Glenfield Technical Library

Splinter Bids

Last Updated on 17^th August 2008

Introduction

Many players use a double jump as a Splinter Bid. The bid shows values for game, at least four cards in partner’s suit and a singleton or void in partner’s suit.

Examples

One Club - Three Diamonds

One Club – Three Hearts

One Club – Three Spades

One Diamond – Three Hearts

One Diamond – Three Spades

One Diamond – Four Clubs

One Heart - Three Spades

One Heart – Four Clubs

One Heart – Four Diamonds

One Spade – Four Clubs

One Spade – Four Diamonds

One Spade – Four Hearts

Continuation

When assessing whether to continue beyond game it is as well to be aware that the hand with the splinter bid will have a void 13.8% of the time. The probable number of trumps in the splinter hand can be obtained from the following table.

Hearts	Probability
4	65.8
5	24.2
6	8.0
7	1.7
8	0.2
Total	99.9

Example Hands

This hand occurred during the LCBA’s Hyman Crammer event of 2002.
	North ª T752 © J4 ¨ KJT84 § T8	Dealer West EW Vulnerable	West opened one heart, north passed and east made a splinter bid of three spades. South doubled. West bid four no trumps; Roman Key Card Blackwood. East bid five spades to show two key cards (the ace of clubs and the king of hearts). The probability of making a grand slam now depend on the number of kings that east has. If east has no kings the chances are slightly less than 50%. If east has one king the prospects rise to above 80% while if east can raise two kings the chances of making thirteen tricks are above 90%. West therefore bids five no trumps but, east, having no more kings, must bid six clubs and west, unless desperate for a top, signs off in six hearts. Although it turned out to be peripheral to the action another example of a splinter occurred in the Glenfield Club Pairs on 21^st July 2002 A splinter bid on a passed hand can be used to show close to the values for an opening bid. Exploiting this bid would have led to a slam on this deal from the Stanley Trophy on 28^th August 2002.
West ª A83 © A9753 ¨ A7 § KQ5		East ª 6 © KQT62 ¨ Q32 § A732
	South ª KQJ94 © 8 ¨ 965 § J964

Alternative Uses of the Double Jump

1. Pre-empt

The original use of the double jump response to partner’s opening bid of one of a suit was as a pre-emptive bid. This is largely out of favour as it only has any merit at all if partner was opening the hand in first seat. Even then it is more likely to fix partner than the opposition.

2. Cue Bid

Another modern treatment of these sequences is to play them as a cue bid, agreeing trumps and showing either a first or second round control according to the cue bidding style in use.

3. Asking Bid

If playing splinters you can use a new suit at the five level as an asking bid.

Tim’s Statistics IMPs	Partner	We Splinter	Imps	Imps/Bd	They Splinter	Imps	Imps/Bd
Porter – Leicestershire 20 Staffs & Shrops 0	Peter Neville	1	11	11.00
Total for 2006		1	11	11.00
Porter – Leicestershire 5 Oxfordshire 15	Peter Neville				2	2	1
Total for 2007					2	2	1
Total		1	11	11.00	2	2	1

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6. Technical Library
6.1 Bidding	Strategy	Acol	Psychic Bidding	Precision	Blue Club
6.1.1 Hand Evaluation	Defensive Tricks	Losing Trick Count	Playing Tricks	Point Count	Total Number of Tricks	Passing
6.1.2 Opening Bids	One Club	One Diamond	One Heart	One Spade	One No Trump	Pre-empts
	Two Clubs	Two Diamonds	Two Hearts	Two Spades	Two No Trumps
6.1.3 Responding to an Opening Bid	Simple change of suit	Opener’s Rebid	Responder’s Rebid	Preference	Opener’s Second Rebid	Jump in a new suit	Responding in no trumps
	Limit Raise	Inverted Minors
6.1.3.1 Responding to 1NT	Transfers
6.1.3.2 Responding to 2NT	Transfers	Baron
6.1.4 Conventions	Stayman	Fourth Suit Forcing	Reverse	Crowhurst
6.1.4.1 Conventional Opening Bids	Lucas Twos	Multi Two Diamonds	Weak Twos
6.1.4.2 Competitive Conventions	Jump Overcall	Lebensohl	Unassuming Cue Bid	Unusual No Trump	Continuing after opponent’s take out double	Take out Double	Cue Bid
	Fishbein	Defence to 1NT	Halmic	1NT Overcall	Redouble	Simple Overcall
6.1.4.3 Slam Conventions	Blackwood	Gerber	Roman Key Card Blackwood	Splinter	Jump to 5 of a suit	Grand Slam Force	Acol Four No Trump Opening
	Asking Bids	DOPI and ROPI
6.1.5 Doubles	Optional	Penalty	Lead Directional
6.1.6 The Protective Position
6.2 Declarer Play
6.2.1 General Technique	End Play	Squeeze	Finesse	Lose tricks early	Pin	Avoidance	Restricted Choice
6.2.2 Trump Management	Ruffing	Ruffing Losers before drawing trumps	Trump Coup	Ruffing Finesse	Loser on Loser	Coping with bad splits	Cross Ruff
	Dummy Reversal
6.3 Defence	Second Player	Signals	Third Player	Play the cards you are known to have
6.3.1 Defensive Tactics	Forcing Defence	Passive Defence	Merrimac Coup
6.3.2 Opening Leads	Fourth Highest	Third and Fifth	MUD	Top of Nothing
6.3.3 Plays in Third Hand	Finesse Against Dummy	Finesse Against Partner
6.3.4 Entry Management	Unblocking
6.4 Probability
6.5 Glossary of Terms
7 Through the Pack