When to Bid, When to Pass
by Ron Klinger

Master Bridge Series, £8.99, ISBN No. 0 304 36219 0

A friend of mine declined to open this book for fear that it would curb his swashbuckling bidding style. In fact his fears proved unfounded, as the author favours an aggressive style both with opening bids and with responses. To determine whether a hand warrants an opening bid, Klinger uses a brilliant valuation method that combines high-card points, distributional values and honour (quick) tricks. Holding:

5

A K 4 3 2

K 10 6 4

9 5 3

you can count 10 points in high cards, 9 cards between your two longest suits, 1/2 a point for the singleton and 21/2 honour tricks: total 22. Since the threshold he sets is 211/2 for an aggressive style, or 22 for a normal one, this is an opening bid either way, something confirmed by the fact that six out of the eight players holding this hand in the 1999 World Championships chose to open. Two of my regular partners would undoubtedly fall into the bidders camp, but I am not sure I would.

Klinger covers the full range of situations, including rebids, the later auction, overcalls, take-out doubles, balancing and competitive decisions, both at high and low levels. Along the way he suggests some very useful treatments that you might want to play. For example, if the opponents double your Stayman response to 1NT, opener's rebid should convey whether or not a club stopper is held. He also offers excellent advice about the right type of hand on which to sacrifice after partner makes a two-suited overcall. He speaks a lot of good sense and, with rare exceptions, I agreed with his re-commendations. One minor grumble is that, as in two of his previous books, he seems to leave readers wondering whether you can overcall with 1s with this collection:

Q 8 6 5 4

7 5

A K 7

K J 4

(the spades would fail his suit quality test).

The chapters on competitive bidding contain plenty of examples from top-level play. The only downside is that you will come across some conventions you would rarely meet at the table. How would you judge this deal from the 2001 Bermuda Bowl?

	K Q J 8 10 2 7 5 3 Q 9 7 4
5 2 A 9 7 6 5 A K 9 8 K 3		10 4 K J 3 J 10 6 J 8 6 5 2
	A 9 7 6 3 Q 8 4 Q 4 2 A 10

South opens 1 in third seat, West overcalls 2, and North bids 2NT. This apparently shows a sound four-card raise to 2 (I know: you cannot play in 2 after calling 2NT). East raises to 3, South competes to 3, West goes on to 4 and North's 4 bid is doubled by West for 500.

South's 3 seems questionable as he has neither extra values nor extra shape but, as this pair sometimes make light lead-directing bids in third seat, Klinger thinks it is okay. North is the main culprit. He has bid his hand already. If South had wanted to invite game, he would have doubled 3.

Julian Pottage

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