Modern Bidding Box Febrary 2022

The Modern American Bidding Box

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Problem 1

North Deals, Vul: None

BB 1♣-1♥; 1♠-3♠; 4♠ (4♠ 10Mps)

All three pairs agreed, how does MM bid it?

(1) Transfer to hearts

(2) Denies heart support (<3) and shows 4 spades

(3) Artificial XYZ bid, requests relay bid of 2♦. Promises invitational values (10-12 points)

(4) Requested bid of 2♦

(5) Inviting to a spade game

Modern American bidding uses TACO (transfer after club opening) responses. So, the 1 bid shows pretty much what the stand 1♥ response would show. East cannot support hearts and shows their spade suit. West is in a perfect position to use the XYZ convention to show an invitation hand in spades. The key is similar to standard bidding. East needs to reevaluate their hand to decide whether to pass or bid. Modern can fall back to using Losing Trick Count to see that they are more than a minimal opening hand (despite only 12 HCP) and bid the game.

The XYZ convention here (also used by one expert pair) is very useful in keeping the auction low when a game contract is not desirable. Standard bidding had to jump in spades to convey a similar message.

MA: 10, Expert1: 10, Expert2:10

Problem 2

East deals, Vul: N-S South will overall 1♦ if possible.

BB 1♣-(1♦)-1♠; 4♦-4NT; 5NT-6♦; 7♣-7♠ (7♠ scores 11Mps)

Again, all three pairs reached the same 7♠ contract, can we?

(1) TACO club, maybe as few as 2 clubs, could have longer diamonds. 12-14 HCP if balanced, otherwise if unbalanced 12-21 with biddable club suit.

(2) Transfer to spades

(3) Splinter bid. Strong hand, 4-card spade support, and diamond singleton or void

(4) Typically, 5NT shows 2 keycards and an unspecified void. However, due to the splinter bid, this is known in diamonds.

(5) Generic invitation to bid grand slam. East can easily accept the invitation to bid grand.

Overall, everyone gets to 7♠ on all the systems. The only tricky bit here is having an understanding with your partner on when to use a Splinter bid and how to respond to RKC Blackwood with a void.

I think BB overscores this Grand Slam with 11Mps. Quite a few pairs in a large field would stop at 6♠, and fewer would reach the inferior 7♣ slam. But that's the limitation of their column.

MA: 21, Expert1: 21, Expert2:21

Problem #3

South deals, Vul: E-W

BB 1♥-1♠; 2♦-4♦; 5♦ (5♦ scores 11 Mps)

Actually, nothing alertable in this auction, but a definite style decision choice. With a 6-4 shape in the red suits, what is the best rebid by West? Show a 6th heart or the side minor suit. This is a good discussion to hold with your partner. After action analysis provided us with more insight to respond with the 4-card minor. A couple of factors. First, the singleton King in your partner's suit. Some thought toward the 'law of symmetry' applies. It's easy to envision your partner has a similar shape. Assume they might have 6 spades and a singleton heart. The second factor is the quality of the heart suit. Ace-empty probably isn't desirable to play if your partner has only 1 supporting heart. The final consideration is that the rebid of hearts will sound like a very minimal opening hand, and this hand is stronger than minimum (12-13 points)

MA: 29, Expert1: 32, Expert2:29

Problem #4

West deals, Vul: Both

BB 1♦-2♣; 4♣-4♥; 4NT-5♣; 6♣ (6♣ scores 9 Mps)

(1) Unbalanced 1♦. Promises 4+♦s and an unbalanced hand (a singleton or void and 4+ diamonds), otherwise will have 6 diamonds if not holding a short suit.

(2) Balanced 13-14 HCP. Denies a 4-card major.

(3) Miscommunication here. West wanted to show an unbalanced hand with both minors. East presumed 4♣ would be Gerber and shows 3 keycards. West is at a loss to explain why their partner didn't bid either minor-suit game. West chooses to pass 4NT as the least damaging bid.

After the auction, we discussed how 5♦ over 4NT. Because of the 6-5 shape, West should pull the 4NT instead of throwing up their hands. In general, have a solid understanding with your partner when 4♣ is Gerber. Saying it will be obvious will not always work :). This was a good learning experience for us; hopefully, we'll not make this mistake again.

4NT is not of the scorebook in the BB, 3NT would score 5, and 6NT 7. We'll assume we'd tie all contracts of 3NT and award ourselves the 5.

