Deal Me In – November 2024

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Play of the Hand
Lead toward your honors

When you are declaring, there are some guidelines about how to play your cards to maximize the number of tricks you can take. No matter the contract or form of scoring, your goal as declarer is to take as many tricks as you can.

Leading toward your honors is a winning strategy.

You would like to be in dummy to lead this suit. You do not want to lead this suit from your hand. If you can’t get to dummy to lead spades, you will lose two tricks on this layout. If you play the ♠J, 7 or 3 and West plays low, East will win the queen, and you will still lose the ace. If you play the K, West will win the ace and East will win the queen when the suit is led again.

Let’s see what happens if you play first from dummy.

If you play low to the jack, it will lose to the ace, but your king will draw the queen.

If you play the 10, 9 or 8 and East doesn’t “cover” with the queen, you will “run” it to West’s ace. If East does cover, you will too, with the king. West will win the ace but your jack will draw the opponent’s low cards.

More experienced players think about things like how a suit is “splitting” or dividing. For example, if you have a nine-card fit, the four cards in the opponents’ hands will be either 2–2, 3–1 or 4–0. There are percentage calculations about how likely these splits are.

What if this were the layout?

When your 10 or jack forces the ace, you know East has the queen. Ideally, you would go back to dummy to repeat the finesse. If you can’t get to dummy, you will have two losers. That is how important entries are.

Best Bidding
Flashback!

The very first Deal Me In – back in July of 2023 – featured an explanation of the positions around the table. Here’s a recap:

Position
Position (noun)

There are different ways to describe where players sit at the table. One way is the compass position: North, South, East, West. Another way to describe position is: first seat (the dealer), second seat, third seat and fourth seat.

Once the bidding starts, the first player to bid is called the opener. If opener’s partner bids something, that player is called the responder.

West	North (Opener)	East	South (Responder)
Pass	1♥	Pass	2♥
All Pass

If an opponent bids directly after the opener, that player is the overcaller. If the partner of the overcaller bids, that player is known as the advancer.

West (Opener)	North (Overcaller)	East (Responder)	South (Advancer)
1♥	1♠	2♥	2♠
All Pass

The last couple of months, we’ve talked about overcalls and advancing overcalls. Certain bids and their high-card point ranges (and suit-length requirements) change depending on whether you are opening, overcalling, responding or advancing (or rebidding).

It can be confusing!

Let’s take a seemingly simple bid: 1NT. We know that to open the bidding with 1NT, we are promising 15–17 HCP and a balanced hand. What about an overcall? A 1NT overcall is practically the same, the only difference is often the range is expanded to 18 HCP. With a 1NT opening bid, you don’t have to have every suit stopped. In fact, you might even have a small doubleton. When you overcall 1NT, you typically have the opponent’s suit stopped, especially if it’s a major suit because RHO is promising at least five cards in that suit.

1) ♠A Q 9   ♥K J 8   ♦A J 9 7   ♣Q 9 2   

West (Opener)	North (Overcaller)	East (Responder)	South (Advancer)
1♥	1NT

This is a good 1NT overcall. Most partnerships play “systems on,” which means that South, the advancer, could still use Stayman or transfers to find the best place to play.

1NT response or advance = 8–10 HCP

When your partner opens the bidding and you can’t support or bid your own suit, you can respond 1NT, showing a balanced 8–10 HCP. Is it forcing? If you are playing Standard American, no. If you are playing 2/1, it can be forcing if partner opens one of a major, but it’s never forcing over one of a minor.

2) ♠K 4 2   ♥9 5   ♦K Q 8 3   ♣J 9 5 2

West (Opener)	North	East (Responder)	South
1♥	1♠	1NT

3) ♠K Q 2   ♥9 5   ♦Q 9 8 3   ♣K 9 5 2

West (Opener)	North (Overcaller)	East (Responder)	South
1♥	1♠	1NT

In this sequence, Responder’s 1NT would not be forcing because of the competition.

4) ♠A 9   ♥Q 10 3   ♦K 9 3 2   ♣J 10 8 3

West (Opener)	North (Overcaller)	East (Responder)	South (Advancer)
1♣	1♠	Pass	1NT

1NT rebid = 12–14 HCP

5) ♠A 9   ♥K Q 10 3   ♦K 9 3   ♣J 10 9 8

West (Opener)	North	East (Responder)	South
1♣	Pass	1♠	Pass
1NT

Opener can’t pass 1♠. Rebidding 1NT just shows a balanced hand that was not strong enough to open 1NT.

Balancing 1NT = 11–14 HCP

6) ♠K 10 8   ♥Q J 9   ♦A 8 5 2   ♣K J 7

West (Opener)	North	East	South (Balancing Seat)
1♣	Pass	Pass	1NT

When an auction starts like this, the range for balancing 1NT drops to 11–14 HCP. Why? Because it’s inferred that partner has something, because your RHO doesn’t even have enough high-card points to respond. In fact, your partner, North, could have an opening hand but no suitable call. So, what do you do with 15–17 HCP in the balancing seat? You start with a double and then rebid notrump. This shows a hand that was too strong to bid 1NT the first time.

The ACBL website offers a treasure trove of resources – including Deal Me In archives. Some are kept in a members-only section of the website called MyACBL. It’s via this portal where you can find the online Bridge Bulletin, with all issues going back to 2005 available. There is also a lot of personalized data.

To view any of these items, you must be logged in. Start by going to acbl.org and look for the MyACBL Login button at the top of the page. Click to log in. You will be taken to the login screen.

If you have already set up your MyACBL account, simply type in your member number and password in the appropriate fields and click the blue “Log In” button. If you do not yet have a MyACBL account, you can set it up by clicking “Register for MyACBL.”

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