Sittard BC Internal Championships Imps Pairs 2002

Session 01, Baandert, Sittard, March 05, 2002


Group A, Boards 13-16

Special thanks to William Gielkens

Copyright © 2002-2025 by Michel Franssen

Recommended bidding sequence:

1¨ = 4+ suit, unless North specifically has 4432.
1NT = Guarantees 4+ ¨-suit.
3ª = The excellent 6-card ª-suit, the proven 4/4+ fit in diamonds, and the singleton of hearts make this hand too nice too just rebid 2ª with. Bridge, certainly at imps, is not just a matter of counting hcp (= high card points).

If North stretches his 1NT-range of 15-17 hcp a little, as our North did indeed, NS get to game automatically:

3ª by South (6+ suit, 7-8 hcp) would now be a gross underbid, because of the many plusses South has to offer.

Recommended bidding sequence:

1NT = Less than 4 hearts, less than 4 spades, 5-11 hcp. One round force.
2§ = May be on a doubleton, for East could hold 4522 and not enough strength to reverse. We recommend to trade Muiderberg 2© for Flannery 2© to solve this problem. A Flannery 2©-opening shows 5 hearts, 4 spades and 11-15 hcp.
2© = More constructive than the immediate raise to 2©, which could be real trash, as we have seen in board 5. If East rebids 2¨ or 2© over 1NT, promising 4+ ¨- or 6+ ©-suit respectively, West should raise to 3© instead.

Recommended bidding sequence:

Pass = We do not recommend a vulnerable 1ª-overcall with this hand. We may miss some partscore once in a while, but that is not a crucial thing at imps, given the risks we run and will discuss below. If North can't enter the auction after West his made his call, the hand rates to belong to EW, yet another reason to remain silent.
1© = Must be alerted, for in Walsh Approach, West my bypass a 4+ ¨-suit.
3© = The 4/4+ fit, the singleton in spades, the good ¨-suit, and the well placed tens and middle cards justify this invitation.
4© = West only promised 6 hcp, so he has not nearly a minimum.

If South does overcall 1ª, this auction may develop:

2© = 5+ ©-suit, 8-11 hcp, the so-called negative free bid.
3ª = Preemptive raise, based on the vulnerable overcall of South, and the proven 5+/4-fit. North can see from his own hand, that South has a poor ª-suit, so he must have compesation elsewhere to justify his vulnerable overcall. This compensation may come from extra length, shape, or high card point strength. Note that if North wants to invite to game, he can use the Reversed Good-Bad 2NT, i.e., bid 2NT instead of 3ª to show the better hand. 'Ordinary' Good-Bad adherents use 2NT to show the weaker hand, but we feel this would put the pressure on our shoulders rather than on theirs.
Dbl = Competitive, i.e., enough ©-support and hcp strength to raise to 4© with, (since we already have bypassed the last station before 4©), but giving West the option of passing for penalties, if he has a suitable hand (good trumps, maximum, or a combination of both).

This time, EW beat 3ª by 2 tricks, and chalk up 5 imps, or half a game swing, and next time, they will beat us by 3 tricks, and score 800, where they can only earn 450 on their own. If we consider that half the EW-field does not even bid game, this -800 will cost us about 10 imps, a complete game swing!

Report from Mr. William Gielkens:

"High card points and distributional points"

*) Someone argued that East has only 12 points, but if we add distributional assets he has in fact 15 points. The 8-11 hcp in West justify an invitational raise of 3©.

Our score: +4 imps for making 4©+1."

In our system, 3© is only an attempt to deny NS the partscore in spades. We would use the competitive double to invite to 4©. This East hand, however, is good enough to jump to game with. West does not only promise 8-11 hcp, but a 5-card suit as well. In a proven 5-4 fit, East's hand is worth about 16 points, the more so, because the bidding of NS indicates, that West has little or no wasted values in spades. We don't really want to see West passing out with the minimum he has here.

Recommended bidding sequence:

3§ = Our policy is to not raise on 3-card support, unless the opponents force us to do so. 4ª will not slip through our fingers here, so we keep the auction going by cuebidding 3§. The jump cue of 4§ requires 4+ ª-support and preferably some slam interest as well.
4§ = Attempting to give West a hard time when he is on marginal values or playing strength.
4© = 5+ ©-suit, offering East another suit to play game (or even slam) in.
5§ = Willing to pay off 300 or 500 against an almost certain 620 or 650. The one disadvantage is, that this sacrifice may push EW into a slam that they are not going to bid on their own. At the other hand, 5§ puts EW on a complete guess, and if they gamble on 6ª now, they will yield 11 imps.

Report from Mr. William Gielkens:

"The 5-level revisited"

We chased EW enough. If there are 19 tricks on this deal, 6§ will be too costful. Let's go over it. 5ª for them leaves only 8 tricks for us, whick means that we will go off 4. So: pass!

Our score: +5 imps for bidding and making 5ª. One EW pair stranded in 5© and lost 11 imps to NS."

With 2/3¨, Mr. Gielkens wants to say that many partnerships treat 2¨ as an ordinary 2 over 1 (4+ suit, 10+ or 12+ hcp, or whatever they have agreed on), while another large school treats it as a negative free bid (5+ suit and 8-11, or even 6-10 hcp). The adherents of the non-forcing style would have to jump to 3¨ to show 6+ suit and 12+ hcp. An increasing number of experts would treat 2¨ as negative free bid and 3¨ as preemptive jump shift. They would have to cuebid or use the negative double to keep the auction going on this deal.

Go to Boards 17-20