If you insist on sabo-ing people... don't bother reading this.

[tlautrec]

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So I learnt a new thing today; that people like to confuse what is known as defensive bidding with what people speak of as 'sabo'.

What is defensive bidding and why defensive bidding?
1. Usually used in duplicate bridge to 'sac' an opponents possible game (this means compared to losing 2000 points when the opponents succeed in their contract, you only lose around 800 when you go down in your own contract)

2. If used in rubber bridge, it would be used to stop the opponents on consecutive games to get the rubber. (Once again, compared to losing the game bonus/rubber bonus, you only lose for going down on your own contract, despite doubled << anyone has questions on this; go read yahoo bridge rules.)

As you can see; defensive bidding is try to lose lesser points knowing that you will probably NOT make the contract.

Now we go on to preemptive bidding. This is usually the type of bidding prevalent in min 4 games here on this site. This means that you don't really have the required points to bid to level 4, but you probably have distribution to make up for it. Which is why it's not unusual to see someone bid 4 spades over someone else's 4 hearts while you hold a 3 ace hands wondering if these bidders' bids really justify their hands.

With that said, what is exactly a 'sabo' bid then? It's a desperate measure that falls neither in the above mentioned categories. It neither minimizes loss or grants yourself a higher chance on winning. (on the rare case that you have good luck/a surprise fit) The lucky case of a 'sabo' bid will be what is officially known as a 'psychic bid'. As its name implies; a psychic bid involves the bidder somehow getting into the right contract with all the missing key cards that he wants in his partner's hands.

Basically, people who do such bids will have something like low point flat hands and they don't really know what to do with them; or they are lacking severely in the trump suit, with crappy cards on outside suits, and no short suits for a possible trump. Basically, the prospect of not landing a single trick for oneself and a hand that totally has to rely on partner to win. That will be 1 motivation for such a hand. Otherwise, one would probably have a few points, and sense that the bidder has a ton of points; so one want to turn the tables and make sure that he/she will be called as partner. Hence, he bids and calls for the initial bidder instead. Of course, this could backfire. And that is exactly how I would describe a hand of mine just now.

So I was holding:
C:xx
D:xx
H:AKQxxx
S:AJx

and of course I would be calling 3 hearts in this case (it was a min 3 room) However, there's a bitter dude (I kinda remember his hand, but I'm not 100% sure about his hand shape cause I was abit preoccupied with getting pissed at him ^^)

So he held:
C: Qxx
D:AJx
H:xxx
S:Kxxx

and he bid 3NT and called for Ace of spades. In other words, I kinda got dragged down into this contract. However, I wasn't really angry; because I was fully confident that however kind of crappy hands he has, he probably has stoppers in clubs and diamonds (and how very right I was, He had a bare queen and a bare ace, which was good enough for 3NT to make) It was his not very up to scratch play that astounded me before I even wanted to praise him for his gutsy bid. So here goes:

He leads Ace of diamonds and 3 small diamonds follow. That was the mistake that led to everything toppling down. But anyways on with the story. Then he exited on the 2 of spades. 2nd seat played low so I gladly too the finesse with my Jack and the finesse held. Looking at my delicious hearts, I was praying for a good break so I started running my hearts: A, K,Q but Jack did not drop on my third heart. The break was 6-4-3-0 in favor of the opponents. Hence i exited a small heart and the jack too it. and then they started playing clubs, which they took the trick, with the Ace on 4th seat, and wasted no time switching to a diamond. Now, if my partner had retained his Ace of diamonds, he would play another spade back to me, for me to cash my remaining 2 hearts and ill return him the spade knowing that he probably has the King of spades. However, that didnt happen. so a small diamond from the 4th seat to the 2nd seat, which saw the king rise and the jack fall (because my partner had discarded a diamond on the 4th heart) and queen followed by 8 of diamonds and king of clubs. that's 1 heart 2 clubs and 3 diamonds down. After that they went easy on us by doing a spade switch which I promptly took with my Ace of spades and wasted no time cashing my remaining 2 hearts. And that was it. 5 Hearts and 2 spades and we went down by 2 tricks.

Basically, my point was, if you want to bid defensively, you have to play better to justify your bid. If you don't even know how to play NT hands properly, please read my guide before attempting a half-arsed bid using playing defense as an excuse. It will simply reflect how 没有风度you are as a person.

Anyway, the right way to play the above hand, is to exit on a small spade right away, cash 3 hearts; play out a heart, lose 2 clubs and take the diamond from the opponents, return spades again, and cash the remaining 2 hearts; return to the king of spades and you're done.

That's 3 spade tricks + 5 heart tricks + 1 diamond trick, just nice.

So a sabo bid is basically summed up with the following short points:
1. one knows that one will not be in the winning partnership
2. one wants to break up the winning partnership
3. one bids to be part of the winning partnership
4. one s(rews self up and turns winning cards into losing cards, and hence their winning partnership into the losing partnership
5. one finishes the hand with a seem to be close loss (it should have been a win)
6. one makes excuses.

And a defensive bid is basically:
1. one knows that one will not be in the winning partnership
2. one wants to break up the winning partnership
3. one bids to be part of the winning partnership
4. one lands the wrong partner/based on how the cards are laid it's just impossible to win
5. one finishes the hand with a close loss. (it should have been a worse loss)
6. one sulks/emos.

... can you spot the differences?

[Kiwi8]

Wah wall of text!

But ok, I get your point.

[AngelinaGo]

I agree to your analysis on defensive bidding to a certain extend. However, if it's rather impossible to win or "overly begging for luck", why not choose yourself as the partner? It's rather miserable for the innocent partner if you drag him/her down with the bid.
Generally I think, the bidder should not depend on partner for more than 3 sets for a min 4 bid, and 2/1 sets for a min 4 NT bid.
Upbidding is a technique in no min games. However, this skill does not guarantee success. You may end up with a rather ridiculous bid if the other party lets you have the bid. In such cases, I think that it's rather understandable if you choose a partner with little chance of winning if the bid is not too high (3 and below).
There are however lots of complications during the course of the game, like
A J wadeva
J may gets a set if the way cards are thrown and positioning permits.
A Q wadeva
Q may be wasted to block the opponent from winning with a small card or they way cards are thrown and positioning is to your disadvantage.

Whatever it is, before you really really really have to type anything that's not nice to another player, DO GIVE THEM A CHANCE TO EXPLAIN THEIR MOVE/BID.