 — J1098xx Q10xx A92 | ||
 | ||
|
AKQ1098x A A Q1064 |
| Declarer | Dummy |
| |
| |
| 4NT | |
| 5NT | |
| Pass |
- ROBB
- You could make an argument that spades are not solid enough, otherwise OK.
- LEN
- No. What did [
3 ] show? It looks like it showed solid spades and4 was a control bid for spades. Then4 -4 ; 4NT would find out about - ED
- No. I prefer
1 to2 . It gives me the best chance to get clubs into the picture. There are no notes regarding the actual bidding but I am assuming3 has some kind of conventional advantage to it over2 ... if it can find out about - MIKE
- Yes. The auction seems automatic through
4 . After that, South needed to maximize the chances of getting to a good grand, so the rest was really forced as well. - JOEL
- The bidding is OK.
- DAVIDC
- "No. Don't bid
3 . The spade suit can wait. Give partner3 says, 'we are playing in this suit and nowhere else.'" [Check. And you can find out this how? --Jeff]I don't believe this answer because it is based on knowing both hands.
3 is the practical call. Unlucky, and in fact you didn't have a spade loser, so there! I confess, that on the actual hand, I will probably end up in the same lousy contract. How come partner can't have the - DAVIDW
- I agree with the bidding. Locating critical jacks in the weak hand is too hard for me.
- BOBBY
- I would actually open
1 on this hand, but I don't see that declarer will stop short of slam in any event, [...unless the bidding goes1 -Pass-Pass-Pass! --Jeff] and on the actual lie it's going to be6 always. - JEFF AT THE TABLE
- I was declarer.
- JEFF UPON REFLECTION
- I guess I should have annotated the
auction, but one of my agendas was to see how "standard"
the "standard" meaning of this sequence is. Looks like
about 50%. To rectify the ommission,
3 shows solid spades and demands aces. With no aces, but at least one king, responder bids 3NT. Opener's rebids are asking bids in suits, so opener could have bid5 asking for club controls. The exact answers to these seem to vary a little, but I was taught that the steps were none, 3rd, 2nd, 1st, AK or AQ. No one mentioned that, so perhaps the asking bids have been forgotten in this era of powerful RKCB.It is interesting that most of the panel agreed with an auction which reached an awful spot. Add the
6 is adequate. It seems pretty hard, even with a full relay system, to find these things out. Anyone have relays to identify specific 9s and 8s?Dale Johannesen notes that it is always possible to make
6 with the clubs as such if West has any red suit honor.
b) opening lead is a small spade to the jack. You win, of course, and play a bunch of trumps. RHO has four (phew... lucky lead). LHO agonizedly discards hearts, hearts, and more hearts. How do you play the clubs? (Sorry—on the actual lie, nothing works; LHO's clubs are KJ87. He kept clubs because he mispitched a club on the previous hand.)
- ROBB
-
- LEN
- Lead to the 9.
- ED
- lead Q. if it loses, finesse the 9; if it wins, cash A.
- MIKE
- Given LHO's discards and lead, I think the best play
in clubs is to start with the
- JOEL
- I guess I'd lead the Queen. If that gets covered, I'd follow with a low one towards my ten. This'll pick up Jx on my right and honors split 3-3. Also picks up Jx on my left (unlikely).
- DAVIDC
- Nobody pitches a club on the run of 7 spades with a basically blind auction? I have to believe that means they both have a club card. [LHO had just mispitched a club and let a contract make a couple of hands earlier. He wasn't pitching a club come hell or high water! --Jeff] If all I know is that LHO had 2 spades to RHO's 4, then I play LHO for the possible length. Your LHO miscarded last hand, and blew a trump trick on the lead. What kind of holding makes sense here. It is slightly anti-percentage in the abstract, but if he has Jxxx and his partner has Kx, the way to make the hand is to lead the 10 and run it.
- DAVIDW
- The opening lead is pretty normal. I told LHO I had a
solid suit, and he foolishly believed me since his hand
offered no contradictory evidence. So I draw no inference
from that. I would run all but one trump, then:
If the clubs are 3-3, it's a pure guess as to which honor I play on the second round, so there's not much to think about. If the suit splits unevenly, the 2-4 spade division suggests (weakly, of course), that LHO will have the length. I can't handle KJxx in either hand (Oh, I suppose I can just handle KJxx on my left with 87 doubleton on my right, but that's too remote for words.) I can't find any percentage edge in any of the rational lines (low to 9, run Q, or lead to A, then deuce to Q unless K appears). My inclination is toward the last choice, as it avoids me having to guess and picks up doubleton J on the left, in a way A followed by low to 10 does not pick up doubleton K on the left.
