Tip of the month

Playing Bridge               by Barbara Feeley

Analyze the opening lead. Your opponent usually opens either a long suit, a strong suit, or a short suit. Review the bidding and see if you can determine the holding from which the lead was made and the intent. Then you’ll know if you have time to eliminate a loser early, or need to pull trump, or hold up. Against No-trump, length lead are most common, but a short suit from a very weak hand is possible. Against a suit level bid, strength leads are more common. A lead from “nothing” is rare against non-slam contracts.

If you are an intermediate player, try to add to your options one of the bids that shows two suits after opponents open the bidding with One No Trump. It’s a way to compete without getting into too much trouble. Try Capaletti: 2D shows both majors, 2 of either major shows that suit plus a minor suit (partner bids 2NT to request you to bid that minor), 2 Clubs shows a single long suit (partner will bid 2Diamonds so that you can pass or bid your suit. A three suited hand is shown by jumping to the 3 level in the suit you are missing (make sure to talk about this part!). Double is penalty.

Rarely is rebidding a five card suit going to be very helpful to partner. The basic guideline is to rebid 6 card suits, but not five card suits, even if it is a minor. Finding a major fit or a no trump game takes precedence. You best bid after partner responds is to raise his suit, second best is to bid no trump, next is to bid a new suit, with rebidding your own suit your last possible option.

Should you transfer or not, play in the suit or in No Trump, when partner starts with 1 No Trump and your hand is weak? More often than not, it’s better to be in the suit. A long suit in dummy without entries is like money in the bank without an access code—unusable! So go ahead and get into the suit. The opener should know the difference between a forward-going bid and a correction bid. Talk to your partner at the start of the game to make sure.

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Jump Shift by Responder. (1 Diamond, pass, 2 spades) Is it weak or strong? In standard bridge, such a response was used for a very strong, slam going response. But this happens so infrequently that it’s not a useful agreement. Additionally, there are other ways of getting to the slam. If responder simply makes a forcing first bid, his second bid can be a jump or begin the exploration for the best slam.

Many players use the jump response, therefore, to show a very weak hand of about 2-5 points with a six card suit. Like all preempts, this one shows interest only in the one suit. It is very discouraging. Even if the opener had intended a jump shift for his second bid, he should now pass unless excellent support for responder and distribution add up to game in hand.