Bidding on the passed hand

With few opportunities to play cards in-person because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, bridge players are invited to test their skills by trying out the questions posed in our weekly quiz.

This is another in the current series of quizzes on bidding as a passed hand — that is, you had a chance to open the bidding but passed initially.

Today’s quiz: The following problem has two parts: first, a), decide what you would respond to your partner’s indicated opening bid if you were not a passed hand; then, b), what you would bid — the same thing or something else? — if you had already passed at your first turn.

Partner opens with one spade and the next player passes. You hold: S 103 H 762 D KJ93 C AK98.

Answer:

a) Two clubs. Regardless of what partner rebids, you should be in good position at your next turn, even though it is not particularly appetizing to bid a fourcard suit on the two-level without having any idea of where you’re going. You can pass if partner rebids two notrump or three clubs, bid two notrump if partner bids two hearts, or raise two diamonds (a bid your two club response has conveniently left room for) to three. If partner rebids two spades, you can make a slightly optimistic invitational raise to three.

b) Two clubs. If you felt a sudden throbbing in your forehead as you contemplated your response, it is understandable, for this is one of those impossible passed hand problems.

Since partner is permitted to pass two clubs, which he can do with a doubleton and a dead-minimum opening bid, you don’t want to make that bid. But what else can you do? Two diamonds is even worse, one notrump is a decided underbid, and two notrump without a heart stopper is a gamble. Any of these may prove right, but since two clubs does give your point count and leaves the most options open for partner, it would appear to be the least noxious of the choices.