MM: 34 Expert1: 41, Expert2: 39

Problem #5

North Deals, Vul: N-S

BB 1♠-2♠; 3♣-4♠; 5♣-5♠ (5♠ scores 10 Mps)

Interesting choices again. We started this exercise to show how Modern American can remove some of the "gut-feel" when bidding. However, this is another border hand. 2NT is not quite a desirable shape with red-suit doubletons; however, you would like to be in a game opposite just a few points in your partner's hand. Because we play Puppet Stayman (to uncover when we open No-Trump with a 5-card major), East chose to bid 2NT instead of 1♠. 3♣ was Stayman asking about the East's major suit holdings, and 3♠ reveals a 5-card spade suit.

Interesting scoring in the BB. They give 5♠ 10Mps and 6♠ 3; however, 4♠ is not assigned a score. It appears that they give Expert1 10Mps for their 4♠ contract, so we'll take the same.

MM: 44 Expert1: 51, Expert2: 42

Problem #6

East deals, Vul: E-W

BB 2♣-2♦; 2♥-4♦; 4NT-5♣; 6♥ (6♥ scores 11Mps - if declared by East, only 8 if West)

(1) MileHigh2♦. Shows a 22+ HCP balanced hand or an extremely strong single-suited hand, 19+ HCP, and 9+ tricks with that suit as trump; Standard bidding's 2♣ bid.

(2) Waiting bid, hearts is my longest major, and denies holding 2 or more major (ace/king) keycards. Could be as few as 2 or as many as 5. Note, with more points in the form of a major keycard, West could utilize a transfer response to the 2♦ (3♦) with 5 or 6 hearts.

(3) 22-24 balanced HCP.

(4) 5 hearts

Missed the slam, but reasonably, how much should West value their hand opposite 22-24 HCP? Expert pairs are better at sniffing out these types of slams, but let's look at the quality of this heart slam. Obviously, we are losing the Ace of Clubs. The King of spades could be offside; the finesse is probably needed. Especially if opponents get off to a spade lead. I'm not too broken up by slams that only make when they're declared from one side or rely on a good break in the suits.

Note, considering the above, one expert partnership managed to miscommunicate and bid this as a grand slam (doomed on the A♣). Bidding 4♥ in the West results in 6Mps for us, making up ground with one pair getting a 0.

MM: 50 Expert1: 51, Expert2: 46

Problem #7

South deals, Vul: Both

BB 1♠-1NT; 2♣-2♥ (2♥ scores 10 Mps)

(1) In Modern, 1NT is non-forcing. It shows 6-9 HCP and denies support for spades.

This is a strong differentiation between 2/1 and Modern American. We remove the ambiguity from the 1NT response. 1NT has been reclaimed to its original purpose, 6-9 HCP, and denies support for the major.

Bidding Box doesn't present a score for stopping at 1NT and awarding top marks for a dying 2♥ contract. We'll take the 0 on this board (although 2NT does score 1Mps). The edge would be if 2♥ makes exactly 8 tricks, apparently 2NT does not. That means 1NT (making 7 tricks) would be inferior to the 2♥ contract. Our plus 90 points might outscore any pairs overbidding past the 2♥ level. In the spirit of the Bidding Box, though, we'll take the 0.

MM: 50 Expert1: 61, Expert2: 56

Problem #8

West deals, Vul: None

BB 2♣-2♦; 2NT-3♣; 3♥-3♠; 4♣-4NT; 5♣-5NT; 6♣-6♥ (6♥ scores 9Mps)

(1) MileHigh2♦. Balanced 22-24 HCP or a long-suited, 19+ HCP strong hand with 9+ tricks (4 or fewer losers) with that suit as trump.

(2) Transfer to hearts

(3) 5 hearts, 4 spades

(4) preference for hearts

(5) 3 Keycards

A straightforward slam auction. Not too dissimilar from the Bulletin Standard (aside from the start of 2♣ vs 2♦). Both expert pairs got overly excited and bid grand slams for a poorer result.

A note on the MileHigh2♦. East's hand is the border region (again). Is two Aces enough to make an immediate slam force bid? The 3-level transfer and the puppet stayman responses are valid with two keycards (from KK to AA). We would choose to puppet without the top control in hearts. Very interesting when the hand comes down with a double fit in both majors. Bidding box gives 6NT the top MP score, but overall, I suspect few could find or choose 6NT after finding a 9-card heart fit. Perhaps some auctions uncover the 4-4 spade fit, and that tickles the imagination to think 6NT vs 6♠.

MM: 59 Expert1: 62, Expert2: 58

Conclusion

Well, we finished strong and ended up right in between both Expert Pairs. Interesting to note the Bidding Box gave themselves 71Mps with their bidding, beating all of us by a hefty margin.

A juicy month. I think we can see in the Bidding Box that there will be an abnormal number of unusual hands. Maybe a tilt toward more decisions with strong opening choices (2NT, 2♣, 2♦) and decisions toward thinking about slams.

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Written by Keith Schwols in Rockstar on Tue 01 February 2022.