Why over bidding is not crime ?

In the game of Bridge when any  auction   ends , the  final contract  is either at  part game level, Game level ,Little slam level  or very rarely at Grand slam level. We all know that if a slam or Grand slam can  be scored there is no point in reaching up to only game level and score  over-tricks and the same is true when the partnership misses  sure  game  and bids up to part game level. This is because additional bonus marks are awarded only when the bidding is done up to that level  and the contract is scored successfully during card play.

part game will give additional 50 marks irrespective of vulnerability

Game will give additional 300 or 500 marks        ( Non vulnerable game  300  and vulnerable game 500)

Little slam will award additional 500 or 750 marks ( NV slam 500 and Vulnerable little slam 750 marks)

Grand slam will give benefit of additional 1000 or 1500 marks  ( NV grand slam 1000 vulnerable GS 1500)

More the risk more is reward! If the game can be scored but partnership bids only  up to part game level and scores overtricks it will not get those additional 300 or 500 marks . Similarly if Little slam can be scored but partnership fails to bid up to that level then it is deprived additional marks . Such type of bidding is called “Under bidding” and it defeats the primary objective of maximizing gain at bidding stage itself.

The Bridge Guru Mr.Ely Culbertson used to say that “ Under bidding is crime” This was perhaps  in line with the famous quote “Not failure but the low aim is crime’. This is because the partnership  in this case does not  even make an attempt to maximize its gain. When a partnership does under bidding  no one enjoys the deal as defenders don’t  have sufficient strength while for declarer it is a cake walk and no card handling  skill is required to win the under bided contract. The card play becomes exceedingly boring  and there is no fun for anyone.  .Besides having fun the  objective of any partnership   must be  to win maximum possible marks which is also equivalent to loosing minimum marks.

If the partnership is winning the contract  it must do so by bidding up to an appropriate level  to score maximum marks , alternately it should aim to loose minimum marks by giving tough time to opponents at bidding stage and during card play. Good bridge pairs always either try to score maximum possible marks against opponents  or try to loose minimum marks to the opponents. They always aim to extract best possible result for them from any deal and that must be the objective of any pair .

Now to state  the  objective  is  quite simple task but for achieving  the task consistently  most partnerships   spend  their  lives. Those who achieve the objective  more consistently  are called experts !

At the same time there is absolutely no  prudence  in bidding  to the higher level without adequate strength and lose the contract particularly when opponents are not competing. The partnership which overbids when opponents are quiet  finds itself a biggest looser . Such an over bidding is  bad  and loosing a sure game in an attempt to score impossible slam is not good bridge  however  not all overbids are bad .  Over bidding is  not criticized so vehemently  for two reasons .Unlike in under bidding  case  in “over bidding”  at least opponents enjoy the game  and secondly the over bidding  perhaps could be intentional planned action which shows courage .( and many  times it gets rewarded  also)Overbidding shows daring attitude and the  braves are respected  while  cowards  are disliked … that is why over bidding is not the crime !

There  are  two cases when over  bidding happens in a deal.

1        In the  first case  over bidding could be because of misunderstanding  with the partner or because of stiff competitive bidding of the opponents or over confidence of the bidder and it is unplanned action.

2        In the  second  case  over bidding is  intentional .It is done  to prevent the opponents from playing at an appropriate level which could be   a  game , little slam or grand slam level  as the case may be. More often intentional over bidding is done even  to prevent opponents  from scoring a part game.

If   the contract is lost by only one  trick  then people will comment   “ Never mind ….one down is gentleman’s down” . Some generous people will even say “well tried “ and  the opponents  will start boasting about  their  skill of successfully defending the contract“. For a marginal one down ,  the  Partnership will  attribute the defeat to” bad luck”  for getting either the  tough lead or  bad distribution of the cards. . However if instead of one down if the contract gets defeated  by  2 or , 3 tricks then  most people will  think twice before commenting..In fact   when   partnership   goes  down by two or  even 3 tricks sometime they are praised !.No Joke ! Why  they are   appreciated ?  That is the beauty of this wonderful game !

When  the partnership  loses the contract and  it is found   that  it has successfully prevented their opponents from scoring the sure game  (or slam) its overbidding action  must be appreciated  as it  achieves the  objective of  losing minimum marks . Such an over bidding is called intelligent bidding  in the bridge world because such  an over bidding is  literally calculated planned move. The important thing here is  that  if   the contract is lost by larger margin(more than 2 or 3 tricks)or no sure game or slam existed for the opponents  then the objective of losing minimum marks gets  defeated and then the over bidding is wide open for criticism . This means for correct over bidding one not only requires daring but a judgmental skill of trying to loose minimum marks to the opponents.

We  will now discuss two types of bids, which  help partnership to minimize their losses  . These bids  are effective tools at bidding stage and  most  bridge players practice  them liberally but very few accurately !

1  Pre-emptive bids

Whenever you can describe your hand completely with a single bid, you should do so. Pre emptive bids describe the hand quite clearly and in every bidding system there are preemptive bids . The pre- emptive bids are used to prevent opponents from reaching to game level (or little slam level or grand slam level) by destroying the available communication space.  Typically preemptive bids are opened at directly 3 levels. for major suits and 3 or 4  level for minor suits. These Preemptive bids describe the hand completely indicating 7 carded suit and 6 to 10 high card points. For making pre- emptive bid one need not have adequate strength in High card points but instead of strength you must have length  of minimum 7 cards in the suit with preferably minimum two out of top three honors . For higher level preemptive openings one must have more than 7 cards in the suit.

Remember once you preempt , do not bid again unless you are forced to do so by your partner.

