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.