Test skills of interpreting your partner’s bids

In this busy, holiday week, not many local players attended games at either of the two duplicate clubs nearest to Greenwich, both located in White Plains, N.Y.

Last Thursday, Nov. 18, Katherine Payne, playing with Kay Schulle, finished in a tie for second at the Harte’s Club. On the same day at the Bridge Deck, Linda Otness, playing with Susan Duval, placed first in Strat B. The next day at the same club, Otness, partnered by Robin Brown, finished second in Strat A.

Players are slowly heading back to the card tables for in-person, face-to-face bridge games during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A test of how many players are returning to face-toface duplicate will be measured at the American Contract Bridge League’s Fall North American bridge championships, which are now underway in Austin, Texas, through Dec. 5. This event normally draw about 8,000 tables over an 11-day period, but this year’s attendance remains to be seen.

Today’s quiz: Here is another in the current series of quizzes on interpreting your partner’s bids. In the following problem, you are given an auction accompanied by three hands, only one of which could actually fit the bid or bids your partner has made. Which of the three hands do you think your partner might hold?

The bidding: Partner-1C; You-1S; Partner-3S. Partner could have:

a) S AKJ2 H 75 D 1053 C AQ62

b) S K943 H AQ4 D K2 C AK74

c) S A854 H 6 D KJ5 C AQ962

Answer: This problem features an invitational jump bid by your partner — that is, a bid that asks you to continue bidding only if you have more than the minimum number of points promised by your previous bid or bids. In this case, partner’s jump to three spades shows a hand of 16 to 18 points in support of spades and invites you to carry on to game if you have better than the minimal six or seven point hand you could hold for your initial one spade response.

Of the three choices given, the only one in the 16-18 point range is hand c), which contains 17 points after adding three additional points for the singleton heart. With hand a), partner would raise to only two spades to show a minimum opening of 13 to 15 points, while with hand b), which is worth 20 points in support of spades, partner would jump to four spades immediately to indicate a hand strong enough to produce game even if you hold only six points.