[TWO4BRIDGE]

Coincidently, this hand came up last night.
9 of 19 tables reached slam.
I picked the best auction ( IMO ) although none were w/o flaws.

EDIT: I just reviewed all of the biddings... 15 Responders bid 1♠ and only 2 bid 2♣ ! ! !
( I guess that doesn't say much for the caliber of the players ). One table opened 1NT and another opened a "big club" .

IMPs

---

2/1 GF context

South North
1H      2C!
2D      2S
2NT    3S
??

What does South do now after partner has shown his 5s/6c ?

Or should I say what is his best course of action ?
Is there a key card ask available? ( not that it would help if 2 ♥losers )
What would/should 4NT be asking?
Does Responder have a ♥-control ? He could be 5 2 0 6 with two ♥losers ?

[kayin801]

4♣(set trumps)-4♥(cue)-etc?

[tolvyrj]

4C set trumps, now prd bids 4D so far so good; and now comes the tricky part; with no H control my next bid shld be 4S if i could be sure that C has agreed as trumps. 4S asks prd to show H control some way if he/she has it; rest has been taken care of already, i.e prd shld ask aces.
In real life prd probaply passes to 4S ( just kidding, but it is a possibility, believe me, especially if u r not a regular partnership). So the other hair raising possibility is Blackwood or RKCB( better).

[matmat]

4♣, forcing. I don't really see why this is a problem at this point.

[TWO4BRIDGE]

matmat, on 2011-January-15, 15:17, said:

4♣, forcing. I don't really see why this is a problem at this point.

Continue with a full auction .

[han]

4C - 4D
4S - 4NT

You can imagine the rest.

[JLOGIC]

han, on 2011-January-15, 15:56, said:

4C - 4D
4S - 4NT

You can imagine the rest.

Not really. You didn't answer the important question whether you'd get to 7 or not.

[Cascade]

JLOGIC, on 2011-January-15, 16:17, said:

Not really. You didn't answer the important question whether you'd get to 7 or not.

Exactly i wondered the same thing.

[JLOGIC]

I was thinking after 5H-5N, south should NOT show the DK knowing partner has 5116 with SA, HA, CKQ. But perhaps north has stiff Q of diamonds and that decision doesn't work out well, probably you should just not worry about it. Likewise maybe south should know to bid 7 with the AJ of clubs, but it's not clear. The SQ is very likely with north since he bid so much. It is pretty interesting to me. North has to bid 5N I think?

Obviously getting to 7 is really a disaster rather than just not great with so many people not even bidding 6, and if you know you're in a field like that both people might choose to be conservative missing black jacks also.

All of this is probably symptomatic of the problem of having to bid 4N as keycard in clubs, and really having not enough room for your grand slam tries and having to guess, and those guesses will always exist.

[TWO4BRIDGE]

Ok... agreeing Cl was an "easy" one.

But, what if Opener wanted to "agree Spades -- slammish" instead ?
How should it go ?

---

[matmat]

TWO4BRIDGE, on 2011-January-15, 16:30, said:

Ok... agreeing Cl was an "easy" one.

But, what if Opener wanted to "agree Spades -- slammish" instead ?
How should it go ?

I think 4♦ here is a cue for spades, since a pure two suiter would have rebid 3♦ instead of 2nt.

4♦-4♥
4♠-4NT
...
likely get to 6. is that that great of a contract, though?

[Cyberyeti]

JLOGIC, on 2011-January-15, 16:22, said:

Obviously getting to 7 is really a disaster rather than just not great with so many people not even bidding 6, and if you know you're in a field like that both people might choose to be conservative missing black jacks also.

The better the field, the more you want to be in 7. Against grands good players tend to lead trumps an awful lot (see Fred's triumph and the grand with the trump lead that found the Q), and on a trump lead you need trumps 3-2 or J single, spades 4-2 or better, so you'd rather not be in it with some not in 6 (but that number will diminish with the standard of the field), but it's not horrible.

[gnasher]

Cyberyeti, on 2011-January-15, 17:10, said:

The better the field, the more you want to be in 7. Against grands good players tend to lead trumps an awful lot (see Fred's triumph and the grand with the trump lead that found the Q), and on a trump lead you need trumps 3-2 or J single, spades 4-2 or better, so you'd rather not be in it with some not in 6 (but that number will diminish with the standard of the field), but it's not horrible.

They won't lead a trump from Jxxx, or from a small singleton, so the possibility of a trump lead doesn't affect the odds at the point that you're considering bidding seven.

[MrAce]

TWO4BRIDGE, on 2011-January-15, 16:30, said:

Ok... agreeing Cl was an "easy" one.

But, what if Opener wanted to "agree Spades -- slammish" instead ?
How should it go ?

---

Here is how i play it, since all forcing ♣ hands start with 4♣, a 4♦/4♥ would be a cue confirming ♠ suit and 4 NT is an invitation since i had space to make a forcing bid to clarify trump suit b4 4NT.

[TWO4BRIDGE]

MrAce, on 2011-January-15, 17:26, said:

Here is how i play it, since all forcing ♣ hands start with 4♣, a 4♦/4♥ would be a cue confirming ♠ suit and 4 NT is an invitation since i had space to make a forcing bid to clarify trump suit b4 4NT.

Agree

[Cyberyeti]

gnasher, on 2011-January-15, 17:23, said:

They won't lead a trump from Jxxx, or from a small singleton, so the possibility of a trump lead doesn't affect the odds at the point that you're considering bidding seven.

That's not my point, I was assuming you'd go off if the trumps misbehave. The odds of making 7 on a non trump lead are really poor even if the trumps break, as you don't have the luxury of scoring a cheap 10 or 9 of clubs allowing you to ruff the third spade with the ace. I think this is foreseeable in the auction that you'll make on pretty much every 3-2 break on a trump lead which is pretty likely. If they lead a side suit this is far from certain, as you have to decide what to do if either LHO ruffs with the 6 or follows to the third spade, or if they lead a non diamond you can play for K♥ to come down in 3 or spades 3-3 which may well be better.

[ewleongusa]

TWO4BRIDGE, on 2011-January-15, 11:47, said:

Coincidently, this hand came up last night.
9 of 19 tables reached slam.
I picked the best auction ( IMO ) although none were w/o flaws.

EDIT: I just reviewed all of the biddings... 15 Responders bid 1♠ and only 2 bid 2♣ ! ! !
( I guess that doesn't say much for the caliber of the players ). One table opened 1NT and another opened a "big club" .

IMPs

---

2/1 GF context

South North
1H      2C!
2D      2S
2NT    3S
??

What does South do now after partner has shown his 5s/6c ?

Or should I say what is his best course of action ?
Is there a key card ask available? ( not that it would help if 2 ♥losers )
What would/should 4NT be asking?
Does Responder have a ♥-control ? He could be 5 2 0 6 with two ♥losers ?

1H 2C
2D 2S
2NT 3S
4C 4H
4S 6C
Pass

Eric Leong

[dboxley]

4C...