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Quiz - one hand, six questions

Dear BBOers, have a go at this bidding problems. Your overall score will be displayed, along with the correct answers once you’ve complete the exercise. Good luck!

What will you bid with these hands?

One hand - six questions

One hand - six questions

Nowadays, everyone wants to open 1NT even when they have a five-card major. What was forbidden yesterday has become fashionable today. But beware of abuse!

Hand 1

E/W Vul.
As South, you hold:

How do you open that hand?

Answer:

b) 1♠

It’s becoming more and more fashionable to open 1NT with a five-card major. The main advantage is that you immediately show the range of your hand and avoid any problems of finding a rebid – the risk is that you may end up playing 3 No-Trump when you have a 5-3 fit in a major or even to play 1 No-Trump when you could make a major-suit game when partner has a 4-4-4-1 and 6-7HCP. To open 1NT with a five-card major, your hand must meet several conditions. Two of them are fulfilled here, you have three cards in the other major to avoid playing in a misfit if partner makes a transfer and your doubleton contains a stopper. On the other hand, there is a huge disadvantage:

having 17HCP in form of Aces and Kings, which can lead to missing out on a Spade game or a better part-score contract. We therefore recommend opening 1♠.

Hand 2

Your partner opens 3♥. What do you say?

Answer: c) 4♥

Facing partner’s 3♥ opening, our hand got even better and a priori we have a ten-card fit: a slam can be quite possible at first glance. What hand would it take for partner to play a good slam? He would need to hold seven Hearts headed by Ace-King and some small complement in the form of a side-suit Queen – that would be an absolute maximum hand for a 3♥ opening at favorable vulnerability. And unfortunately, after a pre-empt, we don’t have a lot of room for partner to describe his hand. But that is normal, given that the main purpose of the pre-empt is to hinder the opponents. The reverse side of the medal is of course that it also pre-empts partner... Now, the only way to find out about slam would be to ask for keycards. But, as we have said, even two keycards would not be enough to guarantee a good slam. Even more importantly, we would a contrario often already be in danger at the five-level with a hand like KJ10xxxx and a Queen outside. The most reasonable move is to settle for 4♥ .

Hand 3

You open 1♠, your partner responds 1NT, what is your second bid?

Answer:

c) 2♦

When partner responds 1NT, the most likely game with this balanced hand is 3 No-Trump. For that, you’d need a rather maximum hand opposite. One could think of an invitational 2NT, which shows 17-18HCP. The other theoretical option is to say 2♦, an economic two-suiter, with only three cards. Over 2♦, partner will often correct to 2♠ and you could then bid 2NT, now showing 16-17HCP and three or four Diamonds. There are few disadvantages: if partner raises us to 3♦, it is because he has a maximum hand and 3NT will be a good bet. If he bids 2♥, we just discovered a good fit. And if he passes, it may be that we play in a 4-2 fit, but when North has a minimum and Spade shortness,
2 Diamonds might be the best part score. 

Hand 4

Your RHO opens 1♣, you overcall 1♠, your LHO passes and partner cue-bids 2♣. East passes and it’s your turn.

Answer:

a) 3NT

When RHO opens 1♣, we overcall 1♠ which is limited to 17 points because with 18 points or more it is correct to start with a take-out Double. Here, we must be well aware that we are at the absolute maximum of our overcall. Our partner cuebids 2♣, which shows near opening strength – but careful, not necessarily a fit facing an overcall. We would like to play game, we have a balanced hand with a stopper in Clubs, no need to procrastinate, we must jump to 3NT. This is not necessarily a sign-off. With a Spade fit, partner could still correct to 4♠.

Hand 5

You open 1♠ and your partner answers 2♥. What do you say?
And try to already think about your third bid.

Answer:

b) 2NT

When we open 1♠, partner responds 2♥, which is good news with our Heart fit and a hand full of Aces and Kings just like Leo loves them! Now, how do you show the fit? For the theoretical part, let’s ask Jerome! Saying 3♥ would show more beautiful Hearts (four cards or three cards headed by at least one big honor). Bidding 4♥ would show four Hearts, with a minimum opening hand without slam ambition.
To describe this strong and balanced hand with a Heart fit, start by bidding 2SA to describe a balanced hand in the 15- 17HCP range. You’ll get to bid again and can then show your Heart fit by saying 4♥ over 3NT.

Hand 6

You are declarer in 4 Spades, after the simple 1♠-4♠.

West leads the Queen of Clubs, his partner wins with the Ace and plays back the Diamond 8, which you take with the Ace. How do you continue?

Answer:

b) Win with the ♦A, draw 2 rounds of trumps with ♠AK and ♠87 in dummy, cash ♣K to discard a ♦, play ♦K and ♦ ruff with ♠J

We can notice that the King of Clubs will allow for a Diamond discard and thus a Diamond ruff. We are therefore at nine tricks and the tenth should come from the Heart suit. We have 965 opposite K1083, a simple finesse (against the Ace) or a double finesse (Ace-Queen or Queen-Jack) could be an option. But can’t we find anything better? What if we did an elimination and endplay? After the Club lead and Diamond return, we draw two rounds of trumps. Good news, the Spades are 2-1, so now we eliminate the minors. We cash the King of Clubs to discard a Diamond, play King of Diamonds and ruff a Diamond. Now this is in the bag 100%. We cross back to hand and play a small Heart towards the 10. East can win but is forced to either establish our Heart King or give us a ruff and discard. By the way, did you pay attention to the height of your Spades? If you kept the 654 in hand for J10 in dummy, as Leo did, you are stuck! Small mistake of the youth.


This article was written by Jérôme & Léo Rombaut and was originally published in Bridgerama+.

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10 comments on “Quiz - one hand, six questions”

  2. I just got over half 32 points. I wondered if it’s a good idea for my hand to be in dummy as it is advantageous to opposition.

    Reply

  4. I don't think I agree with the answers to 2 and 5...with 2 you can bid 3Spades as forcing - it should be agreeing hearts and looking for a slam - partner can bid 4 hearts with a minimun or bid 3NT with a maximum but nothing to cue bid outside of the trump suit...now you can then bid 4D to ask for the Queen of clubs (you've already denied the Ace or king with the 3nt bid so 4d would still be slamming so it must be showing an interest in slam still....slam is pretty much nailed on if partner has ak to 7 and the queen of clubs - the point is you can explore below 4h - so you should. Hand 5 as someone else has already said 3hearts is the right bid - it shows slam interest as you could just bid 4h with a minimum.

    Reply

  6. Can't say I agree with much of this article. 2NT rebid of this hand is a perfect description of a balanced hand worth 18-19. If you play cue bids as limit raise or better, then a slow descriptive rebid of 2!d shows slam interest. If 2!h is a GF response (as it should be) then 3!H is an obligatory rebid setting trumps (unless partner returns to 3!S) and showing slam interest.

    Reply

    1. I agree with you....
      I don't think I agree with the answers to 2 and 5...with 2 you can bid 3Spades as forcing - it should be agreeing hearts and looking for a slam - partner can bid 4 hearts with a minimun or bid 3NT with a maximum but nothing to cue bid outside of the trump suit...now you can then bid 4D to ask for the Queen of clubs (you've already denied the Ace or king with the 3nt bid so 4d would still be slamming so it must be showing an interest in slam still....slam is pretty much nailed on if partner has ak to 7 and the queen of clubs - the point is you can explore below 4h - so you should. Hand 5 as someone else has already said 3hearts is the right bid - it shows slam interest as you could just bid 4h with a minimum.

      Reply

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