Blum on Bridge Eavesdropping - Part II
	Before Shannon and I resume our post-mortem of our interesting Marco Island bridge hands, I want to congratulate Marco Islander Evelyn McDowell for obtaining the rank of Life-master at the tournament. I feel particularly proud because she along with her partner, Dotsy Bywater, who put her over were two of my very favorite private students. The pair with teammates Ted & Mary Darlington won the bracket IV open KO's. OK Dotsy, you're next. From Naples, Ron Schick, his wife Joy, and teammates Chris Shanklin & Sudhaker Bhatt won 28 masterpoints for winning bracket II of the prime time KO's. We certainly can't overlook Ace Weakley & Dorothy Pettibone's wonderful win in the Friday Senior Stratified Pairs. Dorothy was my very first partner many years ago when I arrived in the area. Marco Islanders Muriel Seegers and her longtime friend and partner Lee Heifitz won the Tuesday two sessions Senior Stratified Pairs. It's so good to see our locals win these tough events. Many others, too numerous to mention, placed in various events throughout the week. Guess it's time to get on with it. You begin Shannon. Shannon: In a pair game you and I played, my rho held void-KQ97-A832-K9643. She opened it 1 club because she had 12 high card points and a five card suit. What do you think her partner would bid? Bob: Come on, Shannon. Of course she would most likely bid spades, opener's shortest suit. S: Right Bob, and that's what happened. Her partner bid 1 spade. So Robert, what's her re-bid? B: This is a subject that I discuss with my readers over and over again. That is, before making an opening bid think about what pard is probably going to respond and be prepared for your next bid. This hand is classic, isn't it? S: Yes, you have to lie at some point describing this hand. When you do what rho did, you have three choices. One, re-bid 2 clubs on a bad five-card suit. Two, reverse into a red suit which is unacceptable on a bad 12 count. Or three, re-bid 1NT with a void. B: Number three is about the worst choice. Never bid a natural no-trump with a singleton, much less a void. S: Now that we've beaten that to death, how would you properly bid this hand? B: Easy, Shannon. Lie and open your four-card diamond suit and when pard bids spades bid your clubs. You're only lying about one "extra" card in a minor suit rather than totally miss-describing your hand. S: Here comes Mike. He'll take over as I promised Connie I'd model for her ads. See you later. Mike Cappelletti, Jr. and Shannon are engaged to be married next year. Recently the two won the prestigious National Mixed Pairs. Young Mike has over 12,000 masterpoints. Shannon was the ACBL junior champion until a few years ago. The two have been our house guests during and a few days after the regional. Mike: Shannon told me about another hand that you could have bid a lot better. B: With all of these bidding errors I made this week I doubt I'll have any readers left after today. M: Probably not, but let's talk about the hand that Shannon opened 2 spades holding AQ7542-void-Q10654-75. You responded 2NT asking her to cue bid a side suit stopper if she had one. B: Didn't I hold something like J-AKJ9542-A9-AJ6? M: Good memory. Three hearts is natural and forcing. 2NT, asking for a side suit feature after the pre-empt, always shows at least a partial fit in opener's suit, in this instance spades. You had no fit, thus, your 2NT bid was incorrect. The correct bid should have been 3 hearts, a direct call, that tends to deny a spade fit. Shannon corrected to 4 spades because she had no hearts and thinking you had a partial fit. The whole auction went, with no opposition by the opponents, 2spades-2NT-3 diamonds-3 hearts-4 diamonds showing 6-5 distribution-4 hearts-4 spades. This also reminds me of another hand my partner and I played in the Sunday Swiss. B: By the way. Congratulations to you and your team for winning the event. You had tough competition. M: Thanks. However, the following auction didn't contribute to the win. I held KQ9875-875-62-63 and opened 2 spades at favorable vulnerability. Lho doubled. Partner held, void-KQ10-AK9543-KQJ7. He chose to bid 2NT. When I showed a minimum he bid 3NT. Unfortunately this sequence allowed me the option to correct 3NT to 4 spades. And I did! From that point we could no longer get a plus score. The same principle applies as to the last hand where Shannon and you had that "you must have at least a partial fit when you respond 2NT." The recommended bid by my partner should have been to pass and wait for developments because we were taken off the hook by the opponents' takeout double.