The hard way

The other day I played my first game of real, live bridge in nearly a month. We played my partner's normal system: old-school Schenken-style forcing club with four-card majors. Sadly, the system didn't come up very often.

We had a great time. On two separate occasions we went +500 the hard way.*

The opponents had the uncontested auction 1C - 1S - 2C - 2NT - 3NT. I was on lead with:

♠ AJ86 ♥A2 ♦K542 ♣752
What would you lead? I decided that as little as the ten of spades and an entry would help my spades run, so led the six of spades. Dummy came down and I saw:

♠ none ♥ QT3 ♦ J97 ♣ AQJ9643
	♠ AJ86 ♥ A2 ♦ K542 ♣ 752

A heart was pitched from dummy. Partner won the king and pushed back the ten of spades. Declarer covered with the queen, I won, and a diamond was pitched from the table. I had a problem. If pard had the spade nine, as the ten would suggest, I should cash the jack and lead the eight back to him. But if declarer had it, as the quick cover of the queen would suggest, I should switch to whatever partner's entry would be. After some thinking, I switched to a low diamond. My heart sank when this ran around to the queen. I thought I'd blown it-- it looked like declarer now had the AQ of diamonds and seven clubs for her contract.

Declarer led a club up to the queen, and partner won the king! We might be setting this after all... Partner played a low spade through declarer. I won the eight and cashed the jack. The nine dropped from declarer. Partner had made the fine play of the ten of spades from KTxxx! I cashed the ace of hearts and led a hopeful low heart. Pard won the king, cashed his long spade, and exited a heart. Declarer had to give me a diamond at the end for a satisfying down five. Here's the whole hand:

	♠ KT752 ♥ K652 ♦ T8 ♣ KT
♠ none ♥ QT3 ♦ J97 ♣ AQJ9643		♠ Q943 ♥ J987 ♦ AQ63 ♣ 8
	♠ AJ86 ♥ A2 ♦ K542 ♣ 752

*The hard way is down five vulnerable, undoubled. Down ten nonvul, undoubled is the really hard way.

Our New System

Meg and I have recently switched over to a version of Transfer Precision, with some success. I thought I'd give you folks quick rundown on the system.

"Standard" Precision is a strong-club system with natural positive responses to 1C. With our version of Transfer Precision, we bid a strain other than what we have in order to have the stronger (and less defined) hand as declarer more often. Here's a quick rundown on our responses to the forcing 1C opening:

1C (16+HCP if unbalanced, 17+ if balanced; any shape)

• 1D = 0-7 HCP or 8+ with a 4441 shape (any singleton)
• 1H = 8+ HCP, 5+ spades
• 1S = 8+ HCP, 5+ hearts
• 1NT = 8+ HCP, 5+ clubs
• 2C = 8+ HCP, 5+ diamonds
• 2D = 8-13 HCP, balanced
• 2H, 2S, 3C, 3D = 4-6 HCP, six-card suit

All of these positive responses can be made on less than 8 HCP with a good enough reason. I'd certainly show a positive hand with

♠	AKTxxx
♥	xxx
♦	xx
♣	xx

or

♠	QJxxxx
♥	KTxxx
♦	x
♣	x.

Over partner's transfer positive, opener can bid the suit shown to show a fit and start a (short - for now) series of asking bids. Here's an example of our asks at work:

♠ A972 ♥ AKJ2 ♦ KT95 ♣ K

♠ K6 ♥ 8 ♦ A98643 ♣ AT94

1C - 2C;
2D - 3H;
3S - 4C;
4N - 5H;
7D - P.

1C = 16+, artificial
2C = 5+ diamonds, 8+ HCP (game force)
2D = Tell me more!
3H (sixth step)= Six-card suit with one of the top three honors
3S = Tell me more!
4D (third step)= Three controls outside diamonds (A=2, K=1; this must be the ace of clubs and king of spades)
4NT = Keycard ask in diamonds (eventually we'll use 4H for this, but we haven't gotten around to discussing all the ramifications of this yet); opener doesn't yet know if responder's suit is Axxxxx or Qxxxxx
5H = Two keycards without the queen of diamonds
7D = Six diamonds plus AK of the other three suits is twelve tricks... if partner has club length I can get a club ruff for the 13th. With my club shortness it makes it more likely that he has length there. Well, here goes -- I hope he has 3+ clubs or a major-suit queen!

How would you and your partner get to this 29 HCP grand slam?

A Realization

I'll leave it to McKenzie to post any interesting hands from yesterday's two sessions of sectional bridge, but I did want to mention one thing. We were again playing our new big club system, which was not without hiccups, but overall I like it very much. After the first session, many other players were complaining that the hands were "so tricky," with "lots of problems."

I didn't feel that way at all. I credit the system -- maybe McKenzie had some close calls, but on almost every single board, I knew what my bid would be and we found the right spot. I was never displeased with our 2/1 card, but I love how descriptive we can be with our Precision bidding, without giving away any information at all from the big hand.

