As Time Goes By

An entertaining feature of the bulletins of the ACBL Nationals is a short questionnaire put to well-known bridge personalities. Questions include ‘what is your favorite movie?’ and ‘who are your favorite actor and actress?’ The bridge community shows its age through the frequency of the answers: Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart, and Katherine Hepburn. Men like Bogey as a guy who likes dames, not necessarily to marry them. We admire the amorphous Hepburn, but wished she looked more like the Lana Turner, who probably couldn’t count trumps if her life depended on it – not that we’d care at first.

What I find surprising, given the popularity of Casablanca, that more men don’t favor Ingrid Bergman. If Rick is a Yang, Ilsa is a quintessential Yin. The character of Yin is like water – it takes the shape of the vessel that contains it. All the men in Casablanca, find Ilsa attractive, with the possible exception of Colonel Strasser, and even he might be brought around given time. Although she says she loves Rick, she can’t make up her mind. ‘You decide for both of us’, Ilsa says to Rick, who doesn’t find that approach irresistible. He decides to deal her out. Well, there is a lesson here for bridge players.

Hand types can be divided into distributional hands (Yang types that play best in their long suit) and flat hands (Yin types that can fit in anywhere). A Yang with a Yang can be trouble when the hands don’t mesh. A Yin with a Yin has a low number of total trumps and slam is remote possibility hard to reach. The perfect combination is a Yang with a Yin that has the right stuff in the right places. In an auction a distinction should be made, hence we have this comment from Bobby Wolff in the bidder’s forum of the August 2012 issue of Bridge Magazine:

‘As I get older, the same fundamental things apply, bid no-trumps as early as possible, to clue partner in as time goes by. But that reminds me of Casablanca.’

The competitive double can be applied to the same purpose without the promise of a stopper. The method at hand is obvious: with distribution bid a suit, without, double or bid NT. This means that much of the time one will be doubling to show values in a flat hand with no suit worth bidding. This is a Yin action, asking partner to decide. The exact nature of the values shown will depend on the preceding auction, and this is where the competitive double falls out of the hands of the average player, as he cannot distinguish the various cases. Confusion arises, even though there is a simple rule to follow: all doubles are competitive at the 2-level, optional at the 3-level.

Here is an auction I experienced recently at the local club after opening a strong 1NT.

1NT –Pass – Pass – 2♥;
Pass – Pass – 2NT?

It turned out partner was suggesting 2NT as the final contract. It was a Yin bid opposite a Yin opening bid. I said he should have doubled to show such values. He countered that double was for penalty (Yang), so ♥QJ3 within 8 HCP was not a sufficient holding. I stated that a direct double after 1NT – 2♥ showed a strong holding in hearts behind the bidder, but that a balancing double in front of the 2♥ bidder was merely a suggestion that could be passed or converted. (He held ♠J9xx, I held ♠AKQ.) Sadly my opponents agreed with him. So, you see, one cannot expect the concept of an optional double to be well understood by the average Yangful player. It turned out the 2♥ call was made on 4 hearts to the AK, which shows that one can bid anything and get away with it if the opposition has no way to adapt and carries on blindly as if nothing has happened.

Yin and Yang on Defence
Most often an opening lead is Yin, passive and informative – the 4th highest from the longest and strongest being the prime example. An attacking lead is more specific in its intent. It indicates urgency. The passive approach is appropriate when the hands are flat and declarer has a suit in which he will be forced to make a play sooner or later. However, as declarer I welcome a passive defence when I have bid on distributional values and the defenders give me the timing to set up pitches for my otherwise inevitable losers in a side suit. Distribution is the key indication of the best strategy. With a 7-7-6-6 division of sides defenders do well to adopt a safe passive lead. Declarers, too, should act accordingly in a passive manner letting the opponents break new suits. However, with distributional hands where losers can disappear, an active approach is needed.

The importance of an informative opening lead and subsequent signaling was shown on a recent demoralizing disaster experienced by Levin and Weinstein in the 2012 Spingold Final against Team Monaco. On Board 58 they were 25 IMPs behind when this opportunity arose to gain 13 IMPs.

