What should I bid? - Best enquiry for November 2010

The best submission for November came from Viv Wood.

 Hand:     I was dealer as East with NS Vulnerable:

	AKJ109  75  Q3  KJ87
Q854  Q93  -  965432		-  AKJ82  A98752  AQ
	7632  1064  KJ1064  10

Bidding:	West	North	East	South
			1	Pass
	Pass	1	2	Pass
	Pass	3	3	Pass
	Pass	Pass

Comments:      

I thought about opening 2 but this seemed like a good hand to bid out  naturally instead. Well, we missed out on game and my partner was quite emphatic that I needed to open the hand 2. How should I approach this and choose whether to open 2 with a powerful two-suiter?

Thanks,Viv :)

Kieran's Reply:

Start by considering how the auction will go if you open 2. Let's be generous and assume that the opponents will be silent.

You open 2, and your partner bids 2, as partners often will. (You may note that partner is now declarer in diamond contracts, which isn't all good). You bid 3 because that's your longest suit, and your partner bids 3.

Now, you can't even bid 4 without it being non-forcing, since you're already in game. You also can't ever get to 3NT since you have to stop to investigate heart fits - the alternative is to never bid the hearts at all.

Now, to make the auction particularly scary, consider the continuations if LHO bids 3. Bidding both suits is now near-impossible.

Opening 1 leads to a much more comfortable auction. In an uncontested auction, you can anticipate bidding diamonds, hearts (showing 5/4 and a reverse), hearts again (6/5 now) and you're quite possibly only at the level of 3. The amount of additional space for investigating fits is huge, not to mention the additional information you can have about partner's strength and honour location. If LHO bids some number of spades (hardly surprising) you can rebid your hearts at a high level or double, according to taste.

(You might even get to bid out the 5/6 shape and suggest 3NT after that - perhaps 1:1,2:3,3:3,3NT)

Being left in 1 is unlikely - somebody will be short in diamonds or have spades and be inclined to bid them.

I actually can't remember opening 2 with a two-suited hand because it's often almost impossible to bid both suits at a reasonable level. 2 openings are more important with hands with a lot of points (23+ types, or hands you evaluate as such) or powerful one-suiters which can't be well-described after a 1-level opening and a response...many of these one-suiters have 3NT as a fallback position if their suit is any good.

On the actual hand, I would respond with your partner's hand - 1 looks like a lousy idea for a final contract and 4 might have chances on occasion...but then I would pass the 2 reverse, rationalising that I might have passed 1.

(I did play in 4, down one on a well-considered trump lead after the diamonds didn't break).

Kieran

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