ªMARCH2009 7 Mas ter Solv ers Panel with this hand. [Inci den tal ly, when I first ner is weak without much of a fit. pass 3ª, pass 4ª, all pass, and I led the By Mar shall Miles ran this problem a year ago, only John and SWANSON: 3ª. This is an under bid in queen of clubs. The di rec tor was called San Bernardino, Calif. Paul agreed with me. Now at least I am regards to the mini m um require d in this sit - again (dummy had §Kxx and partner had among the major it y!] It’s not likely part ner ua ti on. For that reason I have no objec ti on §AJ10xx, and our score was –420. Later Our March panel ist s are has opened a four card major missing the to 4¨ or 4ª (the call I would make at the di rec tor told us the score was changed JoAnna Stansby and Harvey ace and king. You would have no reluc - IMPs). 3ª of fers a bit of safety with a 4© from –420 to –460, the score at the other Brody, Dis trict 21; Paul tance to bid 2ª or Drury with three small call in reserve should partner try 3NT. table, since we hadn’t given a com plete ex - Ivaska and Jan Janitschke, spades. Won’t the double ton ace-king be at plana ti on. He said if we hadn’t discussed Distri ct 17; John Swanson least as good trump support most of the Problem 4. it, we should have dis cussed it. I thought and Dayou Zhou, Dis trict 22; and Jill time? that that was an unrea son able require - Meyers, guest pan el ist from Dis trict 23. N-S vul., Board-A-Match You, South, hold ment, and I see that most of the panel ist s Problem 2. were uncer tain as to the meaning. The dou - Problem 1. Nei ther vul, IMPs ª7632 ©965 ¨542 §Q42 ble had to be ei ther for takeout or lead di- Both vul, IMPs rect ing. I thought, at un fa vor able vul ner a- You are the dealer, but RHO bids 1§ out East South West North As South, you hold of turn. You re fuse to accept it, so his bid is bil ity, when the oppo nents showed 1ª Pass 2§* Dbl game-forcing val ues, it was very unli kely cancelled and it is your turn to bid. LHO is Pass ? ªAK ©65 ¨K752 §J10865 barred for the rest of the aucti on. What is partner would try to buy the bid for us. So South West North East your call with *When West bids 2§, East says: “Alert. it must be lead di recting. Perhaps if I had Pass Pass 1ª Pass Game-forc ing.” held five clubs, I would have changed my ? ª62 ©KJ1096 ¨J98754 § —- mind, but the oppo nents were in as good a What call do you make? IVASKA: Pass. Again, to begin with, I posi ti on as I to figure out why partner dou- What call do you make? would have ac cepted Nurse Ratchett’s 1§ bled unles s we had an agree ment. The op- IVASKA: Pass. Did my part ner ponents could have protec ted themsel ves in opening to bid 2NT. Why shouldn’t I have McMurphy hear the alert? It does n’t seem IVASKA: 2§. This whole set has a “One taken this oppor tu nit y to descri be my hand, two ways. The care less alert with its (un so - Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” qualit y to likely that the oppo nents can make the licit ed) expla na ti on should have been, “ar- an op por tu nity which prob a bly (which I three overtricks require d to com pensat e it, in that I feel I’m playing in an in sane say advis edly ) won’t be present ed at the ti fi cial and game-forc ing.” Then we would asy lum (to which I’m sure I was de- them for their pre sumed game, and this have had no reason to ask ques tions. And other table? As it is, I don’t under sta nd might be the best method to find our way servedly com mit ted). To begin with, I what tac ti cal bid I should make. Left-hand East could have passed the double. to a 5-3 fit (if, indeed we do have one) or, Whether I bid or passed would give the op- would have opened this hand (with 1¨, in- Inm ate will proba bly give away the much better, slither enti rely out of the huge tending to rebid 2§). Af ter all, it has 2½ strength of her/his hand anyway , so a tacti - ponents a clue as to what I was