"Sleeping While Flying" Basic Responses by Marti Ronemus

Stop the presses! Did you know that birds can sleep while flying? Scientists measured birds' brain activity (never mind how) while they were on long migrations where they don't touch land sometimes for weeks. And--amazingly!--they can indeed sleep while flying. They have the same skill as dolphins, in that they can sleep with only one eye open, and one side of their brain turned off.

And I suspect this is a skill being attempted by many bridge players. We've all seen the evidence, haven't we? It's the only explanation for some of those bids.

We're going to be wide awake (hopefully) while working on our basic responses today.

Question 1

Your Hand
♠ 6 4 3
♥ A 10 9 8
♦ Q J 4 3
♣ 4 3

Q: 1 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1♣	Pass
?

A: 1♥: Once again we address the question of whether or not to bypass the four-card Diamond suit in favor of the major. With a very minimum hand, we are going right to the major.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 2

Your Hand
♠ 6 4 3
♥ A 10 9 8
♦ Q J 4 3
♣ A 3

Q: 2 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1♣	Pass
?

A: 1♦: We've got a lovely intermediate hand and we know that the better our hand, the slower we go up the bidding ladder until we know where our fit is. If Pard has Hearts, we'll hear about them on his next bid so don't worry about missing the fit.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 3

Your Hand
♠ 4 3 2
♥ Q 8 4
♦ 3 2
♣ A Q 10 3 2

Q: 3 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1♦	Pass
?

A: 1 No-trump: We love our Clubs, but sadly don't have the cash to buy a new suit at the two-level. We need 10 pts. Stay awake and do the right thing.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 4

Your Hand
♠ 4 3 2
♥ Q 8 4
♦ 3 2
♣ A Q 10 3 2

Q: 4 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1♣	Pass
?

A: 2♣: We don't want to bid No-trump with two "naked" suits. We are sure Pard has three Clubs, so we've got an eight-card fit. It's a discouraging bid, and we've limited our hand, so it's now Pard's problem.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 5

Your Hand
♠ 2
♥ A J 9 4
♦ K Q 10 9 8
♣ A 3 2

Q: 5 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1♠	Pass
?

A: 2♦: We don't want to jump to 3 No-trump. Such a hasty move might wake Pard up. We do indeed have the other suits stopped, but we aren't sure where we want to end up. We lose nothing by bidding 2♦. It's forcing and most important, it gives Pard LOTS of room to finish the description of his hand. We might possibly be in slam, so let's go slowly.

And now, let's flap our wings over to our hand.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Play this Hand

Now that you've bid five hands, let's see how your play goes.

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Overall Results

Your results: out of Average:

What next? You may enjoy playing our prepared hands series.
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