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It was a thrilling day for McDonald’s fans when the Hamburglar, now a grown man and bridge professional, arrived at our club last month to discuss his new book Burglar Family Bidding Secrets: Stolen Bids, Burglar Raises, and So Much More. Adding to the excitement, our club arranged for Ham to play with North Penn member Egbert in the afternoon game following the presentation.
Ham’s discourse was centered around responding when partner opens one of a major (1M) in first or second seat, your opponent passes, and you hold at least four card support. He explained that he created “Burglar Raises” specifically for this situation. Holding a “McRaise,” a mixed raise of about seven to nine or maybe ten support points and at least four trumps, you bid 3♣. Your call is 3♦ if you have a Quarter Pounder, a 4-card limit raise with a good ten to twelve points. On the other hand, if you have only a few McNuggets (a poorer hand), the system enables you to pre-empt to 3M with four trumps and 4M holding five or more.
When one of our members suggested Ham’s system sounded a lot like “Bergen Raises,” his response was immediate: “When you read the chapter on ‘Stolen Bids,’ you will discover that I was the originator of this method and Marty Bergen pilfered the concept several years later. Are there any other questions?”
Ham went on to suggest that when you have the Big Mac, a game-forcing hand with four of partner’s major, you should refer to the chapter all about Ham’s uncle, John Oliver Burglar, known to his friends as “Jack-O-B.” He explained his uncle had developed the Jack-O-B 2NT convention, forcing to game with at least four trumps. Of course, even before that stroke of genius, Grandpa Woody had devised what he cleverly called a “splinter bid,” a double jump shift to show game-forcing Big Mac hands with four or more trumps plus shortness in the bid suit.
According to Ham, one of the problems bridge players experience is what to bid when you hold five or more of partner’s major. In fact, after the game there was much discussion regarding how to bid the following hand when partner opened 1♠ (all white):
♠K8753 ♥4 ♦A98 ♣Q762
Ham suggested “this hand would most likely have a play for 4♠ so it seems like a good idea to get to that contract, if not higher. The key, however, is how you get there.” Ham offered the following options:
- Take the bull by the horns and immediately jump to 4♠.
- Bid the hand as a Burglar 3♦ Quarter Pound limit raise and let partner decide. (Some people would bid 3♦ planning to “correct” to 4♠ if pard signs off in 3♠.)
- Bid a game-forcing Jack-O-B 2NT.
- Make a 4♥ Woody splinter.
- Something else.
Ham stated it was much easier to make the decision by first addressing whether you think this hand qualifies as a game-forcing Big Mac. Then he announced emphatically: “I believe it does! Yes, it has only 9 HCP; the stiff heart worth three more points will only get you to twelve. But it’s a 7-loser hand with five trumps and controls in three suits.”
Ham continued: “I would treat it as minimum game-forcing hand, so I would help my partner’s slam evaluation by bidding (4), a Woody 4♥ splinter. Just imagine that opener holds something like ♠AJxxxx ♥Axxx ♦x ♣Kx -or- ♠A9xxx ♥J10xx ♦xx ♣AK. These nice, 12 HCP openers will produce easy slams opposite your ♠K8753 ♥4 ♦A98 ♣Q762 when trumps are 2-1. The key is that opener knows there are no wasted values in the heart suit.
“If you, as responder, choose (1) and jump right to 4♠, or use (2), the 3♦ Quarter Pounder limit raise method, pard will never know about your shortness and will likely undervalue or mis-evaluate your hand’s potential. And let me add that I am not very fond of the idea of bidding 3♦, planning to raise if pard signs off in 3♠. That might work fine when opener has a true minimum, but if they immediately jump to 4♠, you will have missed the opportunity to show your singleton and let them know you actually have a game-going hand. If slam is possible, it will likely be missed… which brings me to my partner’s method for this board: option (5), the something else option.”
According to our famous author, when Ham and Egbert played this deal, Ham opened 1♠ and Egbert, who had happily agreed to play Burglar raises and the rest of Ham’s system, decided to respond 2♣ (!) with ♠K8753 ♥4 ♦A98 ♣Q762. After a 2♥ continuation by Ham, Egbert jumped to 4♠ and Ham passed. When Egbert tabled his anemic club suit and five spades, he confessed that he didn’t know how to bid his hand, “so I made up a sequence.”
Ham let us know he was rather stunned when dummy appeared, and continued: “Years ago, when I helped Mike Lawrence with his Workbook on the Two Over One System, we both agreed that this very sequence should show good clubs, a good 3-card spade holding, and deny controls in the red suits. Egbert’s hand did not exactly measure up to any of those criteria, but we of course had not discussed this auction. I assumed my partner was trying to show some kind of fast-arrival with 3-card support and no extras, so I passed. Let me assure you, I would not have chosen Egbert’s option.
“As you all know, opener held a mundane ♠A9642 ♥KJ32 ♦106 ♣K8, barely meeting the ‘Rule of 20,’ with wasted heart values opposite the singleton. No matter how responder decided to bid the hand, you were fine as long as you got to 4♠, making, since spades were 2-1. Of course, this time there was no reason to worry about missing slam. But maybe next time!”
Hamburglar’s Final Discourse: “I wish to raise a very important point. The whole idea behind the Jack-O-B 2NT, Woody’s splinters and Burglar Raises, is to establish immediately that our side has a 9-card or longer major suit fit. Nine-card trump suits generally play much better than 8-carders, allowing you to bid with greater enthusiasm in reaching game or slam – or pre-empting the opponents.
“If your first bid is like Egbert’s ‘something else,’ you will never be able to convince your partner you have more than 3-card support. There may be times when delaying that support could be right, but they are extremely rare! My book of course discusses this topic and oh, did I mention, it’s now available on Amazon.”
Just then Hamburglar jumped up, pilfered a handful of Egbert’s McNuggets, and hastily left the building.
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