thinking. penalt y that seems to be in the offing. In There was another reason for passing with de fen sive tricks and rea son able play ing cal flight of fancy won’t work often. any case, in the words of the late, great Dr. strength. The obvi ous dis advan tage is that I MEYERS: Pass. I have no reason to know this hand. As Paul said, unles s West had Frischauer, “I do not play ze hand.” (He very good clubs, he could not afford to might land in a 4-3 (or even 4-2) fit, but what is right, so why bid in order to mess was Aus trian, so the ac cent should be fa- up the oppo nents ? I could be messing up pass, since he would need three overtricks it’s been my expe ri ence that this happens mil iar to Cal i for nians). If 2§ re dou bled is more often in theory than in practi ce. As it my part ner as well. to score better than the game bonus, so if SWANSON: Pass. I would open a bit passed back to me, as Terence Reese might he wanted to play for 8 to 10 tricks in clubs is now, I feel that this hand will usu ally put it, “I shall have to think again.” play better in spades than in notrump, so light with appro pri ate hands in this situ a - he should redou ble. We protes ted the di- I’m going to treat my AK-doubleton as the tion, but no call other than pass is in the JANITSCHKE: Pass has some ap peal. If rec tor’s rul ing, and af ter 2½ hours of de- equiva lent of (or better than) typi cal 3-card least bit de scrip tive. Part ner should strive they redou ble, I’ll run to di am onds, and lib er a tion the com mit tee re stored the re sult support. Of course, I’m assum ing that to bid in third seat with a reason able suit part ner might just work out that I don’t at the table (-420). we’re playing Drury.[Hooray! This “in - and should pass with a bal anced mini m um. want to be raised. mate” agrees with me! –M.M.] If not, I’ll I under sta nd that the ACBL has a re stric - MEYERS: What is the reason for the an- Problem 5. use a forcing 1NT to show a limit raise in tion against spe cial system s when there are no ta tion of East’s announce m ent of “Alert, East-West vul ner a ble, matchpoints spades. By the way, even when play ing bid ding ir reg u lar i ties. That does n’t mean game-forcing?” Is that part of the problem ? Drury, opener should alm ost never pass we can’t dis cuss tac tics. If so, I didn’t re alize we were supposed to West East part ner’s semiforcing 1NT. [No, no. Ap - ZHOU: Pass. I never took a class on how be psy choan a ly sts. I think this is very close ª3 ªAK107632 parentl y Paul reall y is crazy.] To pass, one to take full advan tage of vari ous kinds of whether to bid 2¨ or pass. If I passed I ©AK843 ©65 should have min i mum sec ond ary val ues in ir reg u lar ities, but it feels right to let part ner would expect them to make it, but hoping ¨K8 ¨63 a 5-3-3-2 patter n, e.g. ªK10xxx ©QJx open her hand knowing that her RHO no more than –180 or –380. If I bid and we §AQ1062 §96 would have to pass whatever her LHO end up in a 4-3 fit, I could be stuck with a ¨Q10 §KJx ... and even then it will often worse score. Maybe when my partner dou- be wrong. guessed to do. If playing Pol ish two bids I 1© 1ª could open 2©, showing a weakish hand bled, I should have said, “Alert, hot wa- 2§ 2ª JANITSCHKE: 2§. Drury. Makes the ter!” aucti on easy if part ner does n’t have much with hearts and another suit. 3§ 3ª SWANSON: Pass. I have played against Pass of a hand. Yes, I know I should have more BRODY: 2© is a rea son able call; how - these fancy system s be fore where some ever, a pass is also good. With the cards favor ably locate d, East trumps. simple bid like 2§ is a game force, so I am STANSBY: 2§: I’m bidding this whether JANITSCHKE: 2©. The oppo nents prob- made six. Appor ti on the fault for missing prepared. I don’t think the holding of game. it is Drury or natu ral . I don’t want to bid ei - ably have us outgunned, and at least part- queen-third