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TL's answer
TL's answer
1. Partner pass , Rh Oppo pass , Sth at 3rd seat , 9hcp , 8cd C , shape 1 3 8 1
2. Typical Sth bid 4C
3. Nuances of preempt is by p/s agt - eg promise good suit? , can hv 4 or 5cd side suit? , can hv void ?
4. With 8cd , typically preempt at 4 level
5. There are exceptions where will preempt at 5 ( not 4) level with 8cd suit
(a) Oppo likely to make 4H or 4S & Sth intends to bid 5C if Oppo goes to 4th level
(b) Vulnerability - is sacrifice worthwhile ?
(c) Possibility to make 5C
(d) Preempting at 3rd seat after 2 passes - imply LH oppo strong - make preempt useful
6. Preempt bid is most effective if done at the max level right away , to make Oppo communication difficult ( for oppo to find their suit fit & less chance for them to double Sth )
7. Never preempt at lower level than what’s universally indicated by the number of cards.
8. Purpose of preempt
(a) Get in
(b) Take up as much bidding space as possible
(c) Get out
(d) Don’t want to be bidding again
(e) The only time Sth bids again is when partner forces us to do
JM's commentary
JM's commentary
The keypoint here is : When you preempt, you preempt as high as possible. You need to be aware of losing trick count, the scoring/vulnerability
But that begs the question: (A) when do you preempt? (B) how high is high?
The following factors matter: (1) how likely is your opponents going to make game or slam? (2) vulnerability and the scoring
For this deal, your hand has only 9HCP, but 5 losing trick count only. You are non-vul vs opponents vul. Partner has shown a less then opening hand (say 10 pts or less).
(1) How likely is your opponents to make game or slam? Game - almost certain (and in the majors). Slam - possibly (and also in the majors). It is entirely possible that opponents have no losers in clubs, so that makes your AH the sole winner of a trick. If your partner is also fairly weak, we are looking at a slam. If your partner has about 10 pts, game for the opponents in 4H or 4S is also very likely.
(2) vulnerability and the scoring.
If the opponents make 4H/4S, they score 620 pts (your score is -620). If they double you (non-vul) and you go down 3 (see this link : https://sites.google.com/view/learningbridge-by-jm/articles/bidding/sacrificing-and-scoring) you score -500 pts. Only if you go down 4, then its not worth it.
If the opponents can make slam 6H/6S, they score 1430 pts (your score is -1430). If they double you (non-vul) and you go down 6, you score -1400 pts and its still better than letting them make 6H/6S!
Having considered factors (1) and (2), let's return to (A) and (B)
(A) Since your partner has passed, and you have only 9HCP (of which the clubs are potentially useless), opponents are almost certain to have game or slam. On the other hand, if the trump suit is clubs, there are only 5 losers - the strength of your hand goes from almost useless to very useful just by the change of the trump suit! this is a very clear indication you should pre-empt!
(B) how high should you pre-empt? As high as possible. Please don't plan to preempt cheaply at first and then plan to up your bid - that rarely works.
In this case, you have 5 losers. if your partner has about 8-10 pts, he may have 2-3 winners for you. You might actually make 5C!
if your partner has less than that, and you bid 5C, you might go down only 2-3 tricks doubled! Even against game, that is ok. Against slam, it is a big swing.
if you bid 4C (because you "only have 8 clubs"), you risk opponents just swooping in and bidding 4H or 4S over your 4C and making it. When they do this, its too late to bid 5C - they have the information they need and might even arrive at slam!
JB's answer
JB's answer
The objective in this video is to help us to decide whether to finesse or not finesse.
In this real game, the auction was won by NS in 6NT with South as the declarer.
The opponents (west) led the 4S and dummy’s hand came down. As this is a NT contract, we assess the hand by counting the winners. We have 8 winners (ie spades (1), hearts (4) & clubs (3). We don’t have any in diamond winners because we are missing the Ace despite having an 8-carder diamond suit with the king, queen and jack). We need to win 12 tricks but have only 8 winners. The 4 tricks in diamonds will only come good, after the ace of diamonds has been driven out.
However, this is not the issue at hand. The real issue here is what card do we play at the first trick.? Bearing in mind that EW has 7 carder spades suit, do we play high or do we play low,. If we play high (the Ace) NS chance of winning the contract is ZERO %, but if we play low, NS has a 50% chance of winning the game depending on whether it is east or west who has the King(S). If west has the king(S) NS will make the contract but if east has the king(S) NS will go down by one trick, since EW also has the Ace(D).
