BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

PRESUMABLY you would open 1 ♣ on this hand. But what do you rebid when partner responds 1 ♠ , and East overcalls 2 ♥ ? GOOD hand evaluation is one of the aspects that helps average players become expert.

In this example, you have to judge whether you should raise partner’s suit to the twoor the three-level. Making the wrong choice could result in missing a cold game or going down in an impossible one.

experienced players can tell just by looking at this hand that it is better than minimum and, therefore, you need to make more than just a simple raise. you would bid 2 ♠ holding partner’s queen, so the ace must make it worth the 3 ♠ bid.

Additionally, you have the ace singleton in the suit you might have expected partner to bid initially and you also know that partner can’t have many hearts in view of east’s overcall.

The Losing Trick Count was designed precisely for the purpose of helping players judge the level of response once a fit had been found.

If you apply it here, assuming that partner won’t have more than nine losers, you’ll discover that your two hands should make at least nine tricks most of the time — 24-(9+6)=9.

you bid 3 ♠ , and we’ll take the next round of bidding tomorrow.