. The Opponents "Pass" throughout the auction. We decided last post to respond 2♣. This is Stayman asking Partner if they have a four card major.

Partner responds 2♥. What does that tell you about Partner's hand?

What is your bid? What does you bid show/ask?

Show Answer

First of all Partner's bid says they have at least four ♥. (They might have five if you sometimes open 1NT with a five card major.)

It does not say how many points they have. They could have 15 or 16 or 17.

Plus they could still have four ♠. They didn't deny having four ♠. We might still have a fit.

Hmmm. If Partner has 16 or 17 HCP you want to be in a small slam. You have 17 and together with 16 (or 17) makes 33 (or 34) points which is more than enough for a small slam.

But if Partner only has 15 HCP you don't want to be in a small slam.

Plus we could still have a fit! How do we ask if Partner is minimum or maximum while showing four ♠?

4NT. This is quantitative saying "Partner if you are minimum just "Pass" but if you are maximum bid 6NT."

"But what about my ♠ suit?! How do I show that?!" I can hear you say.

You already told Partner you have four ♠. You bid Stayman. You have a four card major. Since you can't have four ♥ (Partner said they had four ♥ and if you had a fit you would have bid some number of ♥) but you have a major you must have four ♠. With no four card major you don't bid Stayman.

So 4NT in this auction shows about 16 or 17 HCP with a four card ♠ suit! Perfect.

The climactic finale is coming up next post.

Responder

Playing matchpoints. You are vulnerable. The Opponents are not vulnerable.

Here is your hand:
♠AQ84
♥AK9
♦K954
♣J4

Partner opens the bidding 1NT. Your RHO (Right Hand Opponent) passes. What is your call?

Show Answer

It's a tough one. YOU were going to open the bidding 1NT. But don't panic. First thing you need to do is to find out if you have a four-four ♠ fit.

How do you do that?

Stayman!

Your bid is 2♣.

Stay tuned for next post to see what happened!

Responding

Playing matchpoints. Both you and the Opponents are vulnerable. You and your Partner are playing SAYC (Standard American Yellow Card) so nothing fancy.

Here is your hand:
♠J76
♥K75
♦AQ86
♣874

Partner opens the bidding 1♣. Your RHO (Right Hand Opponent) overcalls 1♠. What is your call?

Show Answer

It's a tough one. I don't think you have a bid. "Pass" is your best call.

Now of course you do have ten points so you can bid at the two level but what will you bid? You are supposed to have a five card suit now to bid 2♦.

Plus bidding 2♦ forces the partnership to at least 2NT. That's if Partner has a stopper in the Opponent's suit. Which they may not.

If Partner has no stopper you are at the three level at least.

With maybe no fit.

Hmmm.

All this can be avoided if you just "Pass" right now. If Partner is strong they can bid again. Then you can go crazy.

In this case your RHO gets to play in 1♠. No one else can take a bid!

They take eight tricks for 110 points to them.

If you bid 2♦ (because what else could you bid???) your Partner will raise you with only three ♦. (They are allowed to and they have nothing else to say -- they have no ♠ stopper!) You panic and "Pass" but you are at least two levels too high. You go down two (if you play it well) and that gives the Opponents 200 points. Not so good.

I just really hate that balanced hand.

Open or Pre-empt?

Playing matchpoints. You are vulnerable and the Opponents are not vulnerable.

Here is your hand:
♠Q8
♥AQT972
♦83
♣QT5

You are Dealer. What is your call?

Show Answer

2♥.

This shows a weak hand with a good six card suit.

Don't worry that your hand it too good to open a weak 2. You are vulnerable and the Opponents are not so Partner will expect a decent hand.

Besides you don't have much defence and Partner will expect a stronger hand if you open the bidding 1♥.

Even the Rule of 20 says to open 2♥ -- not 1♥.

Rule of 20 says to count your HCP (you have ten) and add that to the length in your two longest suits (you have six cards in your longest suit and three cards in your second longest suit so that makes nine total) and if that value is twenty or more you should consider this an opening hand. But ten plus nine is only nineteen. Not an opening hand.

If you do use the Rule of 20 you should also consider that your high card values should be in your LONG suits plus most people play you should have two quick tricks on the hand. Either two Aces or a Ace and King together or an Ace with two side Kings -- something like that.