BBO Bidding Problems

I played in an online tournament last night with my friend Gail. We've had a handful of games together lately, but I didn't have our card in front of me so we kept our agreements extremely basic. 2/1 with very few bells and whistles. Here are a couple of problems I had:

(A) Favorable at IMPs, first seat, you hold:

A9764
KJ
AKT2
T3

A1) Playing 15-17 NT, do you like this for 1N, or do you open 1S? (Or something else?)
A2) Over 1N, pard will Stayman and invite. Over 1S, pard will bid 2S. What does your auction look like?

(B) Here's a hand Gail held in 4th seat, favorable:

T4
AK7
3
KQJT832

(P) P (1D) 2C
(2S) X (4S) ?

(C) This was the final hand of the evening. If I'd gotten it right, we'd have placed a lot higher than 16th out of 217, which was certainly respectable:

Fourth seat, unfavorable, I held:

A97543
4
QJ4
J82

(3H) 3N (P) ?

Put it to a vote!

My two favorite experts have offered different opinions on this hand. Time for more opinions!

You hold:

6 AK43 KJT8732 6

Playing a big club system, your partner has shown 11-15hcp, exactly 4 spades, and 5+ clubs. Pard can't be 4405 or 4315 on the auction you've had. The opponents are silent.

So, playing teams, and knowing what you know of your partner's hand, do you have game forcing or merely invitational values? Where do you want to play this hand?

A few bidding problems

Here's a few bidding and lead problems to help get you warmed up for the Charlottesville Regional:

(A) IMPs, white vs. red

♠ A ♥KT964 ♦none ♣QJT7542

RHO passes, you open 1C (or do you?), LHO passes, and partner bids 1H. RHO passes to you. What's your call?

(B) Matchpoints, red vs. white

♠ KJ862 ♥T92 ♦AJ3 ♣J7

RHO opens 1H, you pass, LHO bids a forcing 1NT, partner sticks in a 2S (!) bid, and RHO passes. What's your bid?

(C) Matchpoints, red vs. white

♠ AJ95 ♥42 ♦97 ♣AT932

There are two passes to you.

(C1) Do you bid?

After you, the auction continues 1NT (15-17) on your left, pass, 2C on your right.

(C2) Your call.

(D) Matchpoints, white vs. red

♠42 ♥AQJ73 ♦A8642 ♣3

You open 1H. LHO jumps to 2S (weak). The next two players pass. Up to you.

(E) Matchpoints, white vs. red

♠A86 ♥Q95 ♦T842 ♣984

The opponents bid uncontested (1D - 1H - 1NT [11-14] - 3NT). What's your lead?

Quiet Sunday at the Club

My mom asked me to play bridge with her this afternoon in our local club game. Playing with her is always an adventure. If the cards cooperate, we can have a really good game. The problem is that my mom plays a really incomplete convention card. So when those funky hands come up, there's often no bid. Our card is basically SAYC only not SA -- 2/1, and the only real conventions we agreed on were Jacoby 2N, weak jump shifts, and Cappelletti. Everything else was super basic.

All problems matchpoints, table results in the comments:

1. Favorable, 4th seat, you hold:

A65 8 AJ8743 AKQ

(P) P (P) 1D
(P) 2H (P) ?

2. Favorable, 4th seat again:

AKT96 76 K83 872

(1H) 2C (2D) ?

2a. Let's assume that no matter what you bid, the auction continues
(3H) 4C (4D) ?
How high do you plan to compete, and what, if anything, will you double?

3. Unfavorable, 2nd seat:

KJ4 5 QJ76 K6543

(P) P (P) 1C
(P) 1D (P) 1H
(P) ?

Do you agree with 1D here? Remember, no inverted minors or carnage raises or anything fun like that.

4. All white, 2nd seat:
K863 J64 KJT98 A

(1C) X (2C) X
(P) 2D (P) 2H
(3C) ?

Mom doesn't really know responsive doubles, so the X after 2C is open to interpretation. What do you think pard has shown you, and where do you go from here?

Unit 139's Annual Championship

Unit 139 held its annual Holiday Party and Unit Championship a few months early this year. It was decided that since there's a Unit Sectional in December and Regional in January, that holding the holiday party in December would be too much bridge at once for some folks. Unit 139 covers a huge geographical area, covering 29 counties in Virginia. A centralish location was found in the lovely town of Buena Vista.