My favorite auction yesterday was this:

Publish Post

1C - 1D - 1H - 1S - 1N - 3N

Every call until 3N was alerted, and when the defender was getting ready to choose her lead, she kept asking questions about the alerts. "So that says nothing about clubs? Nothing about diamonds?" Finally, I just told her "You don't know anything about either of our hands, except that he's 20-21 balanced and I'm <7." She seemed mad, like with all that bidding, surely there's some information to be had.

We had several very nice auctions to spots that we probably could have found with our old 2/1 system, too, but with the advantage that declarer rarely gave away any information on his hand. I'm looking forward to developing this system further. I'm officially a convert.

Nicely bid hand on BBO

Meg and I get a lot of our practice at Bridge Base Online. BBO is the world's premier bridge site... but we've talked about that before.

We were in the Partnership Bidding Room, working on our new big club structure. One of the very first hands was this one:



I was South, and opened 1C (16+ unbalanced or 17+ balanced). Pard bid 2C, showing a game forcing hand with long diamonds. 2D by me asked about her diamond suit. 2NT showed exactly five diamonds with two of the top three honors. 3C asked about aces and kings outside of diamonds. 3D showed no aces and at most one king. 3H by me was a cuebid, and when she cuebid 3S I knew it was a singleton (since she'd denied holding an aces). I cuebid 4C to get a little more information, and Meg came out with a brilliant bid -- 5C! She had a great hand for her previous actions, and wanted to do something slam-positive... so she cued her 'trick source' in clubs, and I bid the slam, knowing her hand to be x xxx(x?) AKxxx Q(J?)xx(x?).

No, it's not a huge deal to reach a good slam* with 11 HCP opposite 21, but I like to think we would have had the same auction if my SK were the S3. And if the SK was the SA, my bid would've been 7D over 5C!

* Slam should make on 3-2 diamonds, 3-3 hearts, the onside ace of spades, or West cashing the ace of spades at trick one -- I think it's over 80%.

How should this be played? Here's my suggestion: Say they lead a heart or a club. Win it in the closed hand [remember-- the big hand is playing it, I bid 2D], play a diamond to the ace and a spade down. If RHO takes the ace, all is well. If he doesn't, play the king -- if it holds, draw trumps and hope for 3-3 hearts for an overtrick. If the king of spades loses to the ace, win the return in hand, ruff a spade, draw a second round of trumps, and if all follow, play to ruff all three spade losers in the dummy before drawing the last trump. If diamonds are 4-1, draw trumps and hope hearts break.

Do you have a better line of play?

Evaluating your hand

McKenzie is working for FedEx today, so yesterday's problem hands will have to wait another day or so. However, here's one we were unable to agree on:

Jx Jxx Axx AQJTx

Playing a big club (16+) and 14-16NT, what's your plan for this hand? Is it different if you are 1st or 3rd seat?

Something really silly happened at our table and despite our disagreement, we took all the matchpoints when the opponents went crazy and went for a phone number.

Here's another:

AKJxxx Jxx Axx K

Is this one worth a big club, or do you start with 1S? What's your plan for the rest of the auction?

Meg tries out a big club system at the club

I told McKenzie last week that I want to start trying out some new systems. Right now, we play a really fancy 2/1 card with lots and lots of experimental stuff that he's been trying. It works well for us and I know that system like the back of my hand, usually. It's comfortable and useful and I hardly ever find myself unable to find the bid to describe my hand. Sounds like the perfect time to trash everything and start over, right?

One thing I really want to test out is a weak NT system, which I played with Geoff in one morning side game in Virginia Beach, with good results. But McKenzie was anxious to get me started with a big club, so we spent yesterday talking over a system to try at the club today. The system is basically 2/1 with a forcing 1C with transfer responses and a 14-16NT. Z says it's not the same thing as Precision, but never having played Precision, I couldn't tell you what's different anyway.

I spent quite a while studying my own notes, knowing that very few of the things on them were likely to come up at all, and worried that I'd forget them when they did. I was surprised at just how much we did use, and pleased that I remembered everything properly. We didn't get to test out the most exotic bits of the card, and I did find myself stuck for a bid in some spots, but I definitely began to grasp the merits of such a system. I'm not ready to switch out our regular card for tournament play, but we're going to go to the club again on Friday for more big club practice. Once I get more comfortable with the basic structure, we'll start putting more of our fun experimental stuff in there.

I think McKenzie will post some hands from this afternoon later today or tomorrow, but if you're wondering how we did, I'll save you the suspense -- 65% for first overall in the 20-table game. Go team:)

More Defenses to Big Clubs

A few days ago I posted various defenses to a big one (and two) club opening, but I saved my favorite for today: Suction.

