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What should I Bid? - Best enquiry for November 2003

The best submission in November came from Eric Lam.

Hand: EW having favourable vulnerability and West dealer, the hand was:

 

ª AK
© KQ104
¨ J109
§ 10987
ª J10987652
© 95
¨ 84
§ 3
  ª Q43
© 82
¨ Q752
§ AJ65
  ª --
© AJ763
¨ AK63
§ KQ42
 

 

Bidding: West North East South
  1S X 2S 3H
  All pass

Comments:
North (my partner) though that West held an opening hand, 13 HCP,
East had at least a minimum responding hand, 6 HCP and he himself holds 13 HCP. This all adds up to 32 HCP so that my hand (South) will be a maximum 8 HCP. Consequently he passed and we played in the part score when the field was at least in game.
My question is - can I call the director for a 1S opening without opening values and no alert?
How should we untangle the auction?

And Peter's Response:

Hi Eric,
Let's deal with the bidding first.
You, sitting South, know, by simple observation of the cards you are looking at, that one or more of the previous bids are not consistent with the suggested strength. There simply aren't fifty-five plus points in the pack.

The way to announce a good hand and to demand that partner take a bid is to bid the opponents' suit (in this case 3S). This is an artificial force.
If that elicits a suit you do not have a fit in, you can either bid game in no-trumps with an appropriate hand, bid a new suit which will be forcing after having commenced with a bid in their suit, or bid their suit again to get another bid out of partner.

While your hand is beyond the strength normally held in this auction it is certainly possible to hold enough to want to get to game and all players have their bids. Bidding their suit is a way to keep partner bidding.
e.g. (1C) X (2C) 3C You might hold:

ª Q10986
© KQ876
¨ K65
§ --

I'd want to be in game in partner's best major with this and the high card points could easily be distributed 12, 12, 6, and 10 around the table with everybody proud of their contribution.

Now let's turn to the other matter. What West did here was psyche.
This is part and parcel of the game. Not only do the rules not prohibit the practice, they actually define a psyche.
The rules of the game do not generally define or suggest strengths for bids. Bidding methods devised by players produces their own approach to bidding including what they think is an appropriate set of standards for opening the bidding.

What the rules do insist on is this - partnerships must disclose fully their bidding method to opponents through system cards, responding completely to opponents' enquiries and alerting unusual bidding methods or approaches.

This includes specific agreements and implied agreements based upon partnership experience. It is a grave offence to have any form of secret agreement with a partner.

Thus, while the 1S bid in its own right is, prima facie, perfectly legitimate and proper, it is the 1S bidder's partner's behaviour that is subject to scrutiny. In our given situation, as responder had a normal 2S raise, there is no problem.

Similarly, if the partner of the psycher, has significant experience of their partner psyching in a particular type of situation, he/she must alert the bid. e.g. If this particular perpetrator has done this with any regularity with this partner, the 1S should be alerted, and on enquiry, the partner should disclose their partner's likliness to psyche.

Some clubs keep a register of psychic bidding.
Thus, while it was not appropriate to call the director because of the occurrence of the 1S bid, an approach to the director for a recording sheet later, if your venue uses such things, would be appropriate.

Regards
Peter Fordham

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