So the summary is low to ace, deuce to queen if king does not show up.
- BOBBY
- Low to the 9.
- JEFF AT THE TABLE
- run the queen.
- CONSENSUS
-
Line Votes Run the Q 5 Low to the 9 2 Run the 10 1 A then low to Q 1 - WINNING ACTION
- nothing. As I said, LHO had KJ87.
- JEFF UPON REFLECTION
- see next answer.
c) In a vacuum, how do you play this club suit?
- ROBB
- Club to 9.
- LEN
- As an isolated combination? Or without the agonized heart pitches? I think if I need three winners I lead small to the 9.
- MIKE
- Low to the 9 picks up the most cases. (I only compared leading the queen and low to the 9.)
- DAVIDC
- Tricky. Assuming you need to play this suit for 1 loser, I see six
possibilities:
- BOBBY
- I think low to the queen, then hook the 9 in the absence of other information.
- JEFF
- I know this one. In a vacuum, the best play is ace, then low to the 10. If that holds, lead low to the queen.
- JEFF UPON REFLECTION
- I don't know entirely why, but several
only answered one of (b) or (c), and two felt confused
by the wording. In (b), the question was "how do you
play the clubs?" Obviously, this meant, "on this hand,
right now, with all the information you have." (c), a
separate question, asked, "in a vacuum, ...," which was
intended to mean, "what's the normal play with this
suit combination, ignoring the details on this hand?"
I suspect the major problem was that the question in (b)
was buried in the middle of the paragraph, while (c)
was easily seen.
OK, so what's right? Roudinesco's book of suit combinations (The Dictionary of Suit Combinations, J.M. Roudinesco, 1995, p. 181 (a good book, by the way, but very hard to parse)), states that in a vacuum, ace and low to the 10 wins 47.6% of the time. If West is presumed to be the strong hand, running the queen is a 43.8% play and is best. (Obviously, the degree of that presumption matters.) He notes that the holding of the 8 and 7 are important; he does not mention the fact that the 6 is of some value to the variant play (picking up 87 doubleton on the right). Given the 6, that's worth about another percent and a half, so those plays are very close (48.45 / 30 = 1.62; 43.8 + 1.6 = 45.4). With only one entry to dummy, low to the ace and low to the queen is in the same ballpark, a little worse than low to the ace and low to the ten (with two entries) but given no presumption of strength on the left, probably a little better than running the queen (but I'm too lazy to run the numbers again).
Ought we presume club strength on the left? I think so, and feel pretty strongly about it. The discards aren't the clue; the opening lead is. LHO is an expert and heard the auction. He knows that dummy's only entry is the
| AQ87x xx Kxx Kxx | |
KJ Axx Axx AQ109x |
- ROBB
- Key spade jack.
Dealer Responder 1 2 2 (which I don't like BTW)3 4 4NT 5 5 6 7 (not knowing about 3rd club or only 5Pass - LEN
-
Dealer Responder 1 3 3 (punt)3NT 4 4 4NT (I've done enough) 5 (SHJ red aces)5NT (pick a slam) 6 6NT (grand invite) 7NT P - ED
- The auction is very good throughout by opener. It is also
good by responder until opener bid
4 . The hard to find card that makes it a good grand is the4 , responder should realize that a) he wants to play in slam, b) opener may very well have what it needed for a grand, c) he needs to take charge and d) RKC for spades will elicit the necessary information, i.e., - MIKE
- Once opener doesn't raise to
3 (I agree with opener's style, despite the result) which would simplify the auction
there are a couple of courses which would have been reasonable.Dealer Responder ... ... 3 4 4NT 5 5 6 6 7 ?P?/7NT 1) Opener could bid
3 over2 . The power of KJ of trumps it pretty significant. Agreeing spades would allow responder to find out about the2) After 2NT -
3 , responder can't really find out about the7 rather than risk 7NT. I don't see stopping in6 , but I would have bid key card over3 . - JOEL
-
Dealer Responder 1 2 ( 2 or2 )2NT 3 3 4 4NT (keycard) 5 5NT 6 (partner must have the3 bid)7NT - DAVIDC
- If responder bids keycard in spades, he can find
4 ,...4NT (4 was last bid trump suit — I don't play 6 card KCB)-5 (1 or 4) -5 (6 ) (6 (asking for7 (confirming6 certainly confirmed all keycards and I think the that responder must have the6 has fair play. This is looking OK to me.) - DAVIDW
- Each of the auctions were intelligent and I confess I might
have suffered the same fate. With the benefit of hindsight, I can
see how both could have rationally been solved by playing a
convention Gerry Bare like, 6 Ace Blackwood when two suits
have been agreed. Responses are the same as ordinary RCK.
