[ahydra]

In general most of our losses did come down to not bidding games and slams (small or grand) that the opponents did. One of those slams was rather fortunate, oppo punted it, not much we can do. But I feel like we could have found this one:

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7C is borderline laydown, and even 7S makes. We'd have settled for six though - who needs to do more?

ahydra

[ggwhiz]

East.

3♥ instead of 5♣ followed by a bunch of cue bids revealing the ♠K might even get to the grand but six is marked opposite the ♠J and ♣KQ with any decent cue bidding below game.

[ArtK78]

Clearly East.

If you were playing in spades instead of clubs, you could bid 5♠ to ask partner to bid slam with a heart control. But that doesn't work in clubs.

If 4♥ were a Bloomer, that would be a great bid on the East cards.

As it is, I agree with ggwhiz. East should cue bid hearts and then cue bid everything else. Jumping to slam is not totally irrational, but I would leave it to partner to inform me that he has a heart control.

[CSGibson]

East needs to realize that his hand is pure gold. Partner, in a forcing situation, bid over 2♥ right away, which should imply both extra club length and unsuitability for defending hearts (ie, shortness there), and he (East) has diamonds controlled in turn. I'm cuing diamonds over 3♣, and when partner returns the cue with 3♥ you cannot keep me from slam.

Heck, even without cooperation you can picture the heart void in partner's hand. I probably drive to 7 if I can get a spade Q.

[jallerton]

To me, bids of 3♦ and 3♥ seem like probes for 3NT rather than cue bids.

On the East hand, I'd jump to 4♦ over 3♣ which West should interpret as a splinter. Now West should not stop short of slam.

Is it possible to bid the grand? As the 3♣ bid was presumably NF, West can probably afford to jump to 5♥ over 4♦ which must be showing a void of his own. Now East can picture ♠K and ♣KQ opposite and presumabkly something extra (the 7th club should not be so much of a surprise).

[Hanoi5]

I think 3♦ instead of 5♣ is a must.

[nige1]

 ahydra, on 2013-December-31, 14:01, said:

In general most of our losses did come down to not bidding games and slams (small or grand) that the opponents did. One of those slams was rather fortunate, oppo punted it, not much we can do. But I feel like we could have found this one: 7C is borderline laydown, and even 7S makes. We'd have settled for six though - who needs to do more?

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IMO East's 3♣ should show weakness (A stronger hand would pass and pull). Grand slams with no wastage and a perfect fit are hard to bid -- especially in a minor -- and especially in competition. Over 3♣, East might try 3♠ to show where his high cards are. That may work even better than jallerton's 4♦ splinter. Either seems better than 3♦ or 3♥.

[broze]

Ugh, this hand tilted me - I was going to post it myself. It was clearly a difficult one to bid since no one in a large Swiss Teams field managed to reach the cold grand. Perhaps someone could help with our auction too:

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2S was GF, 4S was a cuebid. We tend not to cue bid shortness in partner's primary 5+ card suit. Clearly this is not a good hand for that agreement since East signed off thinking there was no heart control and West was worried about a Diamond control. Should we reach this one anyway? Or what should our agreements be?

EDIT: 4NT by East after 4S would have been last train showing a Heart control and denying a diamond control so that was not available for us.

[FrancesHinden]

On the original auction as posted I agree with Jallerton that East should jump to 4D over 3C. It's obviously much harder to get to grand after an opposition opening and response, because the strengths are so much less well defined

We also missed grand which was my fault, we should have bid it.
I really think East needs to splinter at some point, to tell partner the important piece of news. He knows there is no spade fit and that partner is likely to have 6 clubs (if not, then 3145 which is also very suitable for play in clubs)

We started the auction as follows:

1♣ P 1♦ (hearts) dbl
2♣ P 3♦ (splinter) P
3♠ P 4♦ P
?

