slamsRus

Dwayne hoffman in the alert thread said: FSF I refer to after a G/F is established and three different suits have been bid and unsupported. To me, makes things easier on pard - if you got the fourth suit covered and you can't support a game bid in his/her two suits, bid NT to tell the good news. I also agree that they are many treatments that are misconstrued in overtone. As this seems to warrant a new topic, i've started one. This is not at all what I think of as FSF, yet another eye opener for me. Another nuance to discuss first. In my circles FSF establishes the game force (some say for one round but that's wimpy). And there are very few auctions that fit the mold, yet the occur surprisingly often. always uncontested. 1c-1h-1s-2d ... 2d is fsf to game and says nothign about diamonds, partner is expected to bid 2nt with a diamond stopper. Show 3c heart support, or rebid clubs. This is one of the most common fsf auctions. 1c-1d-1h-1s --- the exception, we don't treat this as fsf, just a second suit. The corrolorry is, if as responder you need to force to game, the auction should go 1c-1d-1h-2s! 2s is fsf and says nothing about spades. I wonder what the standard treatments are of this convention, and what the pros-cons for variances are.

So did you mean always queen-ask when it can be done below 5 of trump suit (and is that not situational?). Or perhaps below trump suit and not interested in the grand slam. Because if in your auction (5c-5d queen ask-5h no queen) if my partner pulled out 5nt now I'd wonder why he asked for the queen if he didn't care. (assuming we haven't had this discussion of course) and left to work it out at the table i might conclude he's offerring 5nt as a place to play or pick-a-slam 6h/6n ... which can be important at mps Asking for the queen when you have the queen, and thus know the answer, seems to just use up bidding space and give the opponents information. And done often enough is it not a partnership understanding, which won't fool the opponents very often once they get to know you.

Off the cuff, I'd say its situational. If you have any interest in the grand slam more often than not asking for queens when you have it will take away the opportunity to ask for specific kings (does anyone play king asking for # of kings?).

Perhaps the point has to be made that alerts are given primarily to protect the opponents, not mislead them. Duplicate bridge strives to be a game of complete information, it's not poker. As Dwayne has pointed out, if a partnership agrees they "can" open 1d with as few as 2, the opponents are entitled to know, because their partner already knows that. This is not "alert enthusiasm", this is ethical and required. Or from the other perspective, if your opponent opens 2d showing 4-5 in the majors as doesn't alert it, wouldn't you feel hard done by? Ragnar