"First Trip" Responding to Cuebids by Marti Ronemus

Our little daily tidbits of knowledge are designed to not only make us smarter, but better conversationalists. Today's tidbit might be a little tricky to drop into the small talk, but here it is anyway.

In 1943 Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann accidentally exposed himself to a new chemical which turned out to be what we now know as LSD. He was astonished at the "uninterrupted stream of fantastical images." He had a wonderful time! So much so, that two days later he tried it again, on purpose, and had the mother of all BAD trips.

So there you have it. Our bridge tie-in? If we don't want a bad trip, we should know how to respond to Pard's cuebids after we overcall.

Monday we were the Advancer, Pard of the overcaller. We learned that when the Advancer cuebids the opponent's suit, he is telling the overcaller that he has a fit, and more than 10 pts. The cuebidder is asking the Overcaller (that's US today!) to limit our hand.

If we have a minimum overcall, 7 to 11-ish points, we rebid "our" suit as cheaply as possible. 12-14-ish we invite. 15-17 we bid game. Notice that in these auctions, our response to the cuebidder is the first limiting bid.

Question 1

Your Hand
♠ A 4
♥ K J 10 4 3
♦ 9 4 3 2
♣ Q 4

Q: 1 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♦
1♥	p	2♦	p
?

A: 2♥: Pard has 10-plus points and is unlimited. He's asking us how many points we have. His cuebid told us we have a fit, so the only question is how high we belong. With our 2♥ bid, we are telling him we have a minimum overcall. Now it's HIS problem.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 2

Your Hand
♠ A 4
♥ K J 10 4 3
♦ K 4 3 2
♣ Q 4

Q: 2 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♦
1♥	p	2♦	p
?

A: 3♥: We've got a legitimate opener. Our bid tells Pard that we've got 12-14 pts. He can do the math. We know he has at least 10 pts, and again, now that we've limited our hand, he's in charge.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 3

Your Hand
♠ A K
♥ K J 10 4 3
♦ K 4 3 2
♣ Q 4

Q: 3 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♦
1♥	p	2♦	p
?

A: 4♥: Now we're getting the idea. We're jumping to game, because if you add our 16 pts to Pard's minimum of 10 pts, we've got game. Pard will know we have no more than 17 (or we wouldn't have overcalled in the first place. Is our bid a shut-out? No. It is a bid that shows point counts.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 4

Your Hand
♠ K 4
♥ A K 10 9 8
♦
♣ A 8 5 4 3

Q: 4 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♦
1♥	p	2♦	p
?

A: 3♣: We could bid 3♥ and it would be just fine. But why not tell our Pard about our exciting Club holding? This is an invitational bid and will help Pard decide whether to accept the invitation or not.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 5

Your Hand
♠ Q 4
♥ A K J 10 9 8
♦
♣ 8 5 4 3

Q: 5 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♦
1♥	p	2♦	p
?

A: 3♥: We've got minimum points, but the void in the opponent's suit and the extra trump should encourage us to invite. It won't be too bad a trip, do you think?

Your result so far:

Open Question

Play this Hand

Now that you've bid five hands, let's see how your play goes.

Overall Results

Your results: out of Average:

What next? You may enjoy playing our prepared hands series.
More informations on our website: www.VuBridge.com

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