At this point I just jumped to 6♣, which was feeble, although good enough to gain 11 imps.
I considered 5♥ over 4♦, which must be a void, but I was worried that would get me to grand off the ace of spades opposite, say, Qxx AKxxxx A Axx

I think it's right to cue 4♥ here. We also would not usually cue bid shortness is partner's primary suit, but here you are planning to take control and you are very likely to have shortness, for no 3♥ bid over 3♦ - (I had already denied 3 hearts by rebidding 2C). Over 4♥ partner will, on the actual hand, cue 4♠ and now I think the right bid is GSF, as we can distinguish 1 and 2 top honours. I bid 5♠ (GSF) and partner 5NT (1 top honour), 7♣

You can't underwrite 13 tricks, but opposite the 3 relevant aces (already shown) it is at worst on the spade finesse. Partner is either 4414 (worst case) or has 5 hearts; opposite as little as Axxx Kxxxx A A9x you can win (say) a diamond lead then heart ruff, diamond ruff, heart ruff, club to the ace, heart ruff high, diamond ruff, heart ruff high, trumps. This makes with hearts 4-4 or short ace, or you can choose to squeeze LHO if he has the long heart, or instead the spade finesse; that is very good odds and partner could have the HA or the SQ or a 6th heart or... Even opposite Axxx xxxxx A Axx you are close to with the odds, and that is light.

The really bad hand opposite would be a diamond void when you might be a bit short of tricks, but then opponents haven't bid more diamonds even after RHO showed the suit.

So it's easy to construct a winning auction after the fact in the fora. But we knew that already.

[FrancesHinden]

p.s.
My 2C bid showed 6 for certain, I would pass with 2245 or 3145

[jallerton]

 broze, on 2014-January-01, 07:17, said:

Ugh, this hand tilted me - I was going to post it myself. It was clearly a difficult one to bid since no one in a large Swiss Teams field managed to reach the cold grand. Perhaps someone could help with our auction too:

---

2S was GF, 4S was a cuebid. We tend not to cue bid shortness in partner's primary 5+ card suit. Clearly this is not a good hand for that agreement since East signed off thinking there was no heart control and West was worried about a Diamond control. Should we reach this one anyway? Or what should our agreements be?

EDIT: 4NT by East after 4S would have been last train showing a Heart control and denying a diamond control so that was not available for us.

Is it your style to cue bid 1st round controls before 2nd? Given that you have agreed to not cue bid shortages in partner's suit, I don't really understand the inferences you quote for the meaning of a rolling 4NT bid. Whilst Opener could have a (shortage based) heart control, he has denied the ability to cue 4♦ so 4NT ought to imply a diamond control, particularly if playing an Italian cue bidding style. Or do you play 4♦ over 4♣ as RKCB here?

On this auction, I still prefer a 4♦ splinter to raising to 4♣ (splintering on the previous round is also sensible) as it is more descriptive: on the chosen sequence Responder could be more balanced (how would he bid with a decent hand with 4=4=2=3, 3=5=2=3 or even a slam going hand with a doubleton club?).

[broze]

 jallerton, on 2014-January-01, 11:10, said:

Is it your style to cue bid 1st round controls before 2nd? Given that you have agreed to not cue bid shortages in partner's suit, I don't really understand the inferences you quote for the meaning of a rolling 4NT bid. Whilst Opener could have a (shortage based) heart control, he has denied the ability to cue 4♦ so 4NT ought to imply a diamond control, particularly if playing an Italian cue bidding style. Or do you play 4♦ over 4♣ as RKCB here?

On this auction, I still prefer a 4♦ splinter to raising to 4♣ (splintering on the previous round is also sensible) as it is more descriptive: on the chosen sequence Responder could be more balanced (how would he bid with a decent hand with 4=4=2=3, 3=5=2=3 or even a slam going hand with a doubleton club?).

We cuebid all second rounds. And you got it, 4♦ would have been keycard not a control, which leaves 4NT as the ♦ cue (or last train in this auction). Splinter was not available over 3♣ (4D keycard there as well) but was a possibility over 2♣.

[ahydra]

Thanks for replies all. I was East and certainly should have taken things slower. Having seen this pair's aggressive bidding I was doubtful whether I could really guarantee a heart void in partner's hand, but certainly he'd have a singleton at most, and with the opening bid in diamonds, where are partner's points? Surely in spades, right?

Serves me right, once again, for not believing my partner over opponents.

As it happens 5C+2 only lost us a couple imps vs 3NT+3.

ahydra

[SteveMoe]

Sorry to be late to this thread....
Would not redouble with East's hand. Instead I like a 2♦ cue bid advance implying fit and game interest. Partner can show a 4-card major if they have one. Here the 2♦ bid allows West to show ♥ shortness.
(1♦) - 2♣ - (X) - 2♦
(P) - 3♥ - (P) - 3♠
(P) - 4♣ - (P) - 4♦
(P) - 4♠ etc...