Members only article series — Part 3
I think the single most significant idea in bridge is to "go positive" - do your best to get as many positive scores as possible and as few negative scores. The difference between getting say +140 or -50 is very significant, two or three of those in a session make the difference between winning and losing.
Rule: When you have the majority of the points, your first focus needs to be on bringing back a positive score, and avoiding a negative score.
The biggest area where players foul are when they have around 22-24 points, and they overbid to game. Take this simple example
You have 8 points, do you invite or pass?
The answer is pass - we usually have 23 points, sometimes 24, rarely 25. Even if we have 25 the chances of game are not certain at all - your best chance of getting a positive score is to pass, anything else risks getting too high - inviting and getting to 2NT, going -1 is a major failure. That is why it has become automatic for experts to pass with 8 opposite a strong NT, and not invite
But, like any rule, we need to know the times to break it - we need to improve our judgment beyond just saying "be conservative", because a good expert is a chameleon, conservative on one hand, and aggressive on the next - lets look at the reasons why.
Slams
It is the same idea for slam - we need to know when to be conservative and keep it low, the below factors address that equally.
Main reasons to go slow
8 card trump fits
8 card trump fits are generally nothing special, we need power to make games when we only have a simple fit. An 8 card trump fit, and say 23 points = part score most of the time.
Rule: When you only have an 8 card trump fit, don't push for game with less than 25 points.
It is the same idea for slam - we do not push for 8 card trump fit slams. Again we need about 33 points for these slams, maybe 32. But we do not typically think about say 29 point 8 card fit slams.
Trump texture
When you have an 8 card fit, trump texture matters a lot, with 9 card fits it matters a lot less. Do not think about slam with poor trump texture and an 8 card fit, also be slower to game in such situations, for example
I see a lot of people get carried away on 5431 shape, it is in fashion to "do more" with these shapes. With an 8 card fit only, and poor trump texture, I would not think about inviting on this hand. If, however, partner had 4 card trump support - the hand comes to life in a much bigger way (trump texture, a significant flaw of the hand, is much less of an issue with 9 card fits).
Balanced hands
Balanced hands are bad
This is a great motto to live by - balanced hands are bad, always think twice with balanced. Shapes including
- 5332
- 6322
- 7222
- 5422 is still balanced'ish (though not quite as bad as 5332).
These shapes without singletons typically do not do nearly as well as the hands with singletons. When you are not sure whether to invite or not, you'll almost always be fine if you take the conservative route with a balanced hand.
When to go
The key factors for when it is time to go
9 card fits
These usually make a big difference.
Shapely hands
Singletons and voids become significantly more powerful when we have a 9+ card fit, like double as powerful. With an 8 card fit, shortages are not going to do the heavy lifting without points. They might be useful, but they will not let you make very thin games. That is not the case for when you have 9+ card fits, shortages come to life. For example
How good is this hand?
It is okay a reasonable raise, but is the void worth +5 points when you only have 3 trumps? Not really, or speculatively at best. Imagine the opponents starting with 3 rounds of trumps, your hand diminishes to dust. Contrast that with
This time with a 4 card fit, your hand is SIGNIFICANTLY better, the void comes to life. On the first hand I would be fine with bidding 2♠ and the second hand I would certainly not stop short of game - the extra trump has doubled the value of the hand.
Not surprisingly, shapely hands are good things, as mentioned balanced hands are bad.
Good and long side suits
This is important for game, and very important for slam as well. I will cover this more in slam bidding article which is upcoming.
Take this hand
You have that golden side suit, you could easily sail home and make 10 tricks here, bidding 4♠ is reasonable.
Rule: a 5 card side suit headed by the AK is worth much more than you think.
In summary
I'm going to continue this article by looking at slam bidding in the next article, but the main takeaway of this so far should be
Be conservative with 8 card fits, and particularly so with balanced hands. With 9 card fits and shapely hands you can shift to being aggressive.
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