A Big Hand

[mikeh]

You deal, not vulnerable, at imps playing against two experts.

 

You pick up AK6 AKJ87 void AQJ86

 

What do you open?

 

Obviously you could open 2C. You play a form of kokish, such that if partner responds 2D, which he will with most hands containing at least a king, that would allow you to bid 2H, forcing 2S, over which your 3H rebid will show hearts and clubs. However, that might be 5=4.

 

Plus partner might cross you up via a 3D response....2 top honours, 5+ suit and no other 4 card suit.

 

An attractive alternative is 1H. In your methods, partner strains to respond, so you might miss a game should he pass, but it’s unlikely that he will pass AND have the cards you’d need to score up a game. Also, the opps may ‘rescue’ you by bidding.

 

I think 1H is best, only a little biased by the fact that my partner chose that at the table

 

So it starts 1H P 1S P, back to you.

 

You have an easy 3C bid. This establishes a game force.

 

In your partnership, as is fairly common, 3C is a little suspect. Even in standard bidding, 3C can be a 3 card suit with, say, AJx AKQJxx x Axx.

 

Partner temporized with 3D. This simply stalls for time, being more of a call that denies certain holdings more than being descriptive. He does not have 3 hearts. He does not have 6 ♠️

 

He does not want to bid 3N, but that could be because he lacks the right values or because he’s too strong to risk you passing.

 

Now you have an easy 3S bid.

 

Partner bids 3N

 

Now what?

 

He didn’t bid 3N last time, but now has. So he has only 4 spades, at most two hearts, and had some reason for not bidding notrump last time. It wasn’t because he wanted to suggest diamonds as trump...that train left the station after 3C.

 

It seems clear to bid 4C. For one thing, we are a king heavier than he so far expects, and for another, we have not yet shown our real club length.

 

Over 4C, partner makes a slightly unexpected jump to 6C.

 

Now what?

 

Partner must have at least Kxx in clubs, and may have Kxxx. He has short hearts. He also has extras that he thinks are slam friendly. You’ve pretty much shown your shape: you can’t have more than one diamond, so he won’t think honours other than the Ace are slam friendly. Thus we have a parking spot for our spade spot even if he lacks the Queen.

 

In addition, there is no reason he can’t have, say, QJxx x AJxx Kxxx or the like.

 

One should not bid grands that are 60% or less likely to make, due to the relative sizes of loss and gain. But there are basically no holdings he can have that offer no play and many holdings where 13 tricks are nearly lay down.

 

So 7C it is

 

You await dummy with some anticipation. It’s not every day that one bids to a grand slam with no cuebidding and no ace asking.

 

[hv=pc=n&s=sq872h54dakj6ck74&n=sak6hakj87dcaqj86&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1hp1sp3cp3dp3sp3np4cp6cp7cppp]266|200[/hv]

 

The opening lead is the diamond 7.

 

Plan the play

 

You have 12 top winners, assuming clubs are no worse than 4-1.

 

It seems safe to try the diamond Jack, since that’s 13 winners if it holds.

 

It’s covered by the Queen so you ruff.

 

Now what?

 

Ruffing a heart low is risky, since a 3=3 break is against the odds. Ruffing high is risky since clubs could be 4-1.

 

So let’s find out whether we can afford to ruff a heart high...cash the club AQ.

 

Both follow, so now you’re cold unless hearts are breaking really badly. You play the AK, intending to ruff next with the King, cross in spades, pull the last trump and take 13 winners....3 spades, 2 hearts, a ruff, 2diamonds and 5 clubs.

 

As it happens, the heart Queen drops on the second round, so you just pull trump and claim.

 

Had clubs been 4-1, you would have played the club King, come to hand in spades, pulled trump. Spades might be 3=3, and you have decent chances for a squeeze...the hand with the short club might easily be 4=4=4=1 and they can’t hold the major position when you cash the clubs then the spades, ending in dummy, then the top two diamonds. There might even be a red suit squeeze, say with one player being 2=4=6=1 (if he’s 4=5 reds, spades are 3=3). Or opening leader might be 4=3=5=1, though you’d need to read the position...which you might well do as he crumbles on the run of the clubs.

 

 

What I found most interesting about this hand was that a good player at the other table opened 2C and he and his expert partner were unable to reach grand. It’s long been my belief that 2C auctions don’t handle marked two suited hands very well. I’m sure that most of us can easily bid these hands to 7C after a 2C start...once we know both hands. I think here, even with our version of kokish, where opener can show at least 5=4 by bidding 3H after 2C 2D 2H 2S, it’s not easy. I don’t think it’s clear what south should do at that point. 4C risks setting a 4-3 fit as trump. The hand is far too strong for 3N.

 

I think it’s too strong for a natural 4N as well...this is slam material opposite a sound 2C bidder.

 

So maybe 5N? Pick a slam?

 

That gets us to 6C but who can bid 7?

 

I’ve often argued that too many players seem unwilling to bid slams without asking for keycards, and wanted to show a hand where neither player even cuebid, let alone asked for keycards.

[Cyberyeti]

We play pretty old fashioned methods over 2♣.

 

2♣-2N(10+ bal)

3♥(F4N)-3N

4♣-5N(king better than I might be)

6♣-7♣

 

Although we'd probably open 1♥

[mikeh]

We play pretty old fashioned methods over 2♣.