I don't currently play that or urge it on my partners, but
as far as I can see it's the only solution for these two deals.
On deal 2, the partnership apparently plays that
2 is a default bid meaning nothing. I like that, and here the room it saved (compared to the alternative of3 ) might have helped. The first seven bids were excellent. The partnership established a primary club fit, and secondary (5-2 or 6-2) spade fit. After that, show and tell took over, and with opener having a minimum, the pair ran out of steam. Neither partner could count the tricks.4 was a winning, albeit arguable, bid. Opener might have signed off with 3NT on his minimum. He correctly judged that his minimum consisted of all prime cards, and made the bid that gave the pair a chance to get it right.I think that after
4 , responder should have taken control with 6 Ace Blackwood. The auction would proceed 4NT,5 (responder can tell that is the6 , 7NT. The key is the6 .The optimal auction:
Dealer Responder 1 2 2 2NT 3 3 4 4NT 5 5NT 6 7NT - BOBBY
-
1 -2 ;2NT-5NT; might get you there. It's tough. But I think responder should forge ahead. The bidding is not bad until the last round. I blame responder. He has an excellent hand and should realize that6 . [Responder has forced to slam without much encouragement from partner. Forcing to a grand seems a little much. --Jeff]
We bid
| Dealer | Responder |
| |
| 2NT |
| |
| |
| |
| Pass |
b) What went wrong?
- JOEL
- I don't mind the
4 bid, but I like4 slightly better. Also, the6 bid was atrocious. West should be bidding 5NT and then consider bidding6 over a signoff. - DAVIDC
- I think the
5 bid was wrong as it trapped responder. Opener didn't know that he was supposed to go past6 with this 12 count and it didn't get responder the information he needed to bid the grand. - JEFF AT THE TABLE
- I was responder. I don't see how RKCB
would work given that clubs were trump and we don't play
six ace (6ARKCB). Obviously, there's lots of room for
discussion, but when push comes to shove, few pairs
are willing to bid grands unless they can count 13
tricks. No one wants to come back to teammates and
hear the dreaded, "boys, six would have been enough."
In fact, in this same tournament, our teammates went
down in a poor grand, only to find that their counterparts
nearly missed game on a bidding misunderstanding. The
auction began (just by the partnership) pass-
1 ;3 . Opener alerted and explained3 as preemptive; they play Drury. Responder forgot and had a limit raise. Opener thought and thought and finally decided, "what the heck,"4 .So while careful judgment-oriented auctions are great for games and small slams, I can see why many players are simply unwilling to use them to find grands. Ed disagrees: "There are two things that lead me to that opinion that are not alwasys present for others: 1) I have a lot of confidence in my partner's bidding, 2) I care more about reaching the right contract and less about the actual result than most (i.e., if partner doesn't have what it sounds like they have, that's just tough)."
Personally, in theory, I think opener should have tried either a rolling 5NT or even gone the whole hog and bid
6 over5 . Responder has made a pretty serious grand slam try and I think opener's cards look like they fit really well. On the other hand, he has to be afraid of the missing7 requires only 4-2 spades. In contrast, if he hasIn practice, six was enough. At the other table, responder treated her hand as a balanced 18-count and got all the way to 3NT. (I think that was an underbid by about an ace.)