But it could get a lot worse for NS, if west has King(S) and say Jack (S) or 10 (S) and declarer plays the Ace(S). When east gets to play, east can play towards the King and either Jack(S) or 10 (S) in west hands and NS can do down 3 or 4 tricks – a disaster!!
JM's commentary
JM's commentary
The key point is that you always need to may consider scenarios or possibilities in the play. A common pattern is that after the cards come down, you may "see that you can't make the contract unless the cards are just so". In which case, you play as though the cards are in fact placed just so.
Another way to say this is : "It aint over till the fat lady sings".
Remember also, its not what your absolute score is that matters - its how you do relative to other pairs. If everyone bid to 6NT, and everyone went down, then it matters by how much you went down.
In this case ....
You cannot make the contract unless your only loss is to the AD.
Scenario 1. if you win with the AD in dummy, there is no way to make the contract. What makes it worse is that once the opponents gain control, you may be down more than just the one or two tricks. It could be massively down.
Scenario 2. if you play low with 3S, then either the KS is on your left or right.
(A) if the KS is on your left, then hurray, you will make.
(B) if the KS is on your right, then you only are 1 under trick.
In other words, with scenario 1. You are 100% gauranteed to go down - 50% go down 1 trick and 50% go down many tricks. With scenario 2, you have a 50% chance of making.
MC's answer
MC's answer
When partner opens the bid at 1H and opponent over call with 2D. Do not get over excited even you are holding a hand of 15 HCP and 3 cards support in H.
Although you and your partner have a minimum combination of 27 HCP and 8 cards fit in Heart, jumping straight to 4H response poses 2 issues:
You may miss slam if partner has more than 12 HCP.
If opponent makes an over call of 5D, partner may face difficulty to decide if he should bid 5H.
Therefore, cue-bidding with 3D provides partner the strength of your hand. Partner can make better informed decisions.
Moral of the story - exchange of precise information is vital in bidding. Treasure the bidding spaces to establish the best contract to play.
JM's answer
JM's answer
The key point is to bid as descriptively as possible, so that your partner can do the right thing. The immediate 4H raise mis-describes South's hand as "5 hearts and preemptive - may have very few points". Because of the mis-description, North may do the wrong thing.
If West bids on with 5D, North may pass, instead of raising further, bidding 5H and making.
If North is strong or has a good shape (e.g. void in diamonds, 14HCP), with a possibility of a slam, North will never try for slam.
Additionally, with a cuebid, opener has a chance to exactly describe his hand : 3H rebid (minimum), 4H rebid (probably good 13 or 14HCP). Which responder (with a stronger hand) may try for slam.
Additional Commentary
Additional Commentary
I will take this opportunity to repeat the description of cuebid limit raise in competition. It is the most common technique (and therefore one of the most important) you can use in competitive bidding.
When the cuebid limit raise is part of your agreement, that means that any raise of your partner's suit in competition is potentially pre-emptive, going by the Law of Total Tricks. Your partner will adjust. After 1H, and opponent overcalls 2D, Responder's
2H means probably a 3 or 4 cd support. From a HCP point of view, probably 6-9 pts. With a 4 cd support, responder can prepare to raise further to 3H (LOTT) later.
3H means 4 cd support (LOTT) and as low as 4HCP (which some club players will do) but 8/9 HCP and below. Opener will usually pass unless shes got some fantastic hand (like 18/19HCP and some shape).
4H means 5 cd support (LOTT) and as low as 4HCP but 8/9 HCP and below. Note that 1H-4H (without interference) is also an application of LOTT.
Then a bid of 3D (cuebid) means "Support for partner's suit and 10+ pts". Note that you may actually have much more than 10 points. But you force your partner to rebid 3H (minimum) or 4H (good opening hand) - again a descriptive bid. Note that it is unlikely, but it happens that you may sometimes cuebid your partner when you have reason to believe a slam is possible - you just want him to tell you if he's a mnimum or not.
i.e. a 3H or 4H raise after opponent bids 2D is now considered pre-emptive/competitive. It is replaced by 3D (cuebid), which invites partner to bid game in H if he has a bit more than minimum.
This should be alerted. My regular partner likes to explain it this way when asked to explain the cuebid : "Invitational to game with heart support".
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