Showing a solid suit over a big C

[the hog]

In a response to John, (Laird), Ben made reference to the fact that we can probably discover which suit is the "solid suit" in response to a strong C opening.

 

I have written down the scheme we use :

 

you must be near or in the slam zone when partner has 7 tricks for you.

We show this with an immediate 3C bid. The following is easy to tack on to any big C system. Ok these hands don't come up all that often and you do lose the use of 3C for something else, (maybe inv with 6-7 good Cs?), but when the bid does come up, it is very useful as it is often difficult to distinguish between solid suits of 6, 7,8 cards in length.

 

 

If pd opens a big c and you have a solid 7 card suit:

 

South will usually start with a 3D relay, asking for North's length and strength.

 

Stage1:

 

Length is shown.

3D 8-card suit

3H + 7-card suit, and outside ZP's - flowing on

 

The scale used to show extra high cards is not quite AKQPs. (A=3, K=2, Q=1). Instead, we use

Z-Points: Ace = 4, King = 2, Queen = 1.

 

In practice, it is very easy to pick whether North has an Ace or two Kings, say, when he shows 4ZP, since the partnership is already showing at least 30hcp

 

Stage 11:

When North shows 1 ZP, a Queen, Step should ask for location of Queen, and next relay for Shortage, based on High-Mid-Low

 

Stage 111:

Sometimes South will not know North's suit. He should ask in one of the possibles, and North should use the following responses

"That is my suit"

No control

Control, 0 ZPs

Control, 1 ZPs, etc

[pbleighton]

In Precision Today, which my partner and I use (though we have already diverged quite a bit based on Forum and Bridgetalk.com input ;)), 3C shows a black singleton, 4441, less than 4 controls (A=2, K=1). 3S is used to show a 7+ suit, which always has the AKQ. After this, the opener bids 3NT to inquire. The responses are:

4D  No Outside controls (0 controls)

4H  An outside King (1 control)

4S  An outside Ace or 2 kings (2 controls)

4NT  An Ace & 2 Kings or 2 kings (3+ controls)

[pbleighton]

As an addition to my post, 4D after 3S asks which suit - 4NT shows diamonds, others natural.