10 English Bridge December 2016 www.ebu.co.uk
F
irstly I will start with an apology to all my
readers (both of you!) for the mistake that
occurred in the August article, where the ace
of clubs mysteriously managed to get played twice
from the East hand. Fortunately the thrust of the
hand involved counting out East's points, so I hope
the main learning point was not affected.
On to this month's subject:
GAME TRY DOUBLES AND ASSOCIATED
GAME TRIES.
I have always found it immensely frustrating
when the auction goes something like:
West North East South
1™ 2® 2™ 3®
?
You never seem to be able to win here.
l If you are close to competing to 3™ but don't, its
wrong!
l If you do stretch to bid 3™, partner invariably
bids 4™ - and it's wrong!
l If you bid 3™ with a little to spare - hoping
partner will go on to 4™ if they are maximum,
but they are reading from a different hymn sheet
and pass - it's wrong!
HOW VERY FRUSTRATING . . .
What we actually need is a system where we can
bid 3™ (or 3´ if spades is our suit of course) in a
purely competitive sense, with no suggestion that
partner bid on if maximum. If this is the case we
obviously also need to be able to bid 3½ hearts -
looking for partner to go on to 4™ when max. How
nice would that be?
GAME TRIES - NEW SUITS
The answer is that you can bid a NEW SUIT
BELOW the 3-level in your agreed major suit as a
game try.
West North East South
1™ 2® 2™ 3®
3t
Here you can bid 3t. This acts as a game try (3½
hearts!). The key to understanding this is that unlike
game-try (trial-bid) type auctions which occur in
uncontested auctions these game tries cannot
necessarily make any guarantees as to the holding in
the bid suit.
Sometimes there are two possible game try suits
available 1´-(2®)-2´-(3®). Here you could bid 3t
or 3™ as a game try and double would be penalty
orientated. Now you can promise a slightly more
natural game try - bid the suit where you hold more
length/values.
BIDDING THREE OF THE AGREED MAJOR
If instead of bidding a new suit (a game-try
remember if below the level of the agreed major)
you simply bid three of the agreed major - then this
should be purely competitive - there is no, repeat no,
suggestion that partner should undo your good
work by then raising to four with a maximum:
West North East South
1™ 2® 2™ 3®
3™
Here we might well now bid 3™, safe in the
knowledge that:
l We have bid to the 'level of the fit' if partner has
supported with three cards - as they often do
after an overcall or if you play a five-card major
system
l Confident that partner will not misconstrue and
Game tries when competing
by Neil Rosen
If you could add one thing . .
If you could add one thing . .
click
link
´ A 5 4
™ K Q 10 7 3
t K 9 7
® A 5
´ A 4
™ K Q 8 7 3 2
t K 9 7
® 9 5