Insufficient Bids

So the other day a couple of my novices were playing in a novice game and one of them made an insufficient bid. The auction was something like the opponents opened the bidding 1♥ and my novice didn't pay any attention to the bid and bid 1♦. She was then told that the bid was insufficient and she had to bid 2♦.

This is untrue.

While it IS true that the bid was insufficient (and thus not allowed) and bidding 2♦ is an option for her it is also true that there are other options.

If this happens you should call the director. Remember the director is your friend and is there to help you understand the rules and the options available to you.

First of all your opponents are allowed to accept the bid. They can (if they want) allow you to still bid 1♦ even if it is an illegal bid. Obviously they would only do this if they feel it is beneficial to them or perhaps feel sorry for you. If you feel they have any feelings whatsoever then look extra innocent and more confused than you usually do. Perhaps the sad puppy face. You might get away with it. In any case that is the first option available. But don't expect most people to accept this bid. They won't.

The next thing you can do is to make your bid sufficient. That means you are allowed to bid 2♦. If you choose to bid 2♦ then there are no more problems on the hand and the director can walk away.

You do NOT however have to choose that option. The last option available to you is to make another bid. If you choose to make ANY other bid (including "Pass") then Partner is now banned from bidding for the rest of the auction. However you still get to bid as much as you want. Partner is not allowed to do anything but Pass.

Now when I first heard that I immediately thought "What a great way to stop Partner from bidding! I can now go crazy knowing Partner can't get excited and bid too much!" However there is something in the rules that state you can't do this. If the opponents feel that you did this deliberately in order to make a bid and ban Partner they can ask for recourse. Sadly the insufficient bid is not allowed to give you an advantage.

But here is another case of when you should call the director. Do NOT assume the opponents know what they are talking about. Sometimes they don't. Even when they do most players only give you the one option. They feel like you should know the others. Why should you? You shouldn't. They also shouldn't tell you what to do but they do. No one wants to bother the director. The director should be called and will explain your options to you in such a way you will understand them.

The other day I was watching a VERY good pair. An insufficient bid was made by one of their opponents (2♦) and one of the good players said "You need to bid 3♦". Now I know he knows there are other options. He does. I also know he would not say that in order to deliberately mislead his opponents or force them to bid something they don't want to bid. He wants to get a good board because he is good -- not because he swindled them. But the good players forget that not everyone knows all their options. They are just trying to get on with the game with the least amount of problems. The less experienced players don't even know the options so they can't be trusted at all. Call the director. Remember too with the invention of the computer, directors these days are just bored out of their minds. Unless they get a director call what do they have to do? The computer does everything! It types in the names, it calculates the scores. By calling the director you keep them active and entertained. It is a win-win situation.

Acting on Unauthorized Information

A bidding situation.

Your hand:
♠A962
♥KQ82
♦J73
♣K5

You open the bidding 1♦, your LHO passes and partner bids 2NT. You play this as 11 or 12 HCP. Your RHO passes. What is your bid?

Pass would be the correct bid. You have nothing more than your opening bid and your partner is not showing an opening hand. If they had an opening hand they wouldn't make a bid you can pass.

No problems, correct?

Now let's say the following takes place. After your partner's 2NT bid your RHO turns to you and asks you how many points 2NT shows. "11 or 12 points" you proudly answer (you are very excited you actually remembered that!)

Partner shakes their head. "No, no. This shows 13-15 points." Oooops! Correcting your partner's explanations is something you need to do AFTER the bidding is over OR (if you are defending) AFTER the hand is over.

But no one notices the infraction (or they choose not to complain) and it is now your bid.

Again your hand is:
♠A962
♥KQ82
♦J73
♣K5

And the bidding has gone 1♦ by you, 2NT by partner whom we now know has 13-15 HCP. What is your bid?

Well, if you bid anything other than what you did originally you are acting on unauthorized information. The authorized information was the 2NT bid by partner showing 11 or 12 points. From that information you have a pass. The unauthorized information was partner telling everyone they have an opening hand and thus you need to bid game. You have to IGNORE that information. This can be very difficult sometimes.