Weinstein’s Rdbl was classical; the division of sides was 7-7-6-6, so suitable for a penalty try against vulnerable opponents at the 1-level. The lead was the ♠Q which Levin ducked. Weinstein won the ♦T with his ♦K and continued spades. Levin took 3 spade tricks and Weinstein had to find 2 discards. He signaled with the ♣J (top of a sequence), then pitched a heart. Mystified, Levin switched to a club. This was fatal, as Helgemo could take 4 hearts, 2 clubs, and the ♠K to make his redoubled contract, scoring +670 instead of -1000. As four of the world’s leading players were involved, one should conclude that there is a fundamental flaw in the methods being used – by both sides.

Let’s concentrate on the defenders who had been handed a golden opportunity. Information was the essential ingredient and timing was the key. Weinstein could hope for 4 tricks in spades and 2 in diamonds, so the defence needed at least 1 more trick in a rounded suit to set the contract. The greatest hope lay in clubs, so with a sequence in that suit it appeared both safe and prudent to start with the informative ♣J. This is a Yin approach opposite what reckoned to be Yang hand. With 2 sure entries in hand, Weinstein can switch to spades later. In that way the coming-and-goings for the defence would be promoted. Balancing Yin and Yang is usually a good approach. From the start Levin would have a clearer idea of how the defence should proceed.

Yin Strategy in Competition
Players at all levels of expertise shy away from employing a Yin strategy. They prefer the straightforward Yang approach. This leads to problems late in a competitive auction, especially after an overcall which by it nature is Yang. Players at the lower levels of expertise have few methods for exchanging information ‘to clue each other in’, as Wolff would put it. Here is an example played by the creatures of the forest in our neck of the woods.

When Fox opened a limited 1♥ and Rabbit passed, Mouse was feeling he was in a very exposed position. If he passed or bid 2♥ it would be very easy for Owl and Rabbit, holding the majority of the points, to enter the auction cheaply and find their fit in spades or clubs, or both. He decided to try a forcing 1NT and hope for the best. Near-sighted Owl bids what he sees in front of him, the easy choice of 2♣. This left open the question of a possible spade fit. Quick-minded Fox could sense something was up. Neither Mouse nor Owl had advertised spades, so there was a good chance that Rabbit held length in that suit, which left Mouse with long diamonds. Fox decided to bid the suit rather than wait for his partner to hesitate later over 2♠ and bar Fox from bidding later.

Rabbit has a hare-brained habit of not bidding where his points lie, so he was happy to by-pass his fine 4-card spade holding and raise clubs on ♣Txx. Mouse was tempted to bid 3♦ over 3♣, but decided that 3♥ was less likely to get doubled, because it looked like a limit raise. Indeed, 3♥ was passed out without further ado everyone having bid what he had wanted to bid. Mouse was not held accountable for his bad bidding.

3♥ down 2 is hardly a triumph at IMP scoring when the opponents can make only 140 in 3♠, but at matchpoints it represents a fine result. The question is this: how can NS find their spade fit? While Owl can hardly be blamed for bidding his fine suit, Rabbit should find it in his heart to double to bring spades into the picture. This is an easy decision – if one is willing to bid to 3♣, then it is not a stretch to double at the 2-level in the hopes of finding the 4-4 spade fit. If the opposition push onto 3♦ or 3♥ it would be easy to double them for a clear top. The North hand epitomizes the passive-aggressive essence of Yin.

For many conservative players, the main objective of bidding is to get to game. If game is unlikely, they ease off and let the opponents play the hand in a part score. Of course, they will balance, but they will not push hard. For those players, a double is either penalty or takeout, never optional. If the meaning is not clear, they are content to forego the double. Let’s suppose Owl is one of those players, and that his partner (not Rabbit) doubles to show spades with clubs in reserve. Owl might well pass the double, reasoning, ‘I have my bid, a good suit and opening points. Why, I even have the ♦A.’ It will be a big disappointment when West makes his doubled contract. So the competitive double is dangerous when put into the wrong hands.

If North can’t double to show spades, he has to ‘lie’ and bid 2♠ directly. Some call it lying but I see it as commonsense in action. He can deduce that EW have no spade fit, so can count on South for spade support and goes directly to the contract which gives him the best chance at a good score. This is safe as he has passed originally, so can’t have a ‘natural’ spade overcall. If South corrects to 3♣, that will be fine as well. It works if partner doesn’t hold one accountable, and Owl is wise enough not to get excited when holding 4-card spade support. The flaw in this approach is that generally everyone will be guessing, ‘what next?’ So it is better to have a much needed agreement about the Yin nature of the double and follow up accordingly.