Twenty-four tables showed up for the two-session event plus lunch. Aside from a few snafus (like the seeded pairs skipping each other) it was a fun event for all. With the preduplicated boards and Bridgemate scoring, a great website was able to be put together for the event-- see the first session's results here and the second session's results here. Meg and I had a 61.66 and a 69.24 to run away with the event.

Here's a few problems we faced. All problems are matchpoints.

(A) Board 4, first session: All red

Q 10 6

A J 7 3

A 9 6

A 9 2

Partner passes, and RHO opens a weak 2S. Do you have enough to bid?

(B) Board 6, first session: Red vs. white

J 10 7 3

A

A J 6 5 3 2

5 3

In first chair, you open 1D (or do you prefer pass or 2D?). LHO preempts with 2H which gets passed around to you. Your bid.

(C) Board 8, first session: All white

Q J

J 10 6

A J 9 4

A K Q 4

There are two passes to you. You're playing "good 14 to 17" notrumps. What's your bid?

(D) Board 31, first session: White vs. red

9 3

K 8 5 4

8 5

Q 8 5 3 2

LHO passes, pard opens 1C, and RHO overcalls 1S. You're up.

(E) Board 8, second session: All white

A 9 8 6 3

10 4 2

K 6 5 2

9

Everyone passes to partner. She opens 1C. You respond 1S, and she rebids 1NT (good 11 to awful 14). Your call.

(F) Board 11, second session: All white

J 10 8 6 5

7

A 9 8 4 3 2

4

Partner passes, and LHO opens 2NT. This is certainly a hand with which to bid over 1NT... will you bid one level higher?

(G) Board 14, second session: All white

Don't look at the results sheet for this one just yet!

A K Q 2

K J 8 5 3

K 10 4

A

LHO passes, partner passes, and RHO opens 1C. You double, LHO bids 1H, partner passes again, and RHO bids 1S. Your call.

OK, now go check out Board 14 here... this hand was certainly a concentrated effort on the part of the opponents to give me a giant headache!

Coast-To-Coast Club Games

After the Seaside Regional, we played at a few club games in Oregon and Virginia. Here are a few problems from those games.

All problems matchpoints. Check the Comments section for what happened at the table and what others would have done.

(A) All white

J8762 AT5 6542 8

RHO opens 2H, and the opponents are silent thereafter. You pass, and partner balances with 2S. Your call.

(B) White vs. red

AK 73 AKQ76 AJT6

You open a strong 2C. Pard bids 2D [artificial; no aces, at most one king]. You rebid 2NT. Pard Staymans, you deny a major, and pard bids a Smolen 3H, showing five spades and four hearts. What's your bid?

(C) Red vs. white

T QT92 QJ985 K54

Partner opens a "good 14-17" 1NT, and RHO passes. What's your call?

(D) All red

K63 AKJT642 86 J

There are three passes to you. You open 1H (would you?) and LHO overcalls a natural (!) 1NT -- explained as 11-13 HCP, usually a heart stopper. Pard doubles, and RHO bids 2H (transfer to spades). You're up.

Wednesday club game

I played bridge yesterday for the first time in three weeks. What a drought! I haven't had one that long in years. 

I played at the Charlottesville bridge club with my friend Pete. We had a very matchpointy game-- lots of doubling and partscore battles. The hands were lots of fun. We ended up with a touch over 63%, half a board out of first place.

All hands matchpoints, of course. What happened at the table will appear in the Comments section.

By the way-- some of the best material on this site comes from readers like you-- Please feel free to comment and read what others have to say! If you click the title of a post, a new page will come up with the full post and all the comments.

(A) White vs. red

KQJT83 A AKJ4 AQ

Partner passes, you open 2C, partner bids a "waiting" 2D,and you bid 2S. (Do you prefer 3S?) Partner now comes out of the bushes with 6S! Your call.

(B) White vs. red

AQ3 JT83 QJT K74

The opponents silent again - pard opens 1H, you pull out good old Jacoby 2NT, and pard rebids 4D [presumably a second suit]. You're up.

(C) All white

8 AT9 K853 KQ853

You open 1D (do you prefer 1C?) and lefty doubles. Pard redoubles, and righty bids 1S. What do your bids mean here? What's your call?

(D) Red vs. white

5 -- J987643 QJ532

You're first to speak. Do you?

(E) All white

AKQ2 T7643 54 96

RHO opens 1C. What's your call?

(F) White vs. red

AKQ84 AQ9532 Q J

Righty opens 1NT. You're playing Brozel - 2C = C+H, 2D = D+H, 2H = H+S, 2S = S+C or S+D, X = one long suit, 2N = C+D, higher bids undiscussed. What's your call?

