Responding to Partner

Here is your hand:
♠73
♥Q
♦QJ9765
♣9765

Partner is Dealer and opens the bidding 1♠. Your RHO says "Pass". It is your turn to bid. You are vulnerable and the opponents are not. You are playing matchpoints. What is your call?

Show Answer

Answers: Your choices are to "Pass" or to bid 1NT. There are no other options.

I'm good with either. You do not have the 6 HCP you are supposed to have to respond to Partner's bid but it's an aggressive game these days. Sometimes you've just got to bid.

That is where 1NT comes in. This says "Partner I have 6 to 10 HCP and I do NOT have three ♠".

Responding 1NT is this auction does NOT guarantee a balanced hand.

If you bid 2♦ you told Partner you had at least 10 HCP. Partner might get a little excited!

Defence

DEFENCE! Defence is VERY difficult. Too many things to keep track of and you have NO IDEA what Partner has! But we all have to defend at times. So it is best to get used to it. (Or bid more.)

Here is your hand:
♠JT73
♥QT73
♦Q5
♣J74

The contract is 1NT. Your RHO opened the bidding 1NT and was allowed to play there. It is your lead. So what will you lead?

This hand lead a ♠. Technically if you are to lead a ♠ from this holding against NT, you should lead the 3♠. This hand lead the J♠. Not so bad as it turns out.

Dummy comes down with:

	Dummy ♠K5 ♥642 ♦J982 ♣A653
Us! ♠JT73 ♥QT73 ♦Q5 ♣J74		RHO ???
	Declarer ???

Declarer plays small from Dummy. Partner plays a card and Declarer plays a card. You WON the trick!

At this point you might be thinking that you should maybe have paid attention to what the other people played. You didn't. But they probably all followed suit and you don't give signals to each other anyhow (too complicated!) so it wouldn't matter if you did pay attention. It is now your play. What do you do?

Show Answer

You SHOULD decide that it is a GOOD thing you won that trick and continue with a low ♠. Partner ducked their A♠ which was a good thing or Declarer would get two tricks from the suit rather than just one trick.

If you are allowed to win the Jack on the opening lead, chances are Partner has some higher cards in that suit. If Declarer had the Ace, King and Queen in that suit they might have won your Jack.

Rebids

Here is your hand:
♠Q752
♥AQJ7
♦AJ62
♣A

You are Dealer. What do you open the bidding?

I think most players would open this 1♦. This shows at least three ♦ and 13 (good 12?) or more HCP.

Your Partner now bids 1♥. That shows at least four ♥ and at least 6 HCP.

What will you bid over Partner's 1♥ response?

Show Answer

How about 4♥? This would show four ♥ and about 19 to 21 points.

You have 18 HCP and 3 Dummy point for your singleton. True a singleton Ace is not as good as it appears. You'd prefer you had the A♠ and a small singleton ♣ BUT a singleton is still good and even if you counted one extra point for it you are still good to bid game.