A few hands from the GNTs

[mikeh]

Playing the District 19 district finals today…we were lucky to survive to play the semis tomorrow

 

We had several hands I found interesting with, in my view, no clearly right action.

 

1. You are red v white, at imps in a 10 board match.

 

You hold AK832 1095 863 54

 

Partner deals and opens 2N…a good 19 to a medium 21. You visualize a routine transfer then 3N to offer a choice of games but RHO torpedoes that by bidding 3N, for the minors.

 

You can bid 4C stayman, or 4D or 4H, transfers…obviously you’d choose 4H….do you?

 

 

2. You hold AQ Kx AKQJ98xxx void

 

3 passes to you, all red. If it matters, partner would open most 11 counts

 

 

3. All red again, you hold J9x Kxxx Axx J9x

 

Partner deals and opens a 2+ 1C…if balanced he could even be 3=3=5=2.

 

You bid 1D, showing hearts. If you’re uncomfortable with that, bid 1H..it won’t affect the auction

 

Partner jumps to 2S, gf showing at least 4=5 blacks and a very good hand.

 

You can bid 2N to slow the auction down…it asks him to bid 3C which, on a different day, you might be intending to pass. But this is way too good…partner game forced and you have an ace more than your initial response showed.

 

You bid 3C, showing real clubs and some values, unlimited on the upper end.

 

Partner bids 3S, suggesting at least 5=6 blacks

 

Your bid.

 

 

4. You hold Q9 Axxxxx K109x 10

 

White v red for a change

 

Partner deals and opens your 2+ 1C. RHO surprises you with a vulnerable 3D overcall. You’re playing online without zoom so partner can’t see the saliva drooling from your lips as you pass in tempo.

 

Partner goes into the tank and finally bids an unexpected 5S…passed, of course, to you.

 

Your partner is a true expert.

 

Your call

 

5. White v white, you hold this wonderful collection: x J10xx 1098xxx xx

 

You restrain yourself and pass as dealer, only to have LHO open a precision 1C…16+ any shape

 

What made this interesting, to me anyway, was that yesterday my partner and I agreed to play a form of psycho suction over 1C. An overcall shows either that suit and the next one up or the one above that…a two suiter in touching suits or a single suiter. The higher you bid, the more shape you have.

 

 

You can no doubt tell where we’re headed. Partner bid 2S, either the blacks or 6+ diamonds.

 

Hmmm…is this a guess? Lol. So he has at least 5-5 blacks. RHO passes

 

Your call and why?

[DavidKok]

Hand 1:

 

I've stopped giving Jacoby transfers with 5M332 hands. The theory is clear and allows for little interpretation: with two balanced hands a 5-3 fit balanced opposite balanced plays better in 3NT. You need a 4-4 fit with an empty doubleton, or a 5-4 fit, for 4M to pull ahead.

I don't know what to bid here. I don't like unilaterally committing to 4M by bidding Stayman or Jacoby. From a Total Tricks perspective the whole deal is fishy - it is just barely possible (but highly improbable) that the total number of trumps is 19 (if partner also has a 5=3=3=2), but even then I expect to do poorly due to the duplication. Ideally I would want to double, my hand is simply too balanced to push for 4♠. I hope double is 'do something intelligent, I have values but no good bid' but I don't know how to go from there. If partner doubles or passes their 4m I think we'll be fine (pass the double, pull the pass to 4♠) but if partner bids 4♥ over their 4m does that show 5?

 

 

 

Hand 2:

 

Three passes is extremely concerning. We have (at least) a 9-card fit ;) so the opponents have a fit too, why is nobody bidding? I have no idea how to approach this hand when we really only care for a possible king of spades, ace of hearts or an entry with some top clubs in partner's hand. We could go scientific with 2♣-2♦; 3♦ (forcing, right?) and perhaps bid exclusion at some point, but that would make partner declarer in 6♦ exposing our king of hearts. Perhaps an immediate 6♦ is reasonable. I think in theory a 4♦ opening in fourth seat should be forcing and show this sort of hand, but I've never discussed it.

I give up, I have no idea what to do. It is very tempting to bid 6♦, even though that is guaranteed to be wrong. We can always bid 6♦ later, it's not like two passed hands are going to compete, vulnerable, at the 6-level.

