Advanced Decisions
(Courtesy of Bob Crosby)
Two hands came up tonight that merit some discussion. One involves an “advanced Q bid” and the other an advanced sacrifice. First hand involves a rare concept which is an implied Q bid when circumstances change in an auction. I held Axx Kxx Kx QJxxx
Partner opens 1
vul and RHO bids 2
. Normally Q biding their suit shows a limit raise or better in our suit but
I chose not to do it in this hand. If I bid 3
partner can be very poorly placed with flat minimums and no heart stopper. This
could propel us past 3NT which may be are only makeable game. So I jumped to
3NT which brought about 4 to my left
and around to me again. We contracted for a vul game so forcing passes are on. Partners pass means that he prefers offense to defense and shows one or less
hearts. You bid 5 now right ? Wrong
! Your hand is too good. You should make an implied Q bid of 4
first to let partner in the picture. You get rewarded as partner bids 6
which makes for 1370.
Partners hand is QJxx void Axxx AKxxx. He does not know how severe the duplication
of value is in hearts so his pass is the right action. If I double 4H , he
takes his +800 and on to the next hand. If I bid 5
, I put him in a guessing situation for slam when I did not have to do so.
Same match our partners held this hand xxx Q10xxx xxxx x and heard partner
open 2 not vul against vul. Vul RHO
overcalls 2. Your call ? Two schools
of thought on these sort of hands. One is that you conceal your big fit in hopes
that you do not push them to their slam. This would be good thinking if you
have a trick. With this hand you should be preventing them from getting to
7 ! An advance sacrifice of 5
is in order which takes away their Blackwood for exploring seven. The opponents
hand was Qxx A AKQJ KJxxx and when the jam bid was not forthcoming they bid
Blackwood and the 7 which was reached
at both tables for a push. Wasted opportunity for picking up 12 IMPS !!