TWiB Lesson #572 (6 of 9)
When responding to partner’s 1-Major opening bid, Responder tries to apply the Law of Total Tricks (LOTT) – getting to the size of the partnership’s fit as quickly as possible. This LOTT bidding is especially effective when our side has a 9+card fit. Bergen Raises are a set of conventional bids Responder can use when responding to a 1-Major opening bid with 4+card support (at least a 9+card fit). Let’s see how this system works.
TWiB Lesson #574 (8 of 9)
Jumping in the auction eats up a lot of bidding space, which is likely to make communicating with partner more difficult. Since our jump bid may make future communication more difficult, it should have a specific meaning. When partner opens the bidding, Responder’s jump shifts can be used to show a variety of different types of hands. We need to decide, as a partnership, which ones we want to use. We will choose different agreements for different situations.
TWiB Lesson #575 (9 of 9)
When partner makes a bid, and we choose to bid a suit of our own, this is called a freebid. In most normal situations freebids show values (called positive freebids) and are often forcing 1-round. We’ve all heard the saying -- a new suit is forcing by an unpassed hand. Unfortunately, this is not always true, but it is often our agreement. Let’s look at freebids made by a passed hand and see how the fact that we are passed changes these situations.
TWiB Lesson #577 (2 of 9)
When Opener makes a jump shift into a new suit with their second bid, it is a strong bid that creates a game forcing auction. This is a good bid because it ensures we reach game, but it is a bad bid because it eats up a lot of bidding space without fully describing our distribution. This is a problem. One of the most difficult opening hands to describe to partner is the unbalanced single-suited (one 6+card suit) hand with 18-19 HCP. This is one of the strongest hands that does not open the bidding 2♣. Let’s look at a system that helps us improve our jump shift methods.
TWiB Lesson #578 (3 of 9)
When partner opens the bidding with a 2-level or 3-level preemptive opening bid then Responder may have a struggle to find the best final contract without getting the auction too high. One of the natural pressures is whether Responder risk going past 3NT to look for a fit or a better fit. Given the variability of modern preempts it can be dangerous to reach the 5-level when partner has taken an aggressive action. Here we look at a tool, called Preempt Keycard, for Responder to ask for Keycards after a preempt, but still keep the auction at a low level.
TWiB Lesson #552 (3 of 8)
When the opponents open the bidding with a 3-level preempt then much of tour focus is on “Should we bid beyond 3NT?” This is especially true when we have one long minor, when we likely want to play in 3NT or 5-minor. This allows us to use 4-minor in some interesting conventional ways, just as we do vs. a 2-level preempt.
TWiB Lesson #553 (4 of 8)
When the opponents stay out of our auctions then usually 4NT is Quantitative in a NT auction or Keycard in a suit auction. But in a competitive auction we are more likely to use 4NT as a bid showing 2 places to play. Let’s look at some of these auctions so we know what partner is trying to do to when they use 4NT in a competitive auction.
TWiB Lesson #554 (5 of 8)
Good/Bad 2NT gives Opener two ways to compete to the 3-level – by bidding directly with a “Good Hand” or by bidding 2NT first with a “Bad Hand”. By using 2NT as a relay bid, instead of a natural call, this allows for a more precise description of Opener’s hand. Let’s see how it works through examples.
TWiB Lesson #555 (6 of 8)
In competitive auctions where the opponents have found a fit, we will compete aggressively – especially at matchpoints. We will frequently use double (for takeout) with three-suited hands and sometimes with two-suited hands. To handle these situations, we want partner (Advancer) to have a tool to help us find our best fit. As usual, in competitive auctions our choice of convention will be 2NT.
TWiB Lesson #556 (7 of 8)
Lead-directing doubles can be helpful in getting partner off to a good opening lead. These lead-directing doubles are common when the opponents make an artificial bid. But when the opponents make a cuebid of our suit, then a lead-directing double is also very common. Here we focus on this situation in detail in order to structure our agreements to allow us to communicate in the most effective way we can.
TWiB Lesson #557 (8 of 8)
There are certain auctions where we have made a bid that has “fully described our hand” and we leave the bidding up to partner. In this case we can use a Double as a conventional bid saying “I want to bid more”. This is called an I Want to bid Double and it applies in very specific situations to open the bidding with it more often. Let’s take a look at these in more detail.