 

2♣-2N(10+ bal)

3♥(F4N)-3N

4♣-5N(king better than I might be)

6♣-7♣

 

Although we'd probably open 1♥

How you know that you’re not off the spade ace seems strange to me, as in I find that auction unconvincing

[nullve]

Note to self, mostly:

 

 

 

[hv=pc=n&s=sq872h54dakj6ck74&n=sak6hakj87dcaqj86&d=n&v=0&b=1]133|200[/hv]

nullve(N)-nullve(S):

 

2♣(1)-2♥(2)

2N(3)-3♣(4)

3♠(5)-4♣(6)

4♦(7)-4♥(8)

5♣(9)-5♦(10)

5N(11)-6♠(12)

6N(13)-7♣(14)

P

 

(1) weak with one major (6(+)M3-OM or 5M3-OM4+m) OR unBAL GF (rule of 31 or better) with primary hearts

(2) P/C (with 2- H or (3)4+S3H) OR invitational with 2-S5+H

(3) GF with either (3)4+ C or one-suited hand

(4) relay

(5) 3514 or 3505

(6) relay with slam interest, but not in club slam opposite 3514

(7) 3505 (hence 21+ (non-walrus) hcp)

(8) Parity Key Card Blackwood agreeing clubs

(9) odd # of key cards and the trump queen

(10) ♥K ask

(11) ♥K + ♠K, no ♥Q

(12) ♠J ask

(13) no ♠J

(14) contract

 

 

[Cyberyeti]

How you know that you’re not off the spade ace seems strange to me, as in I find that auction unconvincing

 

We VERY rarely open 2♣ with a 2 suiter, we are forcing to game opposite a yarborough, for partner to have enough KJx, AKQJx, AQJxx is just about possible but dubious, we'd probably open that 1♥, so it's vanishingly unlikely partner is missing ♠A.

[LBengtsson]

interesting analysis. but why does 6♣ show ♣K? no trump suit has been agreed after you bid 4♣, so what do the bids 4♦/ 5♦ or 4Nt mean here by partner after you bid 4♣?

 

if partner has ♠Qxxx ♥x ♦AKQJ ♣xxxx is not a bid of 6♣ possible to? or have you a agreement if partner raises 4♣ to 6♣ it does show an honour akq card in a 3 card support.

[jillybean]

A great hand!

 

1♥ 1♠

3♣ 3♦

3♠ 3N

4♣ and this is where we came unstuck - 6N

[Winstonm]

Mike, had your partner bid 4D over 4C, would you have taken that as cue confirming clubs?

[mikeh]

Mike, had your partner bid 4D over 4C, would you have taken that as cue confirming clubs?

I was responder, but 4D, in principle, might have been keycard. However, it was an undiscussed sequence, so I did not want to introduce ambiguity. I knew where I wanted to play opposite a powerful, extra values jumpshift, as indicated by his pulling 3N to 4C. Say AJx AKJxx void AQJxx

[Winstonm]

I was responder, but 4D, in principle, might have been keycard. However, it was an undiscussed sequence, so I did not want to introduce ambiguity. I knew where I wanted to play opposite a powerful, extra values jumpshift, as indicated by his pulling 3N to 4C. Say AJx AKJxx void AQJxx

 

Reminds me of something Mike Lawrence once said - if you run out of ways to intelligently find grand slam, it's time to place the contract.

[pilowsky]

The thing that's unclear to me (from an 'intermediate' perspective) is why, with 12 top tricks

AKQ spades

AK hearts

AK diamonds

and AKQJx clubs

your bidding system does not allow you to reach 6 or 7NT?

 

Is there something about this hand that makes it more likely to make 7♣ than 7NT?

 

What I'm getting at is what is it in your bidding system that prefers 6 or 7 of a minor to 6 or 7 in one of the higher scoring strains?

[mikeh]

The thing that's unclear to me (from an 'intermediate' perspective) is why, with 12 top tricks

AKQ spades

AK hearts

AK diamonds

and AKQJx clubs

your bidding system does not allow you to reach 6 or 7NT?

 

Is there something about this hand that makes it more likely to make 7♣ than 7NT?

 

What I'm getting at is what is it in your bidding system that prefers 6 or 7 of a minor to 6 or 7 in one of the higher scoring strains?

6N scores less well than does 7C.

 

7N requires an extra trick: it’s trivial to ruff one heart playing in clubs but you need either a heart finesse, which would be impossible if he did not have the Jack (AKx AKxxx void AQJxx is consistent with the bidding) or spades 3=3, or some unlikely combination, which in turn you’d have to read.

 

 

 

7N -1 fares poorly against 6N making and even worse against 7C making.

 

Finally, when playing imps, if one has a complex hand/auction, never....never...get greedy when choosing a grand slam. Don’t even get greedy when venturing a small slam.

 

Even the best pairs sometimes have difficulty bidding grands, and anyone who’s played a lot of team matches knows that the most frustrating result can be playing in grand, failing in bad splits, and finding out that they played in game at the other table.

 

Iow, it’s not the bidding system. Indeed, the more accurate the system, the more likely one is to play in the safer, if slightly lower scoring, slam or grand.

 

Never risk losing, say, 17 imps in an effort to win 2 unless you ‘know’ that the higher scoring slam is as safe as the lower scoring.

 

Even had I found that he held the AK in both majors, I’d never bid 7N lacking the spade Jack. I can’t count 13 winners.

 

Even at mps, unless in a very strong field (late rounds of the Blue Ribbon or LM Pairs, etc), don’t get greedy. Unless the grand is easy to bid, bid the safer one, not the higher scoring one. 7N-1 is an easy mp estimate....you’re tied for bottom. 7C making, when 7N makes, will be well over average unless it’s trivial to count 13 winners.