No,
this isn’t about birthdays or signing up for Medicare. The late Grant Baze was
a top tournament player in the 1980s and 1990s, a formidable competitor who also was an exemplar of courtesy and ethics at the bridge table. He was known for his bridge aphorism “six-five, come alive”; such distributional hands are well-suited (groan) for offense, and bidding them aggressively usually pays dividends. Here’s
an example from a week ago Thursday.
Sitting
in the South seat at matchpoints, not vulnerable, you’re dealt this monster.
♠ A K J x x ♥ x x ♦ -- ♣ A K Q J 10 x
This
hand looks to be worth at least 9 playing tricks with clubs as trump, making more if spades break favorably. Some players will open this hand 2♣ (artificial) to show a strong game-forcing
hand. The danger is that savvy opponents use a strong 2♣ opening as a mandate to preempt aggressively,
and I fear that the auction will be at the five level before I can name even one of my two suits! So, personally, with a radical two-suiter I prefer to open at the one level. With so many red cards in the other three hands, I’m
not worried about a one-level opening being passed out, and I might even get a
chance to bid my second suit at a reasonable level.
The
standard way to show a hand with 6-5 distribution is to start with the 6-card
suit, and then bid the 5-card suit twice.
The second suit is rebiddable (e.g., at least a 5-card suit), and by implication
the first suit is even better since we normally open with our best suit.
So,
the strategy here is to open with clubs, and then bid spades twice if
necessary. The opponents are silent throughout the auction.
You
|
Partner
|
1 ♣
2 ♠
3 ♠
|
1 ♥
2 NT
(more)
|
You
bid 2♠ instead of 1♠ in order to
show the strength of your hand. Your jump-shift rebid promises partner a hand worth 19+ points,
and creates an auction that is forcing to game.
Bidding 3♠ completes the description of your hand.
Partner now knows that you have rebiddable spades (at least five) and your
clubs are longer than your spades; you must be at least 6-5 in the black suits.
And since your 2♠ jump-shift was
forcing to game, the auction isn’t over yet!
THE PRINCIPLE: With six-five, come
alive! Show partner that you have 6-5 distribution by first bidding your
longer suit, then bidding your second suit twice. If you are only 6-4, bid your six-card suit, then your four-card suit, then back to your six-card suit.
Our auction is forcing to game. We're not done with this hand. Stay
tuned…
Ray, very interesting analysis as usual. I have a question for you however. How is it that you know partner has at least at least 3 spades? I can't see from the bidding how I would know that. Gigi
ReplyDeleteHi Gigi, you won't know partner has 3 spades until later in the auction when she cue-bids 4 diamonds after your spade rebid. When she bid 2NT, she promised at least two spades (balanced notrump distribution) but denied four spades (she would have raised two spades to three or four). Your 3-spade bid promises at least five spades, partner then comes alive and starts cue-bidding... Once she starts cue-bidding, that really suggests we've found a fit, implying spades. If she preferred clubs, I hope she'd instead bid 4-clubs to set the trump suit in a game-forcing auction. There's no guarantee of three spades in her hand, but I think the circumstantial case is very strong. (Note to other readers that some of this auction takes place in the following two articles to this one)
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