There are all sorts of ways partner can communicate to you:
They frown or look puzzled when you make your explanation.
They give a little gasp and cover their mouth with their hand.
They say "I made a mistake."
They look suspiciously guilty.
They sigh and shake their head.

You have to IGNORE all these signals. The only information you can act on legally is the information communicated in the auction. In this case the bid. 2NT in your system shows 11 or 12. That's all you are allowed to act upon.

Now what happens if partner is right and YOU forgot. You were thinking it showed 11 or 12 but then when partner said 13 to 15 you suddenly remembered that you had, in fact, agreed to that. 2NT IS a forcing bid so you should now be allowed to raise to 3NT.

Sorry, not allowed. Nothing in that auction reminded you, partner reminded you. If you bid now you are acting on unauthorized information which is not allowed in bridge.

What about this situation? Partner bid 2NT. You thought it was 11 or 12. RHO passes. You think. Then you suddenly remember that it was 13 to 15. Are you allowed to bid now?

Of course you are! No one tipped you off. You remembered by yourself. You are good to raise to 3NT.

Let's say the opponents ask and you explain that the bid shows 11 or 12 points. Partner remains poker faced and does nothing. The opponents pass. You decide to think. Now you remember. At this point you can say "I changed my mind. I think the bid shows 13 to 15 points." At this point I let them take back their bid if they want and make a new bid. They probably won't want to in this auction. But again in this situation nothing tipped you off. Partner didn't make a peep. You are free to change your mind and raise partner to game.

Here's what should have happened in this situation:

The 2NT bidder should NOT have said anything. Once the bidding was over but before the opening lead they should now say "My partner made a mistake. My bid shows 13 to 15 points."

What happens if the 2NT bidder made the mistake? The bid is supposed to show 11 or 12 but they have 13 to 15?

If the bid is supposed to show 11 or 12 the 2NT bidder does not have to say anything. When they put their dummy down they will probably say something like "I forgot and I have 14 points, sorry partner" but there is no need to alert the opponents before the opening lead is made.

What happens if you are not sure who made the mistake?

I always think it is good to tell the opponents as soon as the bidding is over and either you or your partner are declarer. It's the fairest thing to do and it's probably not going to give them any sort of advantage.

If you and your partner are defending things are different -- now you can tip partner off that someone has messed up. You now have to wait until the hand is over and then talk to declarer. They can now call the director if they feel they were damaged.

How to use the bidding box properly

The bidding box is a great way to bid in bridge. It is helpful for the hearing impaired and also for the memory challenged. Now one doesn't have to remember what their partner opened -- it is right there in front of them. However, you do have to use it properly.

First decide on your bid. Do NOT reach for the bidding box until you KNOW what you want to bid.

Then reach into the bidding box and grab your bid plus all the cards underneath it.

Pull out your bid and check to make sure that this is indeed what you meant to pull out.

Now place it on the table right in front of you upside down so that everyone can see the bid.

When making subsequent bids place them to the right of the original bid so that everyone can see all bids clearly. This also includes the Pass card.

This sounds so easy -- what trouble could possible occur?

The first thing that could happen is that someone doesn't decide on what they are going to bid before reaching into the bidding box. So say my partner reaches in and pulls out the 1♠ bid then thinks about it for a moment and then reaches for the Pass card and plays that instead. Excellent. What has this action told everyone at the table? That my partner has some ♠ in their hand but couldn't bid them for some reason -- probably not enough points. Now I have some unauthorized information. That means that I received information from an illegal way of communicating. In bridge we are not allowed to act on unauthorized information. That means that I have to IGNORE the fact that my partner mentioned ♠ at all. If this happens at a bridge club the best thing to do is to call the director. The director is there to make sure little irregularities like this do not allow one side to gain an advantage. The director will explain all the rules involved nicely and clearly. That's their job.

Generally this means for me (since my partner made the suspect action) that both my bidding and play could be questioned. As long as I do everything normally things will be fine.

So say this is my hand and the final contract is 4♥ and I need to make an opening lead. What would I lead on this hand?