TWiB Lesson #541 (1 of 9)
When the opponents open the bidding with a strong 1NT the hand usually belongs to them, as we are less likely to have a majority of the HCP. We usually compete with shapely hands - 1-suited or 2-suited distributional hands.
TWiB Lesson #542 (2 of 9)
There are many artificial systems for competing over the opponent’s 1NT opening bid. Woolsey is focused on finding Major suit fits while allowing us to compete as cheaply as possible.
TWiB Lesson #543 (3 of 9)
When the opponents are playing a “Weak 1NT” opening bid (for example, 12-14 points), we need to bid only when we have a decently valued hand. It is common to use a different bidding system against the opponents’ Weak 1NT opening bid than the one you use against a strong 1NT opening.
TWiB Lesson #544 (4 of 9)
When constructing a system to allow us to bid over these weak 1NT openings we need to take a different approach than bidding over a strong 1NT opening. Thus, we construct our bidding system to allow us to explore game and make constructive bids, not just be destructive.
TWiB Lesson #545 (5 of 9)
After partner opens 1NT, we have a good structure for using our bids efficiently to describe our hand to partner. But when the opponents interfere in our auction, we lose some of this valuable bidding space and need to change our approach in order to deal with their interference.
TWiB Lesson #546 (6 of 9)
There are many systems the opponents play in order to interfere over our 1NT opening bid, but almost all of these systems use the 3-level (actually 2NT+) for the same meanings – 2NT as a weak bid showing both minors and 3-level bids as weak with a long suit, preemptive. It is important that you and partner are on the same page for how to deal with this higher-level interference.
TWiB Lesson #547 (7 of 9)
When we open the bidding with 1NT if an opponent makes a penalty double, we are less likely to be we are usually looking to escape from a 1NT contract and attempt to find some safer place to play. This safe place will hopefully be our largest fit or a long suit in the weak hand (in Responder’s hand). In order to find this place to play we need to look at how Responder’s bidding options change after a penalty double.
TWiB Lesson #548 (8 of 9)
Lebensohl is an excellent system for dealing with interference over our 1NT opening bids. But Lebensohl has some flaws. In Lebensohl auctions we will often play the hand from the “wrong” side (Responder’s side.) Another flaw in Lebensohl relates to Responder’s strength. Responder often has three strengths (buckets) let’s see how Transfer Lebensohl is an upgrade to this.
TWiB Lesson #549 (9 of 9)
One of the most common gadgets that we use when partner opens 1NT is Stayman. We primarily use Stayman to search for a 4-4 Major suit fit. After Stayman sometimes we want to have a way to raise partner’s suit where they cannot pass. We will want a “Forcing Raise” (similar to Jacoby 2NT or Inverted Minors) in order to find out more about Opener’s hand.
TWiB Lesson #532 (1 of 9)
When we are in a game forcing auction and the opponents interfere (usually to sacrifice) it is clear that we are not going to go quietly and just let them steal the contract. If the opponents bid over us, then we will either double them and defend or bid on to our game. Forcing Pass is an agreement used to help us work together with partner to make a good decision about which to do.
TWiB Lesson #533 (2 of 9)
Minor suit slams are much harder to bid than Major suit slams. This is especially true after we open the bidding with 1NT (or 2NT). We start off the auction looking for Major suit fits and only then look for our minor suit fits after that. These Major suit showing bids are the cheapest bids and that means that our minor suit showing bids take up more space. We look at how we overcome this.
TWiB Lesson #534 (3 of 9)
In the Major suits, we try to bid to game at 4-Major or slam at 6-Major. We try not to play in 5-Major, but it does happen, like when the opponents compete and push us beyond game, or when we go looking for slam and determine that we need to stop because we are missing two Aces. So, we can use a 5-Major bid for something other than to end the auction.
TWiB Lesson #535 (4 of 9)
We most frequently use 5NT in Ace-asking auctions to ask for Kings. We now have another use of a 5NT bid in Grand Slam Force. But trying for a grand slam is a rare occurrence and we would like to use 5NT (specially a jump to 5NT) for another more frequently useful purpose. The modern approach is to play a jump to 5NT as a “choice of slams” to help find the best small slam.
TWiB Lesson #536 (5 of 9)
On some highly distributional hands when we ask for Keycards (or Aces) using 4NT, the opponents choose to bid over our 4NT bid to obstruct communication & “get in the way”. We should be prepared for this interference & have agreements for how to communicate with partner (show our number of Keycards or Aces) in this situation.
