November 2004

HEADLINE NEWS

Bridge Snaps is going “public” with a subscription price of $5.00 per year. But before you rush to cancel your subscription, you should know that current subscribers are grandfathered or grandmothered in at the present high rate of $0.00. Also you can sign up friends at your preferred rate until the end of this year.

MAJORS VS. NOTRUMP

There is an ongoing dispute (among bridge egg-heads) about what to bid when your hand qualifies to open one of a major and one notrump. This occurs when you have 16 to 18 points and a 5-3-3-2 distribution where the five-card suit is hearts or spades. For example:

S) A Q 6 5 3
H) 5 3
D) K Q J
C) K J 9

Some leading gurus advise you to open 1 NT with hands like this and any others that fit the 1 NT requirements. Their view is that it is more important to describe strength than distribution at the first bid. But - - there are so many hands where ignoring a five-card major produces inferior results for you. Here is one common example. Suppose partner opens 1 NT with the hand shown above and you hold:

S) J 10 2
H) 6 4
D) 10 9 7 6
C) A 10 8 7

What can you bid when partner opens 1 NT? Nothing unless you blatantly bend the rules. Sure, partner might take seven tricks in notrump if the hearts are divided 5-4 and the spade king is on side (work it out). But playing in spades, partner can easily take nine tricks even when the spade king is off-side (taking 4 spades, 3 diamonds, and 2 clubs). With this hand, raise spades any time partner opens one spade, easily finding the better contract.

THE PENALTY DOUBLE

Learning she was going to have twins, the bridge-playing wife said: “That’s just like my husband - he doubles me when I am vulnerable!”

READERS FORUM

Reader question: “I learned years ago that you should subtract one point from a hand that has no aces. Is this still valid?”

Answer: Deducting a point for an aceless hand was recommended by Charles Goren a half century ago. No modern bridge authority that I know recognizes this. In my intensive research on hand evaluation, I have been unable to validate it. Standard American 21 does not endorse this practice. Enough said.

BridgeSnaps newsletter is produced by John S. Thomas, author of Standard American 21.