This week we look at a useful tool for visualizing the opening lead - the Rule of 11.
Constructive: Opener
One of the most common misunderstandings about Opener’s hand concerns rebidding 3NT. What does it show? As we would expect, the answer is different in different situations. It is key for us to make the right interpretation of partner’s bid and to make sure we don’t make false assumptions. These kinds of bidding mixups can lead to playing the wrong game or missing an “easy’ slam. Let’s look at some auctions and make sure we have good agreements with partner.
When partner opens the bidding 2NT then it gives us less space to investigate a Major suit fit (or any fit) and keep the auction below 3NT. That makes it important to make use of our space efficiently and determine if we have a fit and then determine if we belong in game or higher. Here we look at how to balance communicating with partner and a lack of bidding space.
More NT
When partner opens the bidding 2NT they eat up a lot of bidding space. As the Responder we need to search for a Major suit fit (or even a minor suit fit) while keep the auction from getting too high. Our most common action will be to start with a 3♣ Stayman response. Let’s take a look at these auctions in detail and make sure that we are on the same page as partner.
In general, we use jumps in competitive auctions as weak bids (0-5 points) applying the Law of Total Tricks (LOTT) -- (though sometimes the modern approach can be to use mixed bids, 6-9 points). The key is that we jump to our Law level, eating up bidding space, to quickly and narrowly define our hand.
Constructive: Responder
When we are a passed hand and partner opens the bidding, we must be careful in trying to describe our hand. Partner’s opening bid in the 3rd seat can be light in values, trying to be destructive or lead-directing, so we cannot respond to it in the same way we would a normal opening bid. Specifically, if partner opens 1-Major in the 3rd seat, we should not go jumping around without a very special hand. Let’s look at how we should respond when partner opens in the 3rd seat.
