The 12 Habits of Highly Effective Bidders

The 12 Habits of Highly Effective Bidders (November 2008)

8. They consider partner’s potential problems. (Part 2)

In an ideal bridge auction, one partner describes all the relevant features of his hand and the other partner decides what the final contract will be. On many deals, though, you have to settle for an incomplete description because your hand isn’t strong enough to take the auction higher. On others, interference from the opponents may make it impossible for you to show everything.

Sometimes, it will be your partner who stifles the exchange of information. If he bids too high too fast – or stops bidding too soon – you may be left with undescribed values and stuck in the wrong contract.

A good partner recognizes the difference between an auction where extra bids will be futile and one where he should give you another opportunity to show your full values. One of the most common ways of extending this courtesy is by stretching a bit to balance when LHO’s opening bid is passed around to you. Another is in this auction:

   Partner    You
      1D        1S
      2C           ?

What's your call holding ♠AQ64 ♥843 ♦108 ♣QJ62 ?

If you were positive that partner had a minimum opener, you could stop safely in 2C. The problem with passing is that partner could hold up to 17 points for his 2C rebid – a hand that’s not strong enough for a jump shift and not balanced enough for a 1NT opener.

To cater to that possibility, you should try to keep the auction open with any hand that would accept a game invitation (a decent 9 points or more). There’s some risk in raising to 3C, which could be too high when partner has a bare minimum. That’s not necessarily a poor result, as your raise may have kept the opponents from balancing and finding their own making partscore.

Change your hand to
♠AQ642 ♥843 ♦108 ♣QJ6
and many players will choose the “false preference” rebid of 2D. They’re willing to risk playing in a possibly inferior fit for the chance of finding a game in clubs, diamonds, spades or notrump. Note, though, that this won’t be a successful strategy if it’s your partnership style to open 1D and rebid 2C with 4-4 or 4-5 in the minors.

Here’s another situation where you may have to bid past your comfort level to allow partner to show extra strength:

     LHO    Partner RHO     You
      1D         DBL        Pass       2D
      Pass        2S          Pass         ?

What's your call holding ♠Q653 ♥Q943 ♦82 ♣AQ10 ?

Your 2D cuebid wouldn’t be everyone’s choice, as it should promise game-going values (or very close, if that’s your agreement). It does, however, improve your chances of getting to the right major, and on this deal, the cuebid has located your 4-4 spade fit.

This auction isn’t as easy as just finding your major and passing, though. A cuebid advance of partner’s takeout double promises another bid, even if you’ve already stretched your values. You have to scrape up a raise to 3S with this hand to give partner another opportunity to bid.

The logic behind promising a second bid is clear when you see partner’s hand:
♠AJ104 ♥AK7 ♦A10 ♣J842

Your cuebid showed good strength and asked for more information, but it didn’t guarantee both majors. Since partner doesn’t yet know which suit or suits you hold, he can’t afford to jump to 3S to show extra values. If you don’t hold four spades, he needs to leave room for you to find his diamond stopper for 3NT.