6 English Bridge February 2016 www.ebu.co.uk
EVALUATING singletons is very tricky. Most people
are taught to add on three points for a singleton if a
fit is found. Does that mean that a singleton king is
worth six points - three for the king and three for
the singleton? - of course not!
A singleton king is an ugly holding, it does not
operate exactly like a singleton OR a doubleton but
in my view it operates much closer to a doubleton.
Are you going to open 1™ or
1t? What will you rebid
over a likely 1´ response
from partner? Solve that
problem immediately -
open 1NT, simply treating
the K, as K-x.
Another common situation, you pick up Hand A:
Partner opens 1™. Will you splinter with 3´?
Absolutely not, partner will expect that spade king
to be elsewhere, such as in Hand B, so will have a
very wrong picture of your hand.
Say partner opens 1™ on the hand opposite and
above. That will produce a playable slam despite
only holding 12 points
opposite Hand B. Opposite
Hand A, slam is almost
hopeless. The club king is
worth so much more than the
spade king and partner
expects you to have values outside your splinter.
With Hand A start with a Jacoby 2NT (game forcing
with heart support) or 2t as a delayed game raise.
With Hand B you have a perfect splinter.
I use this rule religiously, so whenever I have an
awkward bidding problem on a hand containing a
singleton king, I simply look at it as K-x and bid
accordingly - this may sound like you now have a 14
card hand but simply borrow the 'x' from where you
deem appropriate. I would look at Hand C as
though it were Hand D:
I'd open 1NT if playing 15-17 or 1™/1t if playing
Acol and over a 1´ response I would rebid 1NT.
This may not be perfect but nothing is. It works
for me. Hopefully you will never worry about how
to treat a stiff king again! r
´ K
™ K J 8 2
t K J 5 4
® Q 10 9 2
´ 9 8 7 5
™ K J 9 8 4
t A 2
® A 4
Hand A
´ K
™ A Q 10 3
t K 10 8 7 3
® 6 5 3
Hand B
´ 4
™ A Q 10 3
t K 10 8 7 3
® K 5 3
Evaluating a singleton king
by David Gold
Bridge TipsBridge Tips
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Hand D
´ K 3
™ A Q J 3
t K Q 6 4
® J 5 4
Hand C
´ K
™ A Q J 3
t K Q 6 4
® J 5 4 3