is suffi cie nt for an inquiry by ther 1NT or 2NT, which would wrong-side ner will have some idea as to the na ture of IVASKA: West 95%, East 5%. East could my hand if he has a good hand. If he does- me of “Does 2§ show clubs?” have bid 3ª at his sec ond turn, but that our most likely game. We can stop in 2ª BRODY: Pass. They would have to take a when part ner has a mini m um. Other wise , I n’t have much, so much the better. If I will gener all y get the partner ship too high. pass, part ner is all alone in this, and if the lot of tricks to make up for a game. If they 4¨ over 3ª was clearcut. Indeed, West’s am still hopeful of getti ng to 3NT from re dou ble maybe partner will chose a place part ner’s side. If part ner does not have the insuf fi cie nt bidder decide s to take a shot at pass was incon sis tent with bidding over 3NT I don’t even know what to lead. to play. hearts stopped, then 4ª on a 5-2 fit may be ZHOU: Pass. Okay, second hand this 2ª. If he felt that way about his hand, he our best game. STANSBY: 2©. I would do the same if should have passed 2ª, for which there is RHO had not bid out of turn. month that has to do with irreg u lar iti es – in SWANSON: 2§. Drury offers a big ad- this case un so lic ited ex pla na tion. I sup pose actu all y a very strong argu m ent. vantage over 1NT with these cards. If part - M.M.: No mat ter what I do, part ner could MEYERS: No blame. I had this hand in act in third seat, and RHO will have a this one has to do with the fact that many ner retreats to 2ª we will surely be in the play 2§ as to tally ar tifi cial, and part ner the Blue Ribbon Pairs. My partner bid 2ª best partscore. Over other calls I will show chance to bid again, but he will have to guess what to bid with no input from his might have doubled to show clubs. If it which is per fectly rea son able, as is 3ª. I a bal anced limit raise. I have no in ter est in goes all pass, then I can afford two doubled passed 2ª, which is per fectly rea son able as a notrump contra ct unles s part ner bids it. part ner. His most likely choices are 3NT and pass. The panel is divide d on the best overtricks (-380). The most inter est ing sce- is a raise to 3ª. My tendency would have MEYERS: 1NT. Partner should bid over nario would be 2§ doubled making five been to bid 3ª with the East hand, but the this if he or she has full values; if I weren’t strategy to help our side in this sit ua ti on, and I agree there is no clear-cut answe r. ver sus 4ª making six, for just another distri buti on is bad and it is matchpoints. I play ing Drury 2§ would be a consid er ati on push! would clearly bid 3ª at IMPs and would but I don’t think I would bid that suit any- Problem 3. STANSBY: 2¨. Part ner sees the vul ner a- way; 2NT would be nice if natu ral but I tend to bid 2NT over 2ª at IMPs. Vul vs. not, matchpoints. bil ity and knows they are in a game force. JANITSCHKE: Why should I assign any play it shows clubs. Hard to imagine pard with less than M.M.: Some people play that 2NT shows As South, you hold blame? No body did any thing wrong. Sure, both mi nors. I play it as natu ral. Good ªxx,©AKxxx,¨AKxxx,§x. each partner had a little ex tra, but not 11-12. ªAK9852 ©K10752 ¨J §5 M.M.: This hand ended up in commit tee. enough to do anythi ng differ ent. ZHOU: 1NT, semi-forc ing. No, I don’t West North East South The bidding started out as indi cate d, but ZHOU: I don’t think either player did like the small doubleton in hearts, but I like 1¨ Pass 3¨(weak) ? did not end up that way. East bid 2ª over any thing un rea son able, not to men tion that 2§ (Drury) even less. Partner might have the double - but before doing so, he kept 4ª could easil y go down, too. If playing opened a four card suit in 3rd seat, and What call do you make? asking me whether part ner’s double was weak two-level jump shifts showing 4-8 or ruffing hearts with the AK of trumps might for