Suction (aka Cyclone) is a little complicated, but a lot of fun. Basically, in Suction, you're showing either a one-suiter or a two-suiter, all in one bid. The bid of a suit shows either the next suit up or the other two (never the suit you've bid). For example:

2D = Hearts or Spades + Clubs
3H = Spades or Clubs + Diamonds
1S = Clubs or Diamonds + Hearts

So all one-suiters can be shown in Suction by bidding the suit below the real suit. Touching two-suiters are shown by bidding two suits below the lower of the two. That only leaves non-touching two-suiters: clubs - hearts and diamonds - spades. With these two combinations you bid some number of notrump.

Over all of these bids, responder makes a "pass or correct" bid, usually as high as he can preempt safely. So let's say you have

QTxxx x Jxxx Txx

Your LHO opens 1C (strong, artificial, and forcing). Partner jumps to 3C, showing either long diamonds or both majors. Since he could've just bid 2C showing the same suit combinations, he must have lots of distribution. So what's your bid?

I bid 4S! We either have an eleven-card diamond fit (if partner has diamonds only, he should have 7 since he forced to 3D) or a ten-plus-card spade fit (partner should be at least 5-5 if he has both majors).

Remember: You can't bid your own suit here. You're responding to your partner's suit (or suits). If there's a big misfit, get out as low as possible!

Some enterprising souls play Psycho-Suction. This throws lots of confusion into the auction for both the big club side and the defensive side. Psycho-Suction is just Suction, but one step lower -- so if you have a one-suiter, you're bidding that suit. This has the advantage that responder, hoping partner actually has the suit he bid this time, can pass the Suction bid, but that's not much of an advantage when overcaller actually has the next two suits! Psycho-Suction should only be played by those with a lot of practice with Pass or Correct bids and a good sense for when and how to get out of trouble.

The king of confusion is Inverted Psycho-Suction. With IPS a bid shows either that suit and the next suit up or the one above that! So, over a big 1C, 2D shows either both red suits or spades. To play Inverted Psycho-Suction, the two criteria above are still in place, but you also need both partners to have a very good sense of humor!

A few defenses to Big Clubs

Last week I promised to talk a little bit about various defensive structures when the opponents open 1C strong, artificial, and forcing (as in Precision). I won't give an opinion on which I think you should play -- you need to find the right balance of preemption, fun, and memory work for your partnership. But whatever you choose to play, get in the auction!

The granddaddy (and simplest) of them all is Mathe. Invented by Lew Mathe several decades ago, it just goes like this:

When the opponents open a big club on your right or they open a big club on your left, partner passes, and they bid a "little diamond" on your right, double shows both majors, and one notrump shows both minors. That's all there is to it.

The first big club defense I learned was CRASH. This is a quick mnemonic for Color, RAnk, SHape. CRASH uses one more bid than Mathe: 1D. So it doesn't quite work over (1C!) P (1D!).

Playing CRASH, when the opponents open a strong club on your right,

• Double shows two suits of the same Color.
• One Diamond shows two suits of the same RAnk (minors or majors).
• One Notrump shows two suits of the same SHape (look at the tops: pointed [spades and diamonds] and rounded [clubs and hearts].)
• Anything else is natural.
  

I've also seen some pairs playing SHARC (SHApe, Rank, Color). This has no theoretical advantage to CRASH, but if you think it's a cooler acronym, definitely play it rather than CRASH!

When your partner makes a CRASH (or SHARC) bid, it's your job to preempt as high as you can. Much of the time you don't know that you have a fit, but sometimes you're assured of one. For example:

LHO opens a strong club, partner bids 1D (RAnk), and RHO passes. You hold:

AJ652 74 T9742 4

Since partner either has the minors or the majors, you know there's a big pointed-suit fit somewhere. So you bid... 3D! Partner has at least four cards in one pointy suit, so you have at least nine trumps somewhere. The three level shouldn't be too high. Partner will pass (or maybe raise!) holding both minors, and will correct to 3H holding both majors. You'll correct 3H to 3S, and you've found your fit and your level!

This is very important. Playing CRASH, SHARC, Suction [which I'll get to soon], or many other big club defenses, responder's actions are all pass or correct. So if you hold:

T4 J2 73 QT98532

and pard overcalls with 1NT (SHape), don't bid 3C! He'll correct to his cheapest suit (because he almost certainly has spades and diamonds). Start with 2C, and when partner corrects to 2D, he'll get the message that all you have is clubs when you rebid 3C.

Two Over One vs. Precision

I'm often asked, "what's better-- Precision or Two Over One?"

Well, there are good and bad parts of both, but in my opinion, Precision (or some other Big Club system) works better when the opponents stay out of the auction (or only come in at low levels), and Two Over One works better when the opponents bid a lot.

I have a suspicion that Standard American is stronger than 2/1 in very, very established partnerships, but 2/1 is certainly better for a partnership that plays 100 or fewer sessions per year together.

So I guess in a perfect world I'd play a Big Club when the opponents are vulnerable and 2/1 (or Standard) when they're not.

Stay tuned -- I'll be posting some of my favorite defenses to a Big Club, including:

• Mathe
• CRASH
• Wonder
• IDAK
• Suction
• Inverted Suction
• Inverted Psycho-Suction

...and any more that I can think of.