It's probably worth saying that I'm not really a Bridge expert. I've never even played at a club, and I don't have a single matchpoint. This blog is really aimed at beginners, and perhaps those as fascinated by bidding systems as I. The idea is really to pore through my library of Bridge bidding books, the set of conventions we typically use, and various other materials to try and learn some more about why we bid the way we do, and perhaps achieve a better understanding of what's out there.
For the purposes of this blog, we'll call our convention system 'Dark Card,' since it's derived from Standard Yellow Card (SYC). I'll frequently link the Bridge Guys website, as they have the nicest overview of conventions and such on the web. They have a workbook on SYC as well. Dark Card is just a modified version of SYC with a few intermediate conventions thrown in, but the approach is fundamentally the same.
Finally, if you don't like what you see, post a comment. This is meant to be a learning exercise for me most of all, so your feedback and questions will help this be useful to all. Particularly interesting comments will likely prompt a revisit.
Finally, I'll be taking as much advantage of the web as possible in that there is no limit to column size. Some of these blog items will likely run a bit long as I'm a somewhat verbose writer. While I'm also practicing writing here (are you starting to feel a bit experimented upon?), I'm not going to edit these to within an inch of their life like one would traditional prose. I'll also use the first person, which I would probably not do in another forum.
Before I started this, I resolved to take whatever hand I dealt myself. When you pick up cards in a game, you get whatever happens to fall, and cherry-picking perfect hands with clear answers to talk about always leaves me feeling a bit lacking. That said, this is probably not what I would have begun with given a choice...
The Hand In Question
| ||||||||||||
A2| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass | 2 | Pass | 2 |
| Pass | 2 | Pass | 4 |
| All Pass |
Thanks to ContractBridge.net Hand Creator for help with the HTML above.
The Auction
The Play
Without any help from partner, North leads the 3 of diamonds. Dummy drops and West sees 6 spade tricks, 2 club tricks, and a diamond trick for a total of 9 easy ones. Needing one more, the easiest would seem to be the diamonds, with QJ it should be possible to extract one more. 2 heart losers are definite. Dummy plays the 5 of diamonds, and south is stuck so they play the 10. Jack from declarer, and the contract is made. That was lucky...
West pulls 3 rounds of trump, ending in declarer's hand. South drops hearts, signaling a desire for a lead there. West can just collect their tricks; I just don't see any way to make an extra. Best bet is to try the hearts (finesse with the Queen in the dummy?), but given the heart signal that is unlikely.
Discussion
Strong Artificial Two Club Opening
I'll probably end up saying something like "in the old days of Bridge" before too long, so if the old days aren't all that long ago for you, please forgive me. Ye Olden Times weren't really all that long ago, but since the 80s, I think Bridge bidding has changed a great deal for even non-tournament players. That's before my time, hence the silly appellation, but there it is. In this case, Life Master #1 of the ACBL, David Bruce invented this concept in the 30s, so it is not exactly new...
Dark Card uses 2 bids of the other suits as weak two bids, which I'm sure will come up in another installment. In general, the 2 club bid by West shows all strong hands of at least 22 points. East has two choices, either make a 'negative or waiting bid' of 2 diamonds (purely artificial) or bid a strong suit. In this case, the two diamonds is negative (with 0-7 points, that's all they can do). West shows their spades at the next opportunity (with a balanced hand they would be NT here, stronger than 2NT opening). East evaluates slam interest, says no, and settles into game.
If East's hand was truly worthless (less than a king), they would bid the cheapest minor (in this case 3 clubs). This is called the 'second negative' and it says pretty clearly: 'I have absolute crap; you're on your own partner.'
This hand lacks slam interest, which is where these generally get more interesting. Remember, 2 clubs doesn't always mean you have to go to slam.
Importance of Distribution (4-3-3-3 Yuck)
Why no slam? The total of 29 points between the two hands is the first problem. You really need around 33 to think about slam. (I sometimes think about slam with as few as 31, but that requires you to assess a lot of other factors in your hand, which you could give yourself 'points' for. Remember, points are just a guideline to evaluating a hand. We'll talk more about this in the future. The real problem for East is that their hand just has nothing going for it. The Jack of clubs is unlikely to take a trick, and the queens could be worthless, although the queen of trumps is nice. The real problem for East is that the 4-3-3-3 flat distribution of their hand just doesn't offer much for declarer to work with. As a general rule, the flatter your hand, the worse off you are. So when making decisions about slam or stretching for a bid, avoid going to far out on a flat 4-3-3-3 limb.
Without Weak Twos (Strong Two of Suit Openings)
Here's the bidding with strong 2 bids:
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass | 2 | Pass | 2NT |
| Pass | 3 | Pass | 4 |
| All Pass |
Should South Overcall 2 Hearts?
South might consider an overcall of 2 hearts here, to indicate a lead preference more than anything else (they could also double the 2 diamond call to indicate a desire for that suit as a lead). With only 7 points, I'm not sure the cost of the call in disclosure of information is worth it. I would not overcall.
Wait! This Isn't a Strong 2 Club Bid!
Officially, Dark Card says that for a 6 card suit, you should have 23+ points. This hand only has 22. Should this be a strong two bid? Should we have started with 1 spade?
On this hand, I would make the strong bid, because of the absolutely perfect suit. Intermediates are very important in long suits, and this hand has the 10, 9 and 8. It just doesn't get any better. Given them and the 3 aces (which are undervalued by a typical 4 count), I've fluffed this hand up a point. Remember that point evaluation is just a guideline, and not a rule.
Conclusion
Well, I hope you enjoyed the first Dark Bridge installment. I'll try to end these with a what have we learned list to highlight the takeaways from our discussion:
- 4-3-3-3 sucks
- 2 Clubs doesn't always mean slam
- Sometimes you get lucky with opening leads
- There are few hard and fast rules, just guidelines. Learn and use your bridge judgement
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