Supermax

[wank]

T9xx

Aktx

Tx

Akx

 

You open 1c, p bids 1s, you bid 2s, p splinters with 4h, next?

 

A) sign off

B) cue

C) blackers

D) would have opened 1nt

E) would have raised to 3s

[masse24]

A) Sign-Off

[nige1]

T9xx

Aktx

Tx

Akx

 

You open 1c, p bids 1s, you bid 2s, p splinters with 4h, next?

 

A) sign off

B) cue

C) blackers

D) would have opened 1nt

E) would have raised to 3s

I rank

1. 5♣ = CUE. ♥AK are worth something.
2. 4♠ = NAT. S/O. A bit pessimistic.

 

I wouldn't

• Open a strong notrump.
• Raise 1♠ to 3♠.
• Launch into RKC over the splinter

[alok c]

B) Cue.

[ahydra]

"Supermax" is right. The HK is potentially a waste but also potentially a valuable discard; otherwise, we have three tens, six controls and a ruffing value. I'd bid 5C to point one of those giant flashing roadworks arrows at the diamond suit.

 

ahydra

[jogs]

A) Sign-Off

Agree. Poor spades. Heart duplication. Weak diamonds.

 

Hate splinters. Why can't pard show what he has, instead of what he doesn't have?

[apollo1201]

I play splinters as "not superstrong" (good opening with a singleton) so there will be some holes in the pointed suits. Change my HK to SK and we might find a perfect match opposite. So here, I just sign-off (and no strong NT and even less a 3S raise which would be more unbalanced).

[eagles123]

I'd cue

[ggwhiz]

If you can't cue with this hand you shouldn't play splinters and btw, I don't after running into this kind of scenario. Once was enough.

[rmnka447]

B) Cue

 

5 ♣

 

Partner could have just bid 4 ♠ with any hand with shortage where just game is the probable contract. IMHO, a splinter here has to show extras and slam interest.

 

♥ AK probably aren't worth as much when partner has shown a shortage in ♥, but I agree with ahydra that they might provide a valuable discard.

[Jinksy]

5♣

[MrAce]

If pd has

 

AKJxx

x

QJxx

QJx

 

or

 

AKxxx

x

AQx

xxxx

 

then you are in danger at 5 level. But if he has something like

 

AKxxxx

x

KQx

xxx

 

then slam looks almost cold.

 

Having said that, I would never splinter with the first 2 hands. The reason is simple. Give pd 4 small hearts(or 3), with his initial 2♠ bid it is still too hard to construct hands that makes slam without at least a finesse. A void instead of singleton of course changes a lot of things. Also if pd has too many wasted ♠ hcps such as AKQxx(x) or if he has a certain spade loser (KQJxxx x Axx QJx) can make it almost an impossible slam to make.

 

Splinters are the most inaccurate convention unless you have firm agreements with your pd about which hands to reject and if you are going to take an action, what all the subsequent bids mean.

Overall I would bid 4♠. I have 14 hcp and % 50 of my values are in the splinter suit. I also do not have a safe 4 level cues available on this auction.

[Cyberyeti]

I would never open the hand a 12-14 no trump, therefore I think I would open it a 15-17 1N, 3 10s, 2 with either a higher honour or the 9 makes this a 15 count for me.

[gszes]

wellllll after 4h supermax might be a tad optimistic but overall this is a very decent hand opposite a singleton/void in hearts. You are not strong enough to take over the bidding (which you would do with a supermax OUTSIDE hearts ie make the !HAK the !DAK).

 

5c

 

You need to make a positive noise and by far the best way to proceed seems to be 5c. P will undoubtedly cue 5d and now you can safely bid 5h so p now has a pretty darn accurate idea of what your hand looks like (though sometimes the heart K will be a pleasant surprise). Hopefully your partnership radically discounts jacks not in long (4+) suits) in slam auctions so any bidding made by partner after 5h should be pretty darn accurate (unless they are convinced you have long clubs (ouch).

[shyams]

I'd have opened 1NT

[Left2Right]

D. Open 1NT. If your cc says 15-17 then your Aces and Tens deserve an upgrade of one point, bringing you into this range. Read all about this via Richard Pavilec's blurb Aces and Tens.

 

Opening 1NT limits your hand immediately and makes your partner the captain. Responder will proceed via Stayman, transfer or splinter depending as usual on the cc.

 

It's worth saying once again: The main reason for the splinter is to allow the partner of the shortness shower to evaluate duplication of value. Your king of hearts needed to be the king of something else to make this hand work well for partner.

 

You cooperate in this effort by giving partner one discouraging call after the splinter. There is no such thing as "sign off" since you are not the captain.

 

I have a BBO constraint file that will allow you and partner to wile away the hours practicing just this sort of situation. See Shortness Showing.

[NickRW]

D) Open 1NT in the first place. Sure u can construct better 14 pointers for an upgrade, but if that is all you accept, then you're not doing it often enough.

[billyjef]

1. D) would have opened 1N = equivalent of 16 points in notrump. Kleinman=16, K&R= 16.05

2. B) Cue 5♣

That all said, I'd bid 2♠, like OP, and not made a 3♠ raise.

What is blackers?

[RD350LC]

I rank

1. 5♣ = CUE. ♥AK are worth something.
2. 4♠ = NAT. S/O. A bit pessimistic.

 

I wouldn't

• Open a strong notrump.
• Raise 1♠ to 3♠.
• Launch into RKC over the splinter

I tend to agree. My first choice is 5♣, as a standard cue bid.

I have a tendency to use Blackwood as a way of KEEPING OUT of slam, not to get TO slam.

[RD350LC]

I rank

1. 5♣ = CUE. ♥AK are worth something.
2. 4♠ = NAT. S/O. A bit pessimistic.

 

I wouldn't

• [*]Open a strong notrump.[*]Raise 1

♠ to 3

[aawk]

With AK in h no other bid than 4s. You got 50% of your points in partners splinter if that is not a reason to downgrade your hand don't play splinters.

[Cyberyeti]

The problem is that ♥K could be gold dust or worthless, you don't know, opposite AKxxxx, x, Ax, any 4 it's gold dust, less so but still possibly slammy depending on partner's clubs opposite a 5134 with the same honours.

[P_Marlowe]

In a weak NT context, the single raise showes either a shapely hand with 12-15.

AK oppossite the splinter makes this a 11+ hand, and I dont have a source of tricks,

I am tending to sign of, but only after some time of reflection, i.e. at the table

I may have gone for Blackwood.

The cue on the 5 level wont help a lot, and reinforces the shapely hand.

[dave_beer]

Agreeing with ahydra and some others -

 

B) cue-bid

 

Partner is typically 6=1=3=3 for this and while my ♥K would normally be a wasted value it might provide a discard for a ♣ loser and I have potential ruffing value in ♦. Opposite AKxxxx-x-Axx-xxx slam doesn't need much more than 2-1 ♠ break.

[StevenG]

A question. 5♣ is the popular choice. Now I'm assuming that partner isn't going to splinter with nothing in the minors, and he certainly doesn't have much in clubs, so it seems reasonable to take his diamond control for granted. Then the biggest obstacle to a slam is our junk trump suit quality. So how does a cue bid sequence help there? We probably get to 5♥ without learning anything useful. Surely RKCB would tell us much more about what spade losers we have, while allowing us to stop in 5♠.

 

As it is, my trumps are so poor I think it likely that I would reluctantly sign off instead of making a slam try - but if I do want to try for slam, then 4NT looks to me much better than 5♣. Am I thinking about this wrong?