STRATEGY TO ADOPT AT IMPs—PART II

In last week’s column we saw how important it is to bid close games in IMPs, especially when we are vulnerable. We continue with some more of the strategies to adopt.

2) It is almost never correct to save against an enemy game contract at equal vulnerability, Neither Vul or Both Vul. You stand to gain very little, 2 or 3 IMPs, but stand to lose a lot, 8 or 12, if they cannot make game. 3) It is almost always correct to save at favourable vulnerability, ie, they are vul, we are not. The theory here is that they may take the push, not willing to settle for 300 or 500. You may then have a chance to defeat them. Let us say you save 5D not vul against their 4H, vul. Suppose they take the push and bid 5H. They may have a strong reason for doing so. It would be foolish to double 5H. It is better to go quiet. When attempting a save, you should ideally have nine or ten trumps in the combined hands, as well as shortages, preferably in both the hands. Otherwise, repeated trump leads by the opponents, will prove the sacrifice very expensive. As a corollary, when they save against your game, you should be doubly sure when taking the push. It would be better to settle for a possible 500 by doubling them than chase an unlikely 650. I have seen players giving away 800 at favourable vulnerability. They were saving only because of the vulnerability but did not have enough trumps or distribution to back their bid. One expert put it neatly: ‘You will not lose a match by not saving.’ Golden words! 4) It would be disastrous to incur huge penalties in IMPs, 500 or more, for it is impossible to recover the loss. So, when the opponents are in a strong bidding sequence, like a two over one, inverted raise, strong jump shift etc, it is not advisable to enter the auction. If you have the habit of incurring huge penalties, you should do some serious thinking why the overbidding by you and the consequent double by them is happening often. It may be due to A) Not adhering to the requirements of bids B) Incorrect evaluation of the potential of the combined hands 5) When competing for part-score, you should give up the fight when you feel you can defeat the opponents. Let us say both sides are vulnerable and you have bid up to 2S and the opponents compete to 3H. If you feel you can defeat them, you should not persist with 3S. It does not matter much if you get 100 or 140. It is important to follow that with nine trumps between the two hands you can compete at the three level and with only eight trumps, avoid the three level. Nine ever, eight never!

…Tobeconcluded