Risk vs Reward in Bridge, Part 3 - Swinging With Slams
(Click here if you'd like to read Part 2 first) When we play a session of bridge...
It’s part four and the final part of this series that is near and dear to my heart as a bridge teacher. As we’ve seen so far, in parts 1 through 3 in this series (here), a theme has developed. All of my “best tools” are used in one type of auction, the competitive auction. Why is this area of bridge bidding so important? Why do I teach it more than any other bidding subject in my live classes?
Three main reasons;
One of my favorite poker games is Limit Omaha Hi-Low. It taught me a very valuable lesson that has stayed with me during my career. I would usually sit at this game when I was waiting for my preferred game to have an open seat and decided to read a little bit about it out of curiosity (and because I’m a nerd and need to know stuff). I read the Omaha Hi – Low chapter in the very wonderful and famous “Super System” by Doyle Brunson and it explained the basic strategy of the game and how to succeed. I’m also pretty certain he made a bold prediction at some point in the chapter (it’s been a while but it stuck with me). He said that if you just follow these basic rules you will know more than most players who play the game regularly and likely do well. Based on my subsequent experience in this game (albeit at lowish limits) this was the truth. It seemed way too simple to me but I just kept sitting there and seeing almost every other player make the same mistakes, over and over and over without every recognizing a winning strategy or even caring about it! WOW, just a quick check of the “rules” and knowing a little bit of a strategic system and I was a winning Omaha Hi-Low player almost overnight.
Bridge is very similar to poker in this way. So many partnerships are out there throwing bids around without necessarily knowing their standard “competitive bidding structure”. So, a very reliable way to improve your results is to develop an understanding of these common situations and win way more often here. It’s amazing what just a little bit of work can do for your game.
This series (parts 1 – 4) provides you with a full “competitive raising structure” to use with everyone you play with. This raising structure (outside of Jordan) is actually completely standard! If you read this series and develop an understanding of these methods I will make a guarantee for you. You will improve your results and you will also be a tough opponent to deal with for sure. But, before we send you off to dominate your competitive auctions, let’s add one final tool to your bidding toolbox. THE MIXED RAISE IN COMPETITION.
Make your call with this hand - click on the bid and then hit submit to see the correct answer and explanation.
MIXED RAISE RULES - The Jump Cue – Bid
Take a look at our auction above. The mixed raise accomplishes all of our “tough opponent” goals. It shows our hand very well and forces the auction to the 3 level directly thus depriving our opponents of a bit more room in the auction. This bid also dials in our point range quite nicely for our partner for their possible later decisions. Take a look at our full raise structure after one level overcalls below;
RAISING AFTER ONE LEVEL OVERCALLS NOW:
| Raising after 1 lvl overcalls | Total pts. & fit |
|---|---|
| 1♣ – 1♥ – P – 2♥ | 6 – 10 pts. 8+ card fit |
| 1♣– 1♥ – P – 3♥ | 4 – 7 pts. 9+ card fit |
| 1♣– 1♥ – P – 4♥ | < 10 pts. 10+ card fit |
| 1C – 1H – P – 2C | 10+ pts. 8+ card fit |
| 1C – 1H – P – 3C | 7 – 9 pts. 9+ card fit |
We see all of our familiar raises here and we are simply adding one more very nice raise to our final structure. Look how amazingly specific we can be with our raises! When both sides of our partnership understand these ranges we will be able to make much better decisions in competitive auctions.
Let’s practice with some hands we’ve seen in other auctions. Again, click on the bid and then hit submit to see the correct answer and explanation.
That’s it everyone. You now have a full system for raising in competition but you’re not done yet. You have homework folks. Your assignment is to get out there and practice what you have learned in this series. Trust me, this will be the most fun part of this process. The best way to practice and see the results of your efforts is to get out there and play. The beauty of this topic is that you will see it in almost every game you play in and likely multiple times! But, if you can’t get out there and play in a game too often, grab a partner and hop into a bidding table on BBO. Grab some robots as your opponents and let them bid with you. You will become comfortable with these methods very quickly and be that tough opponent that they chat about at the club 😊.
Thank you for reading everyone and I will see you at the tables.
Click here to read Part 1 in the series - The Preemptive Raise
Click here to read Part 2 in the series - The Cue-bid Raise
Click here to read Part 3 in the series - Raising after Double
Rob Barrington is a professional bridge player and world renowned bridge instructor. He is the founder of bridgelesson.com and teaches large online courses on that site and through his popular YouTube channel. Rob resides in West Palm Beach, Florida.
V useful and easy to remember, ty.
So, you have two positions for 7 hcp! One is 4-7 hcp w 4 of overcaller's major, but also 7-9 hcp w 4 of the major. Then your first two quiz items are right on 7 hcp and you say that the correct answer is the mixed raise cue bid, when of course there are two possibilities with 7 hcp. How does this compute?
Does vulnerability make a difference?
Since partner may be tempted to bid game, i guess a mixed raise would need 8 pts or 7 good pts via an ace and king.
Love to have this in a pritable format to refer back to ...( it came out as a 13 page mess....)
All you need is the little table above. Just copy that and print it elsewhere, like in an email to your regular partner. Still have to resolve the 7 hcp with two options. As Harik says above, maybe it's whether a good 7 or higher should call the cue bid mixed raise, meaning A and K okay go for the MR but not that, then go for the 3M bid.
Please make all 4 parts of this series available for printing. Copying the table is good once you have learned the reasoning but I want to introduce these ideas to new partners and need the whole story for that.
Why can't it be simple to see the hands - Thanks, Rich
Thanks Rob, maybe we will play again someday. 🙂
where are the hands?
You have to disable your various browser security tools to see the hands
Corinne, just glanced at the mixed raise post & saw your post. Hope all is well with you. Billings finally has our own bridge space and is thriving; altho we've lost several of our long time friends--Bob Carter, David Orser, Marsha Shell, Bert Nelson & Chuck Gilje in the last year. Tom Romine