Tales of Akarana 1
For the first hand in the post on the Latest News (board 5 at Akarana this week) game was only bid by two pairs.
Bad luck or systemic weakness? It is generally acknowledged that all systems have systemic weaknesses and that some hands will favour one system over another. Is this result perhaps simply a reflection of the high ratio of pairs at this club that employ similar natural systems that have the same systemic ‘weakness’?
Interestingly any beginners that had recently finished lessons using the NZ bridge lesson system would have had no problem bidding game on this hand. Lesson 10 teaches that the 2C opening bid be used for unbalanced 20+ HCP game forcing hands. The bidding would proceed: 2C (-) 2D (-) 2S (-) 3S (-) 4S. Simple? Yes for this particular hand but the inability to stop in 2S for less favourable hands is a systemic weakness if everyone else is opening 1S with 20 HCP and playing in 1S.
This hand also favours those pairs employing strong 1C opening methods showing 16+ HCP where after a 1D negative response a 2S rebid would show a 20-22 HCP 5+S hand. After this sequence it would be relatively straight forward for responder to raise to game.
My own pet Imperspicuity losing trick count bidding system would also have no problem bidding game on this particular hand: 1C (-) 1D (-) 2S (-) 2N (-) 3H (-) 3S (-) 4D (-) 4S. Where 1C would be <= 6 L ( 0 - 37 HCP); 1D >= 9 L or <= 8L 4M; 2S 5+S 4L; 2N relay; 3H 5S 4H; 3S relay; 4D 5S4H3D1C 10 Total losers; 4S to play. As North has a 4 L hand and South a 10 L hand with an 8 card fit then from rule of 18: 18 - 4 - 10 = 4 level contract is possible so South asks for more information on the way to game. After North denies having 3C the remote chance of a possible slam with double fit adjustments disappears and South settles for 4S.
The last two systems have the systematic weakness that they risk playing in 2S with less favourable responder hands when those opening 1S with 20 HCP would play in 1S.
Does anyone else play other systems that allow game to be systemically bid for this hand they would like to share?
Latest Posts on this Thread
- Brad Johnston16 Oct 2018 at 10:13AM
Hey Sean,
It's possible to get to game playing a standard system. One of the least respected or valued parts of bidding auctions is the fact that you should tell partner you have a fit as soon as possible. This means that they can re-evaluate their hand and what to do if the auction becomes competitive; and in cases like this allows you to bid game when you probably should.Because of wanting to raise partner on hands like this one among top players, the range of the 1
- 2 raise becomes overworked - it's unfeasible to bid 2 both on this hand, and on a 3433 9 count (or a 4243 8 count if not playing a form of mixed or Bergen raise).Because it's more important for constructive auctions to be cleaner, it's common to put the weaker side of the 2
raise into the 1NT response. So 1 - 1NT shows the normal 6-9 [6-11 in 2/1] point hand, or a weak spade raise [3-6 ish]. With the North hand you'd probably jump to 3H over that, or do something else to show a lot of values. South can then show their spade support and North will bid game.This hand reminds me of one from last night that I played actually:
A4 KQ762
T9874 A62
JT95 8
82 AKJT
At the other table it went 1 all pass, and that made 9 tricks. I responded 1NT on the West cards and my partner invited game with 2NT.
Playing IMP bridge, they pay a bonus for vulnerable games, and not for playing 2NT; so I confirmed my values by raising to 3NT which has 10 tricks when they don't attack hearts and things break nicely.
I'll admit that 3NT won't always make on this hand, but you win 10/11 IMPs when it does, and lose only 6 when you go off and they make a partscore - that means you only need ~35% odds to make game for 3NT to be a winner - and the East hand is pretty minimal for this auction (meaning it'll only get better odds to make).
Stretching to respond sometimes will make your partners life harder, but it's the same philosophy as pre-empting; with the upshot of telling your partner that you have a fit sometimes.
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