When you have adequate strength (HCPs 11+)then with long 7  carded suit you should never  start bidding at 3 level as it will not give correct   information to your Partner  Never forget is that when the communication space is destroyed for your opponents it stands destroyed for your partner also. Preemptive bids are therefore usually avoided  after 3 passes to you .After your preemptive bid if Partner has the strength he  will get clear idea of how many tricks can be scored by the partnership and may take part in the auction accordingly.

While  opening at 3 level , it is generally safe to assume  that one trick will be obtained from partner’s hand  and your own six sure tricks will give you total seven tricks. If everyone pass your 3 level bid, at the most you will go down by 2 tricks. So in case , if you are vulnerable you will loose 500 marks and  if you are not vulnerable at the most you will loose 300 marks (Assumption here is opponents will double your 3 level opening bid)Avoid making pre-emptive bid if you  see that you will loose more than 300 marks if your opponents are not vulnerable (and  more than 500 marks when your opponents are vulnerable.) The idea of making pre emptive bid is to loose less number of marks compared to when opponents score the game or slam. So the  strategy of making pre emptive bid is different in the different conditions of vulnerability. The traditional practice is to overbid two tricks vulnerable or three tricks non vulnerable. The effect of vulnerability  is  illustrated  in the table at the end.

Responses to preemptive bids

·         When responding to a preempt, think in terms of the tricks  you can provide, not point counts.

·         Do not bid 3 NT with a singleton or void in partner’s suit unless you expect to win 9 tricks alone.

·         A new suit response below game is  forcing by an un passed hand.

2   Sacrificing  bids

The sacrificing bid is an intentional over bid after the opponents have reached to their intended  level . When such bid is done opponents are in trouble as they cannot win if they bid further. If they don’t bid further  they don’t have sufficient strength to defeat your contract by larger margin.In either case they loose unless your judgment is wrong.The intention of  Sacrificing bid is   to prevent opponents from playing and allowing them to score more marks  .

The  pre-emptive bidding is the action to prevent opponents from reaching to appropriate level while Sacrificing bid is made when opponents have reached to their intended level. Both bids try to achieve the objective of “minimum loss”.

The  calculations part of “how many marks will be lost in the event of going down  visa a vis how many marks will be scored by opponents” is  same so the  vulnerability again  plays critical role .If the opponents have reached 4Hearts contract and you are unlikely to defeat the contract and you have sufficient logic to believe that your 4 Spades  or 5 in minor suit  cannot be defeated by more than  2 ( or 3 tricks )then it is appropriate to bid  and sacrifice . Your opponents will be now in the trouble as  they will have to bid at 5 level to score and their chances of scoring  get reduced. If they allow you to play even after challenging by double they will get lesser marks. Their gain is thus minimized.

The important  thing  before venturing in sacrificing bid is you should be reasonably sure that you don’t have sharp teeth to defend , if you do then it is better to avoid sacrificing bid .Unlike Pre-emptive bid Sacrificing bid is difficult to judge and if it is  employed at wrong time it  can be disastrous and backfire  to  ruin your chances.

Time and again it is observed that accurate   preemptive bids and sacrificing bids are the main  factors which  decide losers and winners  !

Table illustrating minimum loss conditions for Game or part game

	Your bid	Opponents’  problem	Vulnerability	Result after play		Your loss	Your loss if opponents score the  game or part game
Game Level hand	preemptive 3 spades	Could not find the heart was the matching suit for them particularly when it was 4 carded in each opponents’ hand. Opponents could not bid 3NT	Both non vulnerable	2 down 3 down		300 500	420  (or 400)
			Both vulnerable	2  down 3 down		500 800	620  (or 600)
			Opponents vul You are NV	2 down 3 down		300 500	620  (or 600)
			You are Vul Opp NV	1 down 2  down 3 down		200 500 800	420 ( or 400)
Part game Level hand	Sacrificing 2 Spades  bid over opponents’ 2 Hearts	Opponents don’t have strength  for going to the level of 3 Hearts Opponents are  in dilemma  whether to double or not  as it can award you a game	You are Non vulnerable	Un-doubled	Down 1 Down 2	50 100	Your loss if opponents score  2Hearts is 110 irrespective of opponents vul or not
				Doubled	Down 1 Down 2	100 300
			You are vulnerable	Un doubled	Down 1 Down 2	100 200
				Doubled	Down 1 Down 2	200 500
Game level hand for opponents	You bid 4Spade over opponents 4 H (Or 5Clubs over opponents’ 4S)	Opponents if bid at 5 level they are most likely to get defeated. If they allow you to play their gain is not maximum	If you are NV and opponents are vulnerable then you must not go down 4 and even down 3 will bring good result for you	We assume that your contract will be doubled	Down 1 Down 2 Down 3 Down 4	100 300 500 800	If both sides are vul then you can afford to go Down 2 and when vulnerability is not favorable  then at the most 1 Down result will tilt the things in your favor.

1        (lesser  loss  conditions are high lighted “  ) 2        In equal vulnerability situation  two down gives  good results 3        In  favorable vulnerability  situation  even 3 down gives good results 4        In Unfavorable vulnerability condition only 1 down can give favorable result 5        In  part game, sacrificing  overbidding  related judgment is tough and  may not be attempted if you are vulnerable . 6        Readers can study the  standard bridge card and find out the number of  short tricks  which will still give them good results when opponents are sure to score  little slam or Grand slam .Even if you go five down or  six down  in a deal in which  opponents are scoring sure grand slam…you will be praised for your over bid . Intelligent Overbidding is not the crime !

                                                                          R J Phansalkar ,284 HB estate  Nagpur