Bidding too much

The prevalent style in competitive bidding is to bid when it’s your turn. Players emphasize obstruction: “striking the first blow” and making it hard for their opponents to bid accurately. Occasionally, the aggressors may find a miracle fit that produces a good sacrifice or a makable high-level contract.

Well, methinks people doth bid too much. I have written articles questioning the wisdom of undisciplined bidding. Throwing the auction into a tizzy may be great fun, but if your partner has no idea what your bids promise, he can’t act intelligently.

Moreover, when you enter the opponents’ auction with a weak hand — when they are more likely to buy the contract — there is a trade-off: You give away information declarer may use.

When today’s South opened one club, West couldn’t resist climbing in with a “Michaels” cue bid of two clubs to show, typically, five cards in each major. That action had no debilitating effect on North-South, who barreled into 6NT.

West led the ace and a low spade, and South won and cashed the A-K of clubs. When West followed, South could assume that West’s pattern was 5-5-1-2. So South next let the ten of diamonds ride. When the ten won, South took the king, returned to dummy with the queen of clubs and ran the diamonds. He had plenty of tricks and made the slam.

West’s bid was a losing action in practice. (If West keeps silent, NorthSouth may reach 6NT, but South will need a crystal ball to make it.) In my opinion, it was a loser in theory as well. South dealer N-S vulnerable