(G) White vs. red

AKT92 4 AQ5 KJT2

You open 1S, and partner gives you a forcing notrump. What say you?

(H) White vs. red

KT5 T7 AJ986 J76

Pard passes in first seat. Righty opens 3H, you pass, and lefty lifts to 4H, all pass. It's your lead.

Hands From BBO

I practiced on Bridge Base Online a few days ago with my friend Paul. You'll read a lot more about my adventures with Paul later this month-- we're playing the most popular Regional in the Northwest - Seaside, OR -  together. Paul and I had some amazing hands and some good practice. All problems IMPs. What happened at the virtual table will appear in the Comments, as always.

(A) Red vs. white

J83 K4 AJ4 AQT86

(3H) P (P) ?

(B) Red vs. white

none KQJT4 J9862 T42

?

Am I the only one in the world who would think of 2H here? How about at other colors?

(C) White vs. red

AKJ73 QT98763 9 none

1H (P) 1N [forcing] (P) ?

Or would you have opened 1S? Or passed?

(D) All white

2 AKJ754 Q65 A85

(1D) X (3D) [weak] ?

(E) All white

K985 543 62 AJ42

(1S) 2D (P) ?

Assuming you pass here, the auction goes

(1S) 2D (P) P

(2H) X [1] (P) ?

[1]: Takeout.

(F) All white

KJ9632 5 KJT54 8

You pick this up first in hand. Do you open? If not, what do you need to add to the hand to make it worth a one-bid?

Quickie

From BLML:

IMPs, red vs. white
LHO opens 4H in third seat, and it gets passed around to you.

---- --- (P) P
(4H) P (P) ?

You hold:

KT73 T 972 AQJ94

What's your call?

Some Hands from the Sectional: IMPs

Here are some of the problems we faced during the two (successful) team events from this weekend's Sectional. All problems IMPs. Tales from the table will be in the Comments.

(A)
AQJ5 732 Q65 T96, all white.
RHO opens 1D. Man or mouse?

(B)
KQ6 62 QT974 A53, favorable.
First question: Do you open in second seat? I decided to pass. LHO opened 1H, pard jumped to 2S, and righty (friend and sometimes-teammate Mullet) doubled. What's your call?

(C)
QJ752 J62 AT A84, all white.
This time you decide to open your minny, and partner splinters with 4C. Are you proud enough of your hand to cue 4D?

(D)
A8 KQ743 KQ4 A93, all red.
Another splinter decision: over your 1H, pard jumps to 4D, wrecking a good bit of your hand. Pros: It's still a nice hand. Cons: There are no below-game slam tries available. What's your decision?

(H)
JT9 QJ63 QT8 J65, unfavorable
The opponents bid uncontested: 1D - 2D! - 2S - 3C - 3N [! = limit raise or better]. Your lead.

Some Hands from the Sectional: Matchpoints

We had a very successful local Sectional this weekend. Here are some of the more fun hands of the three days. I'll post "what happened"s in the Comments section. All problems are from the pair games.

(A)
J875 T63 98764 A, unfavorable.
You pass, partner opens 2C (strong, artificial, and forcing), you respond an artificial 2H (one ace or two kings), and partner "raises" to 3H. Your bid.

(B)
A642 A9 A95 A852, favorable.
Three passes to you. Do you bid the "automatic" strong notrump?

(C)
KJ4 A64 A743 843, all red.
This is your first hand with an unfamiliar, but expert, partner. He opens 1S. You bid 2D, game-forcing [or do you? I'm happy to hear suggestions-- your choices are a semi-forcing notrump, 2N Jacoby style, 3S limit raise, or some other creative call], and he rebids 2H. Your call.

(D)
J A532 AJ53 T654, all red.
Partner opens 1S, you bid a semi-forcing notrump, and he rebids 2C. Your call.

(E)
KQT962 -- 6 AK9542, favorable.
You open 1S, lefty passes, partner raises to 2S, and righty comes in with an insufficient 2H. Your bid. (Do you accept the insufficient bid?)

(F)
AKQ86 AQ7 K84 KT, favorable.
RHO opens 3D. You're up.

(G)
4 9876432 Q 9873, unfavorable.
RHO opens 1C. Do you have a call?

(H)
AKJ82 QT63 3 AK9
You open 1S and partner bids a semi-forcing NT. Your rebid is?