Yogi Berra apparently said that baseball is 90 percent mental and the other half is physical. Applied to bridge this could be: Bridge is 90 percent judgment and the other half is conventions. I will illustrate with an auction, not, for the moment at least, giving the hands. I was playing with the bots, but the same problem might arise with humans.
I have a good hand, good enough for a 2
opening, and so I do it. It goes:
2
2
3
3
3
4
Hmm. What am I to make of 4
?
The 2
was waiting. The 3
was alerted as "cheaper minor with at most 9 highs". Of course 9 highs would be a good responding hand on this auction, but if responder has long diamonds and more or less nothing else, I imagine he would bid it this way.
So first the question on conventions: Is 4
passable? The Gib notes don't say, and as near as I can see BWS doesn't either. Let's go to the Mike Lawrence disk on conventions (I highly recommend this disk, available through BBO).
ML says: If opener bids a second suit, responder is obliged to keep bidding until a game contract is reached.
OK, but this applies to responder. He was not allowed to pass 3
. Of course not. But how about opener? Responder could have 3=3=6=1 shape and nothing in highs, right? So I can pass? It seems like that agreement would make sense.
OK, now to judgment. I have a 4=2=2=5 shape, the diamonds being AK. Well, I really do have a big hand. So, while I think 4
should be passable, I decided to bid 5
. The good news is that I can make 5
. The bad news is that partner, over 5
, bid 5
. Yes he has the
A but if I am right that 4
was passable then we are saying that opener's options are to play 4
by passing, or to play 6
by going on, but there is no way to play this hand in 5
. That can't be right.
As it happens, 6
is not the worst contract in the world, partner has five diamonds to the Q and the A of hearts. I could, well, with luck I could, survive a 4-2 split but I got a 5-1 split and went one down. But my point is not whether 6
is or is not a reasonable contract, it's that I should be allowed to play in 5
if I wish to.
I offer this to illustrate the danger of conventional bids that are not carefully looked at. I do think that 4
should be passable but at the moment I do not have a clear reference that says so. Most agree that getting out in 4 of a minor should be allowed after a 2
opening, but details of just when this is allowed are scarce.
Oh. Did Yogi actually say that? I think so. But he also once said "A lot of the things I said I didn't say"