 

 

 

Hand 3:

 

We have the ace of diamonds and a double fit for partner. Those jacks are worth more than they were a round ago, but the king of hearts has lost value. But we have an important inference: partner did not bid 1♠ over 1♦, which would be the normal thing to do with even pretty strong 5-6 hands (the bidding 'never' dies at the 1-level with that much shape). Partner presumably has some kind of monster - ♠AKTxx, ♥x, ♦x, ♣AKQxxx or so. With some luck partner has the other black queen. I think we should bid 4♦, a control for a club slam.

 

 

 

Hand 4:

 

Exciting! I don't have agreements about this auction - most strong hands double, 3♠ shows a 5-6, 4♠ shows a big 5-6. Presumably 5♠ is an even bigger 5-6 or 5-7? It can't be a shortness bid (because I refuse to play those guessing games). It begs the question what 4♦ followed by 5♠ would have shown.

As for what to bid: we have an ace, a missing black suit queen and our singleton club happens to be the ten (the diamonds are waste paper). That's more than partner has any right to expect. I think we should make a forward-going move and we should probably play in clubs, in case partner is 5-7. The suits rate to split poorly. I hope 5NT conveys this message, a last train bid for 6♣ of sorts.

 

 

 

Hand 5:

 

"You restrain yourself" :lol:

Well, we're stuck. A good lesson for the next time we're feeling conservative ;). Passing might work well if LHO was about to do something stupid, but we can kind of rule out that they're staring at a long strong minor suit. Most likely they have a (semi)balanced hand and RHO has a penalty pass of spades. I think running to 3♣ makes some amount of sense, and doing so right now rather than after any double is probably better. On the other hand 2♠ is a level lower, and partner might have decided to be more aggressive with longer spades than clubs (I love bidding 2♠ over a strong club, and don't you?). I think it's a true gamble either way. Personally I slightly favour bidding 3♣, but my partnership agreement is to not run until we're actually caught. Against good opponents that's not a great agreement, but in practice we slip the noose far more often than we have any right to. So I'll pass and shoot a quick prayer that it doesn't go (X)-P-P.

 

 

[apollo1201]

Tough calls, and eager to see the results.

 

On the phone I have to « spoil » but will read David with great interest after!

 

1) I am not committing to 4S, not enough cards or spots. 4mX, 4S or even 4NT could be the right spot. The best way to know is X to convey values and use forcing passes thereafter (if LHO runs to 4m and partner passes, or if it gets back to RHO and I can pass their subsequent 4m bid). I’ll respect partner’s choices.

 

2) Hell. Someone has 6 C (or 7 bad) and didn’t bid 3C. I can try to go scientific (red opps who didnt open won’t bounce the bidding now) but not sure I’ll find HA and SK. Or CA and they have a natural opening lead. If I need to gamble, I open 6D, otherwise 5D.

 

3) I already said I had a fair hand with 3C. The black jacks are nice but as cute as they may be, are they big enough to fill partner’s suits? So bidding 4S could be enough. But that DA might be all partner needs. I guess with Jxx Kxxx KJx Jxx I might have bid 2NT rather than 3C. So 4D is probably best and disciplined, hoping all will stay under control. That is 2 encouraging bids with a nice but not that powerful hand.

 

4) Waouh. Is that a 7-6 with 2 « holes »? Or 7-5 maybe AKJxx and AKQ 7th? I certainly have good news with the HA (partner’s void is more likely D than H) and SQ (and who knows, the ten of C if LHO has J 5th) and I feel we must play a slam. But I am not sure which suit, will « 5NT pick a slam » work here? Maybe 6C is safer. But I’m not passing.

 

5) Yuck. What does RHO pass mean? If I pass, is LHO obliged to bid if they have a plain 16-count? If I correct to 3C, is their pass forcing? Passing could have them rescue us with a 2NT or 3 red call, but it it goes pass pass X all pass, the 3C correction will be equally hammered. Bidding 3C now might avoid the bloodbath. I’d like to know which suit could be longer, can it be 5S and 6C, or 6S and 5C. I was told the cheaper can be longer so that partner, picking the cheapest call with no preference, will be in the better fit. I am more enclined to pass…

[akwoo]

1) I don't know what I'd do normally, but you're in a round robin of 6 teams qualifying 4, and one of the teams doesn't quite belong. I double and take my -5 IMPs.

 

2) 2C. If partner were barred, I'd bid 6D, not 5D.

 

3) What are your agreements here? If I can specifically show (or strongly suggest, even if it's not explicitly our agreement) first round control of diamonds, I do. If not, do I have a bid to show a third spade?

 

4) 5N.

