WEAK OPENINGS

"Watson!" The famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, was clearly in a bate. "Come over here at once."

"Of course, Holmes, of course. Whatever you say," I obliged.

"Look at this hand - go on look at it."

x

Qxx

AQxxxx

Qxx

"Er ye-es, I remember. I opened 1D did I not. Was I remiss in some respect, Holmes?"

"Not at all Watson. The 1 D opening is mandatory. But what exactly was your plan, assuming I made a normal response below 2D?"

"Well, er naturally, I was going to re-bid 2D: weak-ish with a 5+ suit."

"Capital, Watson, capital." His eyes turned to me and glinted steel. "But you didn't Watson. Did you?" There was a soft breath of menace in the air. "You re-bid 3D. Didn't you? Very naughty."

"But the opponents bid, er, it got too high, oh Holmes I had to do something!" I sat heavily on a chair in misery. What had l done to deserve his opprobrium this time?

"The bidding was thus, Watson, was it not?

1D - 1S - 1NT - 2S - ???

At which point you rebid 3D. Not 2D, which, as you have previously pointed out, is the limit of the hand in bidding terms from your point of view."

"But Holmes" I went on the attack: "They bid 2S! I couldn't bid 2D! You see?" I felt pretty dam pleased with myself I can tell you. His voice was soft, silky and precise:

"I believe Watson, that you just admitted to me that you couldn't bid 2D in the auction as that spot had been bypassed by aggressive opponents. In which case - as you were unable to bid 2D - can you please tell me why in heaven's name you felt able to bid AT ALL?" His gimlet eyes pierced mine from two inches.

"If as you say you can't bid 2D then you can't bid. Your bid has been taken away. So just PASS! Why make up bids out of thin air? Why pretend to values you do not possess? And most crucially, why mislead partner? Why cause partner to make unwise bids based on incorrect information that result in -800? Hmm?"

I now saw that Holmes was right. He usually was…

Plan your re-bid. If events overtake your plans - PASS. Never ever forget that you have a partner and do not try and bid for them: just bid your hand. At the right level. Then partner will know what to do.

WHEN TO GET JUMPY

Tigger was jumping up and down. He was VERY excited. The other three players - Owl, Rabbit and Pooh held down the table to stop it being thrown over. All that had happened so far was that Tigger's partner, Rabbit, had opened 1C. This was not normally something to get quite so excited about but Tigger was prone to such emotional outbursts due to over attentive parenting in early life. When the tumult subsided, Pooh passed with the superior insouciance he reserved for really really bad hands. Then an over-excited Tigger bid STOP 2S! Owl peered over his half-moon spectacles and said: "Good hand, eh?" Tigger was about to start jumping up and down again when Rabbit curtly interrupted: "Unauthorised question. Unnecessary information. Disregard." Owl passed with a barely concealed smile playing round his pointy little beak. The auction progressed in haphazard fashion until it became clear to all that Rabbit was void in Spades, who tried to salvage the situation by bidding 6NT. Owl Doubled rather too quickly, but the contract was 3 down Doubled for -800.

"You see," said Owl, "about all Tigger and Rabbit can actually make is 3NT. Your response of 2S was a strong hand (17+) with slam interest. Yet as you can see, the partnership was nowhere near the slam zone."

"But, but, but," stammered a much quieter Tigger,  "I had 15 points and 5 spades. Game was on and, well, maybe slam, but I had to tell partner I was strong straight away, didn't I?"

"No, not really, not at all. If you had had a VERY good six card suit and 17+ HCP then maybe, but even then that may not be the best way for the auction to proceed. As it was Rabbit had no Spades while I - your respectful opponent - had SIX of them."

"But I didn't know that!" wailed Tigger.

"Precisely." said Rabbit. "You had no idea what my hand was. You careered off into the unknown before finding out what my hand was like from my natural re-bid. You cut out an entire two levels of bidding, so it was almost impossible for us to have a constructive auction. What's wrong with 1S? It's forcing - I can't pass - and you also then get to hear my rebid before judging which game - or possible slam - to aim for. There really is no need to go jumping about just because Game is on!"