[frouu]

HAND 1:

Scoring: IMP

1♠-(P)-2♠*-(P)
?

*3+♠ 7-10HCP

---

HAND 2:

Scoring: IMP

1♠-(P)-2♠*-(P)
?

*3+♠ 7-10HCP

---

[jjbrr]

yes, no

[frouu]

jjbrr, on Oct 24 2009, 02:04 PM, said:

yes, no

can we say with minimum HCP, we try for game if we have extra trump and short suit, and we don't try without singleton/void or extra trumps? I'm trying to find a rule of thumb because I usually make wrong decisions.

[jjbrr]

There aren't a whole lot of "rules of thumb" in bridge. You can't use words like "always" and "never" when describing bridge actions.

The reason I would game try on the first is exactly what you said. The 6th trump is very valuable coupled with a singleton. If I only 5 trumps and a singleton I probably wouldn't invite because there's too much risk I have to shorten myself if they keep leading my short suit. Also, the KQ together are a nice couple of cards. But yes, give a little extra value to the extra trump length and you can certainly add the distribution points for the shortness. I don't know what game tries you play, but if you play natural, then I think I would bid 3♥. If you play short suit game tries, do that. I think if partner doesn't have club wastage, game opposite 7-10 will be pretty decent a good amount of the time. Admittedly Jxx is a weakness to your hand, but maybe partner can help you out.

On the second one you've correctly identified that you don't really have any remarkable features about your hand that suggest you should upgrade it to an invite. The Jx and xx aren't very attractive, and you have weak-ish trumps. Nothing really to see here; pass.

[MattieShoe]

I read this forum to get advice, not give it, because I'm not very good... But I'd pass on both of those. With the first, I'd competitively bid game over opponents because of fit and favorable vulnerability. With the second, I'd be happy to defend with AK and A.

[fred]

frouu, on Oct 24 2009, 07:17 PM, said:

can we say with minimum HCP, we try for game if we have extra trump and short suit, and we don't try without singleton/void or extra trumps? I'm trying to find a rule of thumb because I usually make wrong decisions.

Rules of thumb based on HCP tend not to work very well when you have a distributional hand, because so much depends on how well the hands fit.

You can do better in this area if your rules of thumb are based on "losing trick count", but it's not as if this comes with any guarantees either (not even close).

The way experts think about these situations is to construct various hands that partner could hold and consider the likely result. Unless a problem is really close (in which case you should probably let factors like the form of scoring and quality of the opponents make the decision for you), you generally don't have to think up very many hands before the answer becomes clear.

This is especially true if, when constructing hands for partner, you ask yourself questions like:

- How hard is it to come up with a perfect-fitting minimum where game is close to being laydown? If the answer is "hard" or "impossible" that is a usually a good indication that you should go low.

- How hard is it to come up with maximum hands in which game has no play? If the answer is "completely trivial" that is another good indication that you should go low.

It takes some practice to get into this mode of thinking, but it really isn't that difficult once you get the hang of it.

FWIW my judgment suggests that it is fairly clear to Pass with both of these hands. This assumes that partner is allowed to upgrade and make a limit raise if he has (say) 9 or 10 HCP and some shape (if he isn't then I suggest that you consider changing your definition of the single raise to be based on support points instead of HCPs).

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com