ACES ON BRIDGE
DEAR MR. WOLFF: I have been playing for three years, and I am not sure if I know what I am doing, but I am past the frustration-stress stage now. I think that a bridge guru like you could really help explain to us newbies how to think like a bridge player. As a suggestion, would you please include one beginner-intermediate question-and-answer in your column? — Back to Basics, White Plains, N.Y. DEAR READER: Good idea. I can’t guarantee to do as you so nicely ask — but I hear you and will try to remember. So let me start by giving you a piece of general advice. When you are in the range for a oneno-trump opening but have a five-card suit, treat the hand as balanced and do open one no-trump. Equally, don’t worry about a small doubleton. If your hand is balanced and that is the only flaw, start with one no-trump.
DEAR MR. WOLFF: When I was dealt K-J-9-3,
A-K-Q-3, 10-8-5-4-2, —, I opened one diamond and was faced with a rebid problem over my partner’s call of two clubs. Would your decision about what to do differ depending on whether this was a game force or not?
— Four Square, Montreal, Canada DEARREADER: If two of a major shows extra strength here, then two diamonds could be played simply as a catch-all with five plus diamonds, regardless of strength. I don’t have a good answer for you here, though, since the diamond suit is so weak. I might lie by bidding two hearts (planning to raise a bid in the fourth suit of two spades to three to show my length/strength). I’d rebid two no-trump with a 4-44-1 pattern, by the way, but not here.
DEAR MR. WOLFF: In an earlier column this year you briefly described a conventional response to partner’s no-trump opener. Three clubs showed both minors, invitational, while three diamonds was forcing with both minors, and three of a major showed shortage in the other major and 5-4 in the minors. This sounded promising, and I would like to read more about it. What is the name of this convention? — Name It and Claim It,
Columbia, S.C.
DEAR READER: This method is very popular on the East Coast, and for what it is worth, I’ve heard it referred to as seven-way transfers. This is the term used at the Regency Bridge Club in New York, so if you prefer Regency transfers, so be it! One other wrinkle I’ve encountered is for players to use the three-club call as Puppet Stayman to check for 5-3 fits.
DEAR MR. WOLFF: Please tell me what I should have done after my LHO opened three clubs and my partner doubled. (I held K-4, A-Q-3, A-Q-10-5-4,
7-3-2.) I tried five diamonds, and without going into detail, this was not a success facing a 4-5-2-2 hand.
— Unsuitable, The Bronx, N. Y. DEAR READER: This is a nasty kettle of fish. I might well double with a hand like your partner’s. And I might well do what you did here! If you cue-bid four clubs, are you supposed to pass a four-heart response? You might well be cold for slam in diamonds. This looks like a result where no one was really to blame. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, email him at
bobbywolff@mindspring.com