Evaluating the strength of your hand by Bobby Wolff

This weeks's quizz is about evaluating the strength of your hand and chosing your bid accordingly.

Should you pass? Or invite? Or find a forcing bid?

Test yourself!

Question 1

Your Hand
♠ J 9 6 4 3
♥ A 6
♦ A K J 3
♣ A K

Q: 1 - What do you bid next as South?

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♣
Double	Pass	1♥	Pass
?

A: 1♠: You have a great hand, but you do not need to bid more than one spade now. It is easy to see that you'll need quite a bit of help from partner to make game, whether it be in diamonds, hearts, spades or no-trump. Start by showing a good hand, and let partner bid on if he has anything to say.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 2

Your Hand
♠ K 8 6 5 4
♥ K Q J 5
♦ A J
♣ Q 7

Q: 2 - What do you bid next as South?

South	West	North	East
-	-	1♦	Pass
1♠	Pass	1NT	Pass
?

A: 2♣: A simple call of two hearts here should be nonforcing; a jump to three hearts should be 5-5 invitational. To force to game, start with the call of two clubs. This is the New Minor Forcing convention, which I recommend to everyone -- one of the very few gadgets with little or no downside. See bit.ly/SuziAs.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 3

Your Hand
♠ A Q 9 3 2
♥ K Q J
♦ A 10 6 2
♣ 7

Q: 3 - What do you bid next as South?

South	West	North	East
1♠	Pass	1NT	Pass
2♦	Pass	2♠	Pass
?

A: 3♥: The diamond and spade intermediates are just enough to tempt me to make one more call, even though it could easily be turning a plus score into a minus. A call of three hearts here shows real extras and approximately this hand pattern, letting partner decide whether to go to game -- and which strain to play in.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 4

Your Hand
♠ Q 10
♥ 9 7 4
♦ A K Q 9 3
♣ 10 9 8

Q: 4 - What do you bid next as South?

South	West	North	East
-	-	Pass	Pass
1♦	Pass	1♠	Pass
?

A: Pass: Your third-in-hand opener was correct on tactical grounds, but when partner produces the wrong response, it is not easy to decide whether to improve the final contract -- and if so, how. I vote for passing one spade, on the grounds that this will stop partner from shooting for the moon, and your hand is approximately as playable in spades as diamonds -- especially if facing five trumps.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 5

Your Hand
♠ Q J 10 6 3
♥ 10 9 7
♦ A K Q 9
♣ 7

Q: 5 - What do you bid next as South?

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♣
1♠	Double	Pass	2♣
?

A: 2♦: Bidding again is not without risk, but I hate to surrender part-scores without a fight, whether at rubber, teams or pairs. I think you are supposed to bid again, and the issue is whether to bid two diamonds, focusing on the suit quality, or double, hoping partner has real heart length. I can see both sides of this, but the suit quality and West's negative double would persuade me to bid diamonds.

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.
More informations on our website: www.VuBridge.com

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