Bridge is a game of suits

Saturday, July 31, 2004 1:04 AM

Hand Evaluation - Garozzo ( Suits )

PITBULLS:

            Benito Garazzo is arguably the best Bridge theoretician the world has ever known. He writes in one of his books that describing suits is more important than any other aspect of Bridge bidding . Suits are more important than HCP’s , singletons , controls or any other aspect of Bridge bidding. I agree with him whole heartedly . Due to Charles Goren & Standard American , we are overly fixated on HCP’s . The 2/1 in competition for example announcing that you have 10 HCP is very misguided in my opinion. The 2/1 when not forcing to game , should be based on a suit , so HCP’s should have nothing to do with it.

            A 2/1 to an overcall is a one round force , if you rebid the suit it is not forcing. Two E/W players against Stan’s table & my table on Thurs nite held ♠x ♥AQ109876 ♦xx ♣xxx , their partners overcall 1 spade to a diamond opening. At Stan’s table , they passed one spade & at my table they bid 1NT !   They are obviously hung up on HCP's. Neither pair made the correct bid of 2♥ followed by a 3♥ bid. A 7 card suit headed by an AQ is a powerful playing hand yet neither player bid it because of their fixation on HCP’s. Say partner had ♠A1098x ♥Kxx ♦AKxx ♣x for the spade overcall . One result is –100 for going down one in 1 spade & the other is +90 for making 1NT . Meanwhile 6♥ makes for +1430 .

            My partners & play a system that allows a direct 2/1 over a major & a rebid of the suit as not forcing. This style has nothing to do with the Goren 10 HCP - it is suit based. If you had ♠Ax ♥KQx ♦xx ♣Jxxxxx this is a 1NT response to a spade not a 2♣ bid despite your 10 HCP's. Why ? because Bridge is a game of suits not HCP’s . Say you held ♠x ♥xx ♦x ♣AJ10987xx , partner opened 1♠ . An 8 card suit is unbiddable in Bridge . Bidding 1NT is a gross distortion so you will never catch up after making that bid. Playing our 2/1 non forcing to game , you have a chance to describe your long suit. You bid 2♣ going in & keep bidding clubs until partner gets the message that that’s all you have . Not perfect , but treating an 8 card suit as a non forcing 2/1 is the lesser of the two evils.

            O.K. the importance of suits vrs HCP’s should be no contest , the suit should win out easily. What about suits vrs splinters ? Splinters like HCP’s are over done relative to the importance of suits. In Edmonton , for some strange reason , splinters were deemed more important than suits . This is wrong . There are other ways of showing stiffs by bidding them as controls or belatedly after Q bidding the opponents suit. Getting your suit identified early in competitive auctions can pay big dividends offensively & for sacrificing.

            You hold ♠x ♥KQJ10xxx ♦xxx ♣xx   , the auction goes 1♠-2♣-?     Is in not better to bid 3♥ immediately thereby describing your suit & hand in one fell swoop ?    Say you play 3♥ as a splinter , so you pass . The auction proceeds with LHO biding 5♣ so around to you again vul against not vul . You pass , you are cold for +650 as partner holds ♠Jxxxx ♥Axx ♦AKQx ♣x . To make matters worse , they make 5♣ due to stiffs in the right suits. I have seen so many sacrifices go by the wayside because responder was not allowed to get his suit in early in the auction. The first pass can be deadly if the auction takes off. Reserving these bids for splinters at the expense of suits , just makes no Bridge sense.

            Using the forcing 1NT to hide good suits is bad also . Bidding the suit immediately simplifies auctions because the trump suit is found early so you can splinter or make other fit showing Q bids. I will always remember a disaster that Scott Brinsmead & I had playing the silly 1NT to hide a good suit. I held ♠xx ♥xx ♦AKQxxx ♣xxx , Scott open 1 spade . I bid 1NT & Cabay overcalled 2♣ & Scott bid a simple 2♥ . Lisa bid 3♦ which I doubled & around to her again . Lisa bid 4♣ & I passed thinking since I doubled them into game, the pass was forcing. Scott did not think the pass was forcing so he passed. They played 4♣ down 3 for +150 . Scott held ♠AKxxx ♥AKxx ♦xxxx ♣void so we are cold for 7♦ vulnerable ! If I bid 2♦ going in , Scott bids 4♣ as a splinter or 5♣ as Exclusion Blackwood & I show the diamond values so we can reach 7♦ quite easily.

            Bidding 2/1 just with suits has a pre-emptive value also . People have a respect for 2/1 auctions which keeps them out of the bidding or puts them into precarious balancing situations. The bids are lead directors & instantly descriptive . One of the freedoms of Bridge , should be the freedom to introduce a good suit . A good 6 card suit makes short work of HCP’s .Do not play a system that suppresses suits . You will find that you will be outbid in competitive situations , not finding easy sacrifices , not getting to good games & slams . Tom & I play no systemic toys as a passed hand so that we have the freedom of bidding 2♣ & 2♦ naturally as a passed hand . This freedom allows us to more competitive & find the best partial . The toy we do have is a fit showing jump which is based both on showing a suit with a fit with one bid. Again we feel it’s better to describe a suit with a fit , rather than a stiff with a fit ( as a passed hand anyway ) .

            Never bid a splinter or Jacoby 2NT at the expense of a good suit . ♠Axxx ♥x ♦xx ♣AKQxxx , partner opens 1 spade so you show the most important aspect of your hand the club suit. You jump in spades later on to show this type of hand. This is the old fashioned strong jump shift with a fit which was quite handy. Splinters , control asking bids & a reliance on HCP’s screw up auctions. They hide suits which is the biggest source of tricks in Bridge . Systems should be built around describing suits rather than HCP’s , singletons or controls.