♠QJT9
♥QT4
♦Q85
♣Q84

Here I think it is clear that the Q♠ is called for. Just because your partner nearly bid 1♠ doesn't mean you are banned from leading a ♠. You are not. This hand has a natural ♠ lead since they do not want to lead away from the Q in all their other suits.

Can the opponents question this lead? Of course they can. They can call the director and say that the unauthorized information lead you to lead a ♠. The director will look at the hand and decide whether or not the information did lead you to make that killing opening lead. Sometimes you can even have a committee get together to decide whether or not your lead was suspect. This rarely happens, but can. The committee then decides whether or not they will allow the lead to stand or change the opening lead and thus the result of the contract. In any case don't worry. No one thinks you are cheating. You are not good enough to cheat. You are still too new.

Let's take a look at another hand you might have had:

♠K7
♥QJT9
♦QT85
♣842

Say the contract is 3NT (bidding was 1NT-3NT) and you are on lead. What would you lead now? Remember that your partner did reach into the box and pull out that 1♠ bid then put it back. Does that help you?

Here a ♠ lead would be very unusual. That information I mentioned was unauthorized, remember? Pretend it never happened. If it didn't happen I think pretty much everyone would lead the Q♥ on this hand. Here if you lead a ♠ (and it works out) the opponents could ask for some recourse because partner pulling out the 1♠ card could certainly have influenced you to lead a ♠.

What else can go wrong with the bidding box?

One can put down the bid without checking to make sure it is the correct bid. If you mean to bid 1♠ but place the 1♥ bid in the table in front of you instead what can you do?

Well as long as you notice the incorrect bid before the next person bids you can simple say "Oooops! I meant to bid 1♠! Let me change my bid." Then place the 1♠ bid in front of you instead. This is allowed because you always meant to bid 1♠.
HOWEVER if you pull out the 1♥ bid intending to bid 1♥ and place it on the table in front of you and then remember that your teacher said to bid 1♠ if you are 5-5 in the majors you are NOT allowed to change your bid. This is now a change of MIND rather than a change of BID. In the first example you meant to bid 1♠ but messed up. In the second example you meant to bid 1♥ but then decided to change your bid after you made it. Sorry, not allowed. Checking the bid before you place it on the table helps to prevent this. (However, everyone messes this up so don't worry if you do also.) Again in a situation like that you can always call the director. They are there to help.

Unauthorized Information - the Stop card

Well there were four dedicated ladies who braved the snowstorm to come out Thursday. That was a blizzard wasn't it? I'll bet we got maybe 30-40 snowflakes out there all afternoon. Not the little ones either -- the big, fat, fluffy ones. (You would think we lived in Toronto for Pete's sake!)

Anyhow, the ones that came out were rewarded by not only bidding but making a slam each! (Except for Nancy who didn't actually get one and didn't want me to make one for her.)

During the session we did get to talking about the Stop card. A few of my novices were wondering if it was okay to use the Stop card after partner opens 1NT and then bid 2♣ to show ♣. That leaves you the option of bidding 2♣ over 1NT for Stayman.

Confused?

That means if partner opens the bidding 1NT you can bid 2♣ (Stayman) to ask for a 4 card major.
It also means if partner opens the bidding 1NT you can first pull out the Stop card and then bid 2♣ to show a weak hand with ♣.

I was pretty impressed with the little rascals for their inventiveness (think of the possibilities for that Stop card now!) but had to inform them that this was, in fact, cheating.

The Stop card should be used only if you are making a jump in the bidding. You do not have to use the Stop card when you are jumping in the bidding but you should make sure you either ALWAYS use it or NEVER use it. It would be very unethical to make a jump bid using the Stop card to show a good jump bid and then make a jump bid without using the Stop card to show a not so great jump bid.

If you and your partner have agreements as to when you will use the Stop card and when you will not use the Stop card you and your partner are probably acting on unauthorized information. This is strictly prohibited in the rules. We will talk more about unauthorized information in later posts. For the time being don't worry so much about breaking the rules. If you are wondering what is proper and what is improper behavior just ask a director. They will be able to explain the rules clearly. That is their job.