Declarer Tips
Finding one more trick
North raises your 2NT opening bid to 3NT, and West leads the ♠Q. You have eight top tricks (the ♠A K, ♦A K and four top hearts). Which minor suit will your ninth trick come from?
Answer:
There are too many honors (the A–K–Q) to knock out in the club suit, and you can only give up the lead one more time before the opponents can take their spade tricks. You must hope to develop your ninth trick in diamonds. If the defensive diamonds split 3–3, the 13th diamond in the North hand (dummy) will be a winner.
Be careful! You must win with the ♠K in your hand at trick one and preserve the ♠A as an entry to dummy’s diamond winner. At trick two, play the ♦A, then the king and 2, surrendering a diamond trick. If diamonds prove to be 3–3, you will have your ninth trick established and the ♠A as an entry to reach it.
The full deal:
Bridge Term Breakdown
Balancing (verb)
To “balance” in bridge is to keep the bidding open when it is about to be passed out at a low level. For example, if the bidding proceeds:
The 1♠ bid by South is a balancing action. The balancing bid is often made with a hand of substandard strength in order to prevent the opponents from securing a low-level contract. South may bid or double with a bit less than normal. (This includes notrump: 1NT in the balancing seat typically shows 11–14 HCP.)
Although West’s strength is unknown, it is known they did not open 2♣ or 2NT, so they have less than 20 HCP. East did not have enough values to respond, so they, too, are limited, and have fewer than, say, 6 HCP. If you assume West has 15 HCP and East has 5 HCP, that’s only half the deck. Even if you have just a flat 11-count, it’s probably safe to balance with the anticipation that partner has some values.
Balancing can also be performed with values unsuitable for direct action after the opponents’ bidding has demonstrated weakness or minimal strength.
Both North and South have limited their hands. It is safe for East to balance with the appropriate hand, such as:
1. ♠A J 10 2 ♥8 2 ♦K J 10 ♣J 9 7 2
Double (for takeout) would be OK; you have support for all the unbid suits and a ruffing value in hearts.
2. ♠Q 9 8 7 4 ♥A 7 2 ♦Q J 7 2 ♣6
Nonvulnerable, you should risk 2♠. Your partner has some high-card points, and maybe you can ruff a heart in their hand.
3. ♠K J 10 ♥9 7 4 2 ♦A J 10 ♣K J 9
Double for takeout. You’ve got support for all the unbid suits, and you know partner is short in hearts. (The opponents bid and raised hearts; you have four of them, so partner has one heart at most.
Best Bidding
Responding to partner’s 1♣ or 1♦ opening bid
When partner opens the bidding with one of a minor, often the bidding priority is to find out if you have a fit, ideally in a major. Because partner could have four cards in one or both of the majors, responder can bid a major with only four, thus finding a 4–4 fit. What do you do when you have two four-card majors, or one four-card and one five-card major, or two five-card majors?
4=4: FOUR on the floor
When you are 4=4 in the majors, bid the lower-ranking suit (hearts) first. You can remember this by thinking FOUR on the floor (floor=low, so hearts).
5=5: HIGH five
When you are 5=5 in the majors, bid spades first, then bid hearts (HIGH five=higher ranking suit first).
When you are 5–4 (either way in the majors), just bid your longest suit first. If you bid hearts and partner doesn’t bid 1♠, chances are they don’t have four, so you can either pass or rebid your hearts. Here is an example. With:
♠Q 9 5 4 ♥A K 8 4 2 ♦10 9 ♣J 3,
say the auction proceeds:
You can decide to pass or bid 2♥ (partner could have three and most likely has two). You can safely give up on the spade suit, because with four spades, partner would have bid 1♠ over 1♥.
When you have five spades and four hearts, such as:
♠K 10 8 3 2 ♥A Q 6 2 ♦9 3 ♣6 2,
you can bid 2♥ if partner rebids 1NT. For example:
Keep in mind that 2♥ is not forcing in this situation, so if you have a good hand and you want to be in game, you have to do something different.
