Minorwood

[jdulmage]

I'm looking for a write up explaining minorwood convention. Anyone have?

[Free]

It's quite simple actually: 4m is RKC with that minor. This way you stay low and don't get pushed into slam when partner has a certain ammount of keycards.

 

Responses are like normal RKC (example 1430):

step 1 = 1 or 4

step 2 = 0 or 3

step 3 = 2 no Q

step 4 = 2 with Q

 

After this, any bid in the minor is to play. The step just higher than the minor asks for Kings, and you can respond however you like (specific Kings, number of Kings, other).

 

Example:

 

1♦ - 2♦

4♦ - 4♠ (RKC ♦ - 0/3 keycards)

5♥ - 5♠ (asks kings - ♠K in case you play specific)

 

Asking for the Q is just as usual: next step over 14/30 responses:

 

1♦ - 2♦

4♦ - 4♠ (RKC ♦ - 0/3 keycards)

4NT - 5♦ (♦Q? - no)

 

Note: in my examples, bidding up till 4m is very poor (no controls), but that's not the point of the examples.

[jdulmage]

Thanks! Appreciate that

[Stephen Tu]

It's important to establish partnership rules about when it applies. There are many auctions where you would just like 4m to be natural, showing support & maybe slam interest, not having desire to take captaincy & ask for keycards.

 

Something like only if there was prior suit agreement on a strong auction, such as Free's example or something like 1s-2d-3d-4d or 1s-2d-3h!-4d if 3H was a splinter raise. You wouldn't usually want to have something like 2c-2s-3d-4d be minorwood for example, as the opener is usually far better placed to take captaincy.

[mikeh]

I agree that minorwood is a dangerous device and should never be adopted in a casual partnership.

 

You should have rules that define when a bid is keycard: and stick to them.

 

I think that keycard (of all flavours) is horribly over-used, and I really like being able to bid 4 of a minor to establish trump (which may not previously have been bid and raised) and to commence control-bidding. So I use a jump to the lowest unbid suit above the minor as keycard.

 

Thus 1♠ 2♥ 3♣ 4♦ would be keycard, while 4♣ would set trump and request cue bids.

 

1♥ 2♦ 3♦: here you run into a potential problem: you cannot jump to 4♥: that would be a signoff with 3+♥ and a minimum game force with ♦. So you apply the rule and bid 4♠.

 

The problem with using 4 of the minor as keycard is minor (sorry about that) if the suit can be set by a forcing 3-level bid: 1♠ 2♦ 3♦: but I strongly feel that any method that uses the first raise of a suit as keycard is fundamentally unsound: sure, it will work sometimes, but it is surely inferior to a method that allows raiser to choose between cuebidding and keycarding. And, more importantly, using the same rule regardless of whether the fit has yet been firmly established is easy to remember. Using 4 of the minor as keycard in some auctions and not in others is bound to catch either you or your partner one of these days ;)

[Al_U_Card]

I think that keycard (of all flavours) is horribly over-used, and I really like being able to bid 4 of a minor to establish trump (which may not previously have been bid and raised) and to commence control-bidding. So I use a jump to the lowest unbid suit above the minor as keycard.

So it is basically Kickback?

[Guest Jlall]

I think that keycard (of all flavours) is horribly over-used, and I really like being able to bid 4 of a minor to establish trump (which may not previously have been bid and raised) and to commence control-bidding.

You're Canadian so you WOULD think that wouldn't you :P

 

lol, in all seriousness though I agree with this completely. These days you see people playing all of these 4 of a minor bids as keycard in auctions where a hand is not ready to take control, but has no way to support otherwise. One of the biggest flaws in slam bidding is taking control prematurely.

[mike777]

I think that keycard (of all flavours) is horribly over-used, and I really like being able to bid 4 of a minor to establish trump (which may not previously have been bid and raised) and to commence control-bidding.

You're Canadian so you WOULD think that wouldn't you :P

 

lol, in all seriousness though I agree with this completely. These days you see people playing all of these 4 of a minor bids as keycard in auctions where a hand is not ready to take control, but has no way to support otherwise. One of the biggest flaws in slam bidding is taking control prematurely.

Ditto Ditto Ditto