Evening star., 1937-02-07

You haven't much OF hand, but
1t Is obviously too strong to consider
passing. Therefore, you should re-
spond, and the response should not be
one no-trump. Suppose your partner
has a minimum type hand with
secondary heart or spade suit-if you
respond with one no-trump, he has to
pass and you will be in the wrong
contract. But suppose you make the
correct response OF one heart. If he
has a secondary heart suit, he raises
you; II he has secondary spade suit
he may now bid it at the level of one.
Or suppose your left-hand opponent
gets into the bidding and becomes
declarer: II you have responded with
one no-trump, your partner will have
no idea of what to lead; if you have
responded with one heart, you have
shown him the correct opening.
]: The actual reason why many players
respond with one no-trump with
hands of this type is that they like
to play the hands, and say to them
selves: Probably no-trump will be
the final declaration. I'd better bid
IT." But usually their excuse for this
bid is that If they respond with one
heart their partner will mark them
with more strength than they really
have. Maybe this is true in occas-
sional instances, but not generally.
Why any one should decide that
bid of one heart, which is lower than
one no-trump, should necessarily show
greater strength than a bid OF one
no-trump is a mystery to us. 1t
doesn't with us, and it doesn't with
any good players.
a S A corollary to the indiscriminate
:. no-trump response. we have the
1ndiscriminate rebid when partner re-
spends with one no-trump, made mere
-1y because player knows that his part
ner's no-trump may be almost any,
thing and wants to get away from it.
For example, We recall rather amaz-
ing hand we witnessed recently in
which the bidding started, lone heart,
pass, one no-trump, pass, two spades
-" We shall not bother with what
finally happened, although we can as
sure you that the player who bid first
come of very successfully. His hand
was:
Spades A 10xx
Hearts A j 10X
Diamonds xxx
Clubs Xxx
His reason for making the second
bid lay in the fact that he did not like
to let his partner play one no-trump
when he had nothing in clubs. We
admit that no-trump might be set, but
why this player should arbitrarily as
sumo that because he had nothing in
clubs, his partner also had nothing,
is beyond us. And finally. his two
spade bid constituted what is known
as q skip-level-shift, since by bidding
1t he skipped the two-heart level.
Hence in all likelihood he might be
forcing his partner to return to hearts
at the level OF three, and the last
thing this player would want, in OUR
opinion, would be to play q three
heart contract when his partner could
not raise his heart bid in the first
place nor bid suit Of his own. In
cidentally, We would have opened with
one spade four aces biddable suit),
and passed the one no-trump.
HERE is rather close situation. |
You open the bidding with one
spade, holding:
Spades A K OK
Hearts A
Diamonds xxx
Clubs xxx
Your partner responds with one
no trump. incidentally, while we are
dead set against one no trump re-
sponses to one club openings except
in rare instances, with great many
hands you can make no response but
one no trump to your partners OPEN
ing one spade, the reason being that
your hand is not strong enough to
warrant bidding a suit at the level