What? When? With What? How?
By Mike Savage
What are
Help-Suit Game Tries?
Help-suit game tries are made after a simple major suit raise by responder or after a major suit response to an
opening bid and a raise to two by opener. Classically
they are a try for game by bidding a 3 or 4-card side suit with at least one
high honor, looking for a filling high honor or two from partner. Some
partnerships play that “help-suit” game tries can also be made with side suits
that have no honors at all – looking for primary strength or shortness and four
trumps. Your partnership needs to decide whether to use strictly classic
help-suit game tries or to also make help-suit game tries in suits with no
honors - otherwise there will be times when you won’t know if you should accept your partner’s game try or not. My personal preference is to make help-suit game tries in suits with no honors at all up thru
having as much as AQx in the
help-suit – but this requires delicate bidding judgment by my partners J.
When should you
make one?
A help-suit game try by opener shows
a strong hand, typically with a very good 15 to a poor 18 HCP or even less if
you have a 5-5 two-suiter, looking for help in a
particular suit. A help-suit game try by responder typically shows a
hand of around 9-12 HCP with chances for game if opener has help in responder’s
side suit. It should be used somewhat rarely – only when you want your
partner to focus on his holding in a particular suit, using that as the
primary factor in his decision to accept game or not.
Can opener make a help-suit game try in the
other major or should that be reserved for hands that are looking for a 4-4 fit
in the other major as opposed to the known 5-3 or 5-4 fit in opener’s major?
That is a decision that your partnership must make - although I think that
there are some instances that opener can bid the other major to look for a 4-4
secondary fit and/or also use it for a help-suit game try.
Here are examples of some hands that
qualify for help-suit game tries by opener: AQ10xx x AKxx
Kxx (1S-2S: 3C), xx
A109xxx AJ9x A (1H-2H: 3D), AKQxx, Ax, x, xxxxx (1S-2S: 3C), by responder: Kx QJ10xx Kxxx xx (1C-1H-2H: 3D),
KQxxx QJxx Jxx x (1D-1S-2S: 3H) and KQxxx Kx x xxxxx (1D-1S-2S: 3C). Avoid making “help-suit” game tries with 0 or 1-loser suits unless it’s really a slam
try.
With What should you accept one?
If your partnership plays classical
help-suit game tries, showing a major honor third or better, then you should accept with A, K, Q or better as well as a hand with a singleton
and four trumps, both with a hand you will not be
embarrassed to put down as dummy. If you play omnibus help-suit game tries that
include making one with three, four or 5-small in the suit, then you still will
want to accept with a stiff (or dbltn?) and four
trumps but with honors, you may only want to accept with the ace, king or
better. With Qxx in the suit, make a below game counter try if you can and if you can’t, accept with a maximum.
How should you
accept one?
Most of the time it will be a close
decision to accept partner’s game try or not - or it will be a routine
acceptance and you will jump to four of the agreed-upon trump suit. However if
your partner’s help-suit game try made you fall in love with your hand, cue-bid
on your way to game. More specifically, your partnership might agree that a
jump to game denies the ace of the help-suit or any other side suit as
you would cue-bid any side-suit ace on the way to game if you are accepting
partner’s game try.
This agreement would be of great
help if it turned out that partner’s putative game try was actually a probe for
slam! The advance cue-bid – or the lack thereof – will greatly help your
partner in deciding to pursue his quest for slam or not (in the rare instances
that he has such a hand). Hopefully these guidelines will be helpful to your
partnership in getting to and avoiding close games and even slams!