Standard American Kitchen Bridge

[y66]

Playing Standard American Kitchen Bridge with a thoughtful, conservative, old-school partner who opens 1H in first:

 

What do you bid with x QT9xx xx AJ9xx?

 

3H is a limit raise with 4+ hearts.

3S is a splinter with 4+ hearts, strength undiscussed

4H is a distributional hand with usually 5 hearts and 6-9 HCPs

 

Say you bid 4H. Pard bids 6H. Now what?

[hanp]

4H and pass. 7H is too random to me.

[ArtK78]

It seems that you had a bid which fit your hand perfectly, and you made it.

 

Now partner took it upon himself to bid slam. There were a lot of bids available between 4♥ and 6♥ and he chose to bid 6♥. That was not a question.

 

WTP?

 

Pass.

[quiddity]

No one passes a hand like this at kitchen bridge.

[Phil]

Pass and pocket the 98 cents or the $1.01.

[Free]

wtp

[Aberlour10]

No one passes a hand like this at kitchen bridge.

normal>>> pass within < than1sec, at the beach bridge>>>clear 7H bid, but only with the chance for the strong wind blowing during the play :P

[Mbodell]

No one passes a hand like this at kitchen bridge.

It is a question of what to do after 1♥-4♥-6♥ not after 1♥. I agree no one passes after 1♥. everyone should pass after 6♥.

[gwnn]

well it's a pass wtp but i'm still reluctant. i think a significant % of the time we make grand but partner decided against exploring it so we can't explore it.

[aguahombre]

Yeh, gotta pass 6H, and had to bid 4H under the conditions. I don't even know what partner expects from my 4H raise. At a serious game, I would not have had that great offensive hand ---having been able to use a gadget to show a "mixed" 4H bid.

 

Doesn't quite meet "WTP", IMO ---but pass after stewing a bit. Seems like reluctance and WTP are contradictory.

[peachy]

I guess partner is not totally old school, he plays limit raises and splinters:)

4H, then Pass. Jump to slam is normally not an invite to grand when there are methods to investigate and this auction is not an exception to the "normal".

[kenberg]

Partner has (at least) five hearts to the AK. Because you show five, he expects to lose no hearts. Your Q makes it sure he will lose no hearts, but he already was counting on that. Usually (although you did not stipulate it) the 4H shows a stiff Certainly an old line player will expect a stiff. You have one, he expects one. So what do you have that he might not expect? Your ace. If he cared, he would have asked.

[y66]

How can this be a pass wtp? when we have not shown our nifty 5-card side suit, headed by an ace, with a supporting jack no less?

 

Yes, pard can ask about the ace but he can't ask about our side suit.

 

If we're in a field event, pass seems clear cut. But playing kitchen bridge, I'm shocked that pass is as clear as this poll indicates, although it seems less shocking after reading Kenberg's comment about the semi-wasted HQ. If I'd thought of that, pass might have entered my mind.

 

Thanks for comments.

 

p.s. Pard held Ax AKxxx AQx Kxx making 7 when the CQ turned up onside. That was lucky. I think I would just bid 5H with that.

[bucky]

Small slams and grand slams are very different. The reward/risk ratio is such that you need higher chance of success for grand slam, even at kitchen bridge. On top of that, there are quite a few things you can do in play of small slam (e.g. throw-in, or duck one round to establish a suit) which are not available in grand slam play. So in short, even if partner bids a small slam and you suddenly find an extra ace, it is not clear that bidding grand is right. And you certainly don't have an ace more than what you promised!

[aguahombre]

I would have an ace more than I promised. But the rest of the truisms are true.

[bucky]

I would have an ace more than I promised. But the rest of the truisms are true.

Under the set condition "4H is a distributional hand with usually 5 hearts and 6-9 HCPs", you don't. But yes, it is a heavier condition than my way.