Four Card Fits by Bob Crosby

Source: www.edmontonbridge.ca

4 card fits with partner are not made for defending low level partials. The 4^th card in partners trump suit is too valuable for offensive purposes. Bid one for the gipper with that 4^thtrump!

A Tormentee tonight had A10xx and an outside King and the auction went 1-1-1NT-? .

Bid 2 or 3 spades with the hand! The 1NT bidder has announced that the spade is now onside as you have the unexpected Ace. A double of 1NT should show the limit raise in spades or better. Selling out with a 4 card fit for partner is just not done. The other tables result was +140 in spades and the tormentee got +50 in 1NT but my partner could have made the hand. +90 +140 is a 6 IMP loss and the tormentee lost 3 IMPS anyway. In matchpoints , +50 would be a horrible score.

In fact the 4^th trump is so important that my partnerships have a bid to show that 4^th card.

One of a major , 3 of a major shows the 4^th trump with simple raise values! We shoved the limit raise into our Jacoby 2NT structure to free up the former limit raise bid . Same with our minor structure as the 5^th card is very important to announce immediately. The limit raise in a minor is included in the inverted minor structure. This frees a jump raise in a minor to show simple raise values with 5 trump. Bid your 4^th major suit card and your 5^th minor suit card immediately.

The “law of total tricks” is based on that 4^th trump & the 5^th trump in a minor. Having a 9 card major fit , plays better than a 8 card fit , yet there is no HCP value given to the 4^thtrump. Therefore you need another way to announce the 4^th trump to partner. Making a simple raise with 4 trump in the day and age of 5 card majors is lame bidding. This is a hang over from 4 card major days. I cringe when partner makes a simple raise to my overcall or opener with 4 trump . Can not partner find a better bid with that 4^th trump ?

Back to [ilink url=”http://csbnews.org/new/thinking-in-patterns/?lang=en”]patterns[/ilink] again. There are offensive hand patterns and defensive hand patterns. Bid the heck out of your offensive distributions. Do not sell out with 5-5’s or 6-5’s or 7 card suits. These distributions are custom built for offense & not defense. Do not sell out when you have a 4 card fit for partner. The 4-4-3-2 , 5-3-3-2 , 4-3-3-3 , 5-4-2-2 hands are made for defending, These hand types do not play well offensively. Do not be a slave to the HCP system . Hand patterns should dominate your Bridge bidding decisions. Your competitive bidding will improve and selling out when you should not will occur less and less frequently.