Was That Bid Really Necessary?

	10 7 6 5
	K 10 6
	K J 10 8
	Q 4
A J 9 8		Q 4 3
J 8 3		A Q 9 4
9 5		A Q 7 6
A J 10 2		9 3
	K 2
	7 5 2
	4 3 2	Contract: 2 clubs
	K 8 7 6 5	Opening lead: 9 of diamonds

Was this bid really necessary? The opponents were only going for one spade and couldn't have picked up more than 140 or 170 points. But in came South. With barely enough hcp's to make a bid one-level bid opposite an opening bid, and with nary a word from his partner, in came South to balance with 2 clubs and go for minus 500. Why?

Oh, because it was a balancing bid. Yeah, right. Unfortunately that doesn't give you a good score because it's a balancing bid. The opponents actually have a rather healthy 25 hcp's -- often considered enough for a no trump game if balanced -- vs. your 15. Oh, but I couldn't have known that. No, granted. But you can surmise that coming in at the two level with barely enough points to raise an opening bid on a known fit can very easily be disastrous. [I have no explanation for why the opponents didn't get past one spade. I only know that I didn't make this up. And though this is baffling, I have cited failure of the opponents to find their game as one of the reasons for holding off balancing.]

I might look, for instance, at my "twenty-point rule", wherein I say that without a good fit and no more than half the deck (20 hcp's), the two level begins to get risky and the three level downright dangerous. Your partner didn't offer an opening bid, nor an overcall. So it's kinda optimistic to read him for 14 hcp's or 13 or even 12. I'd say 10's probably the max he'd have right now. And you've got six.

Regardless of what the sophisticates say, there isn't necessarily a productive bid open to you when the opponents are ready to let the bidding drop at the two level or even, as here, at the one level. This is the most overrated bid in bridge, bringing far more grief than satisfaction. This declarer went for minus 500 when he could have been about minus 140. Make sense? Oh, I didn't know those guys just about had game. No, of course you didn't. Does that make the bid tolerable? Because you didn't know?

That, in fact, is one of the dangers of the balancing bid, which I would say are: that you'll find yourself in hot water; that you'll revive their bidding to a makable game, and that you'll be in trouble (on a balancing double) if they redouble, and that you'll help them find a better fit. The payoff?

Well, lemme put it this way: That player could go a couple of years without a balancing bid and not lose as much to good balances he didn't find as he lost on that hand with a bad balance. I would caution you from inferring too much in potential from their failure to pursue higher bids. You're always dependent on the opponents with that philosophy, and they're not there to enlighten you.