takeout or penalt y. I said that we had so (good treatm ent in my opinion), East’s not be fun either . This seems to be a hand BRODY: 4¨. I’m going for the home run. only played togethe r once before (plus 2ª bid is at least mildly in vi ta tional, and where one would wish to have a natu ral 2§ IVASKA: 4¨. I’d like to de scribe my practi cing for the nati onals on the West might have bid game with a good avail able. If the hand was just a bit better, I hand before the auc tion gets out of hand. I Internet), and we had never dis cussed it. hand. Without as sum ing this agreem ent, would have opened it. don’t re ally see a rea son able al ter na tive. And I re fused to state how I inter preted the how ever, East might have consid ered re - BRODY: 1NT semi-forc ing seems most Anythi ng else would be overly cauti ous, double, since - among other reasons - gives bid ding 3ª, since 2ª could be made on sensi ble. If part ner passes you proba bly and proba bly shortsight ed to boot. the oppo nents an improper clue regard ing KQxxxx and out. There fore East gets 40%, don’t have a game. my own hand. The di rec tor was summoned West 20%, and the rest of the blame goes to MEYERS: 4¨ (majors); I would like to and I was sent away from the table while M.M.: I don’t think a semi-forc ing 1NT have more HCP, but my distri bu tion makes sys tem and the luck factor ... which in this bid by a passed hand makes good sense. my part ner was questi oned. I don’t know case rewarded the opti mists and punishe d up for it. exactl y what was said since I wasn’t there, Suppose you open 1ª in third po si tion with STANSBY: 4¨; takeout for the majors. the pes si mists. but I think the gist of it was (a) that we had BRODY: East 100%. East might have bid ªAxxxx ©x ¨Qxxxx §Ax and partner bids The drawback is that partner will bid hearts no agree ment; (b) if the bid was total ly ar - 1NT. You don’t like a 1NT contrac t, so you with equal length, but I feel that there is a ti fi cial - like Stayman or Drury - the double 4ª ear lier ... or even when West bid 3§, bid 2¨. Part ner now bids 2NT. Of course, greater danger in bidding 3ª and having would be lead-direc ting, but we had never show ing ex tra val ues. if you are playing 1NT as semi-forcing, you part ner pass with short spades and longer discusse d a sit ua ti on like this, and a com- SWANSON: East 95%. 2ª is a hopeles s had better pass 1NT be fore things get hearts. pli cating factor is that partner had no in - un der bid. West gets 5% of the charge for worse. If your (opener’s) hand were ZHOU: 3ª; longer and higher suit first. forma ti on about club suit length promise d holding cards which make 4ª a reall y good ªQxxxx ©Kx ¨AJx §Axx you would be de- The late Evan Bailey would have doubled when he doubled. The prac ti cal problem is game. lighted to play in 1NT, but you are sup- for sure. Reverse the major suit holdings that if he asked whether the bid was com- STANSBY: East 55%. West’s auc tion posed to bid 2§ to show a real opening bid and I would bid 4¨. pletely arti fi cial and how many clubs it showed some ex tra val ues. Take away the so that you won’t miss game if partner has JANITSCHKE: 3ª. 4¨ could work out showed, and then either passed or doubled, ¨K, and West would pass 2ª. If play ing ªxx ©AQx ¨Qxxxx §Kxx, but this gets better if part ner has four or five hearts, but the oppo nents might well complai n if a IMPs East would just close his eyes and you danger ously high or in a six or seven (1) this is the suit I want led, (2), I’d rather club were led. bid a vul nera ble game, but at matchpoints card fit when he has 7-10 points. I think play spades if partner is 3-3 in the majors, The bid ding con tin ued 2ª by East, pass, (where plus scores rule), East’s 3ª is far both 2ª and 2§ (Drury) are better bids and (3), I don’t neces sar il y bury us if part- 2NT by West, 3©, prom is ing ex tra val ues, from ter ri ble.