Just becuase you have been dealt a fairly strong hand doesn't automatically mean that the hand belongs to you and partner. Too often I see the red mist descend. Take this hand, on which you are North.
NS Game, Dealer SouthNorth AJ85
KQJ109
98
AQ
BiddingSouth West North EastNo 1
1
2
No 2
2
No
No 3
??
What do you do at this point? I think it's fairly clear to Pass. You've already shown a very strong hand with 4-card Spades and longer Hearts. Partner passed initially, showed no interest over 1
, and critically passed over 2
, showing a preference for Spades but absolutely no interest in going further, despite
knowing that you have a very good hand (in fact you've advertised a better hand than you actually have, because your reverse opposite a silent partner should be 19-20+).
My Partner (I was the luckless South) was in full flow, however, and refused to go quietly.
BiddingSouth West North EastNo 1
1
2
No 2
2
No
No 3
X 3
No 4
X
The thing is, What does North think EW are bidding on? It should be absolutely clear at this point that Partner has nothing to speak of. North has exactly 3 defensive tricks, no more. You might get a Heart, but the cue-bid in Hearts by West doesn't make this sound promising.
I was sat in the South seat, holding
South 10932
65
K76432
J
It was obvious Partner didn't have much, if anything, in Diamonds, or they would probably have doubled for takeout earlier. Similarly, the 2
bid had be worried, because I was already envisaging West with a
shortage and Partner cannot have much in Clubs given that they have
at least 9 cards in the Majors. I couldn't let 4 !CX stand (4
romps home with ease, losing just 2
and a Spade), so I bid 4
, which was doubled by West. Totally incompetent defence by both defenders allowed this to escape for
only -1 (it should be at least -3), but it was still a minor disaster when even 4
making was a poor score for NS, because too many NS Pairs were being allowed to play in 1
, or the EW Pairs were pushing on to 5
, which has no chance. The full hand:
North AJ85
KQJ109
98
AQ
West East KQ76
4
7
A8432
AQJ
105
K8754
109632
South 10932
65
K76432
J
I think North has shot his bolt with the 2
bid and should clearly
pass over 3
. Actually it's interesting to speculate what would have happened if North had passed over 2
, because the 3
bid by East overNorth's double of 3
, suggests East might possibly have misunderstood West's 2
bid and they might even have passed 2
out
. East is hardly strong enough for a cue-bid of Hearts with their 4-count, and a pass of the double of 3
seems self-evident otherwise.
The bottom line here, is that once you've bid your hand, you've bid your hand. It's perfectly permissible to pass. Pass is a perfectly good bid. In some places (not here) it conveys more accurate information to partner than making an actual bid does.