 

5) RHO's pass is 0-5 or trap? If I can do it in tempo I pass. Giving them one fewer round to untangle is surely worth having one more trump, especially if that's one level higher.

 

Ironically, RHO having a serious trap pass is the hand you have to worry less about, because LHO with a (semi)-balanced 17 count can't really double - to that LHO, if RHO has some balanced 3 count they would have no good place to run to.

[nullve]

1. No, I'd double, setting up a forcing pass situation.

2. 2♣ (intending to set diamonds as trumps next)

3. 4♦ (cue agreeing spades)

4. 6♣. 7♣ is tempting, but I already know partner has a different idea about the meaning of 5♠ than that I do. 6♣ might easily be the limit due to bad breaks, anyway.

5. Pass. Two reasons: 1) Technically harder for opps to get us in 2♠ (likely 5-1 fit) than 3♣ (likely 5-2 fit). 2) If 2♠ gets doubled, I can bid 2N asking partner to choose between the minors.

[mikeh]

1. Despite having a fairly complex system, some auctions arise so infrequently that we didn’t have an explicit agreement. The 2N bid suggests that spades might break badly, especially if partner has only 3 and 2 would be disastrous. Making it worse is that we had zero agreement as to whether 4H would be a transfer and this is definitely not a hand I want declaring 4S, with LHO leading a short minor through partner. Therefore I doubled.

 

LHO, strangely as it happens, passed. RHO ran to 4C. While pass should be forcing, I have no idea what partner is supposed to do. I suppose one could argue that with 4=4 majors he bids 4D, and otherwise doubles. Long experience tells me that no matter how logical such inferences might be, partners are rarely on the same wavelength. So I doubled again

 

I led a top spade. Dummy hit with J108xx in spades, and in total J108xx xxxx x A10x (why he passed the double of 3N is difficult to understand: maybe he hoped my double was takeout? Had his partner been 6=5 minors, 4D would be far less attractive than 4C.

 

RHO didn’t have his values…not surprisingly given 5 hcp in dummy. We collected 1100.

 

 

2. AQ Kx AKQJxxxxx void. If anyone can figure out a logical way to find out whether partner has what we need, more power to them. I think it’s a guess. Characteristically my partner choose the glass half full approach and opened 6D. When we talked about it later I said I thought it was a tough decision and he said ‘this was the clearest 6D opening I’ve ever seen’. When asked how many he’d seen in 50 years of bridge…he said…this one😀. I had a perfect hand. KJxxx xxx x xxxx. They led the heart Ace so it was all over. I don’t know how spades broke so don’t know if the alternative lead of the club Ace would have resulted in an overtrick….spades 3=3 or the heart ace hand has 4+ spades.

 

3. This hand prompted a lot of partnership discussion. The problem with the ‘obvious’ 4D is that our general rule in club auctions (where slam is possible) is to use kickback, so partner was concerned that I might think 4D was keycard. Would I? I’m glad it didn’t come up. Our approach, usually, is that if we aren’t sure how partner will interpret a call, we try to avoid it.

 

In discussions we decided that in these auctions, a passed hand cannot keycard and that 4D should be a cue in support of spades. 4C would deny 3 spades but not say anything about red suit controls. Maybe not optimal but a bad agreement is usually better than no agreement. So he bid 4S and I passed, missing a very good slam. He held J9x Kxxx Axx Jxx

 

The diamond hook lost but the spade worked (note that we can handle 4-1 because partner held AQ108x void QJ AKQ10xx

 

4. I had a similar auction with this partner a couple of years ago and back then we had a misunderstanding so I felt comfortable that partner held a monster 5=6 but more likely 5=7. AKJxx x void AKQJxxx would be reasonable and opposite that one would like to be in 7S! But he certainly doesn’t need to be that strong and we try to avoid taking wild shots in jammed auctions. So I bid 6S

 

Unfortunately he had AKxxx x void AKQJxxx…still a good spot, being cold on normal spade breaks. Spades were 5-1.

 

5. I agree with those suggesting passing for now…I didn’t think about running to 2N if LHO doubled and RHO sat, but I like it. It should be exactly this shape. I won’t set out what happened other than to say that it led to a further discussion about the inferences to be drawn from my passing (I must have so many diamonds that I am confident that he has the black suits).

[jillybean]

Where do I find the results from the D19 GNTs?

[johnu]

Where do I find the results from the D19 GNTs?

 

https://live.acbl.org/

 

Look for GNT/NAP Results, or if you know somebody playing, enter their name in the search tournament results box.