| AKxx x AKxx Q10xx | |
QJxx Ax xx AKJxx |
- ROBB
-
Dealer Responder 1 2 2 3 4 4NT 5 6 (direct ask for 3rd round control)6 7 Pass - LEN
-
Dealer can countDealer Responder 1 2 2 (denies5 )3 4NT 5 5NT 6 7 Pass 4 ,1 ,2 ,5 , 1 ruff. - ED
-
Responder must have more thanDealer Responder 1 2 3 4 4 6 7 Pass 4 bid. Opener should bid7 . - MIKE
- Not so tough. 4-1-4-4 should open
1 if the clubs are decent (no rebid problem). So after1 -1 ;3 we have... 4NT -5 ; 5NT -6 ;7 . [I don't agree with the1 opening. How about this rebid problem:1 -(p)-1NT; (2 )-? Or any other competitive auction in which opener would like to be able to bid both minors? --Jeff]If LHO opens
1 , we have
as you bid.Dealer Responder 1 2 3 (losing the spades)4 4 6 6 shows good trumps — it is close, but dealer should probably raise here. - DAVIDC
- My first response was, "While someone bidding spades naturally would
have worked out better, I have to be honest and admit that I like the
3 bid [Me, too. --Jeff] (in which case I think the 4-4 spade fit is lost;3 -3 shows spade strength, not length in my book)." But, upon reflection, I think it is the source of the problem. I think that the dealer's hand is too good to splinter. When I splinter, if the responder rebids 3NT, I am prepared to play there. Responder should bid 3NT with a minimum and wasted2 response but6 looks like a good spot. Similarly, I would splinter with1 -2 -3 you are going to bid game (I have given up trying to find the delicate stop in4 after such a start.)So, let's say the auction starts
1 -2 -2 -3 . What do I know? Responder should be 4-2-2-5 with a heart control (certainly4 +5 , no splinter over2 , no picture bid of4 ). Now my auction is pretty easy: 4NT-5 (two with)-5NT (king ask)-6 -7 or7 (depending on whether you want to gamble on 3-2 Spades or theIn the auction given, I also don't like the
4 bid — would much prefer4 . And the jump to6 says something about your cuebidding agreements. I take it that4 unequivocally denied a4 with4 . I think4 ought really be a Bluhmer, something like xxx in the splinter suit, but barring that, it should probably show no side controls or all the side first round ones, so ...4 -5 ; cue shows the king, since the splinter ace is the least valuable ace for slam. Note that raising a splinter is normally the most expensive cue bid. --Jeff] Otherwise,4 doesn't promise a6 could be off two quick1 has a control? (Remember, he could holdIs an agreement regarding kickback lurking here? I confess that I would play
4 by either dealer of responder as KCB in the auction you have given. That isn't going to help. If I do splinter, I am probably stuck with
Yecch.Dealer Responder 1 2 3 4 4 (KCB)4 (0 or 3)4 (Q ask)5 (nope)5 (K ask but confirming
all keycards — at least
I tried and got a
bit closer than your auction)6 Pass - DAVIDW
- On deal 3, the early auction was not as good. Opener committed
the subtle error of splintering with a hand that was better
than a minimum. He thought he could handle the auction by bidding
again over a signoff but responder foiled him by having a
good hand. After
4 , there was no chance to resolve the spade suit, and6 was a reasonable guess.It would have worked better for opener to rebid
2 at his second turn; at pairs (you didn't specify) [IMPs. --Jeff] I would consider it mandatory, and as we will see it could have worked better at IMPs too. After2 , responder raises to3 , then opener makes the key bid of4 to establish the second fit. Responder would bid4 , then opener wheels out 6 Aces Blackwood again. Responder shows 3 with5 , opener asks about the spade queen with5 , responder shows it with 5NT, and opener bids7 . Responder can then guess to bid7 because of his6 . The optimal auction:Dealer Responder 1 2 2 3 4 4 4NT 5 5 5NT 7 7 Pass - BOBBY
- I think
1 -2 ;3 is a reasonable auction if dealer decides he wants to give up on spades as a possible contract. Responder now has to look ahead in the bidding. If he cues4 and dealer makes a cue back, what is he going to do? He's kind of stuck. It seems better at this point to mark time with 3NT or4 (the latter, I think). [Certainly not the former. 3NT isn't forcing and is possibly an awful contract. --Jeff] That give dealer the ability to bid4 ,4 ,4 and the auction can proceed better. I don't know if you can still get to 7 that way, though. It seems that to reach 7, dealer has to show his spades:Dealer Responder 1 2 2 3 4 4 4NT 5 5NT 6 7 Pass So is it better to splinter? I don't know, What if responder's hand were
1 -2 ;2 -3NT;4 to slam, but1 -2 ;3 will put a lot of pressure on Responder to find the right contract. So maybe splintering is wrong with a 4x1 in these situations. - JEFF AT THE TABLE
- I was responder again. I think opener ought to
bid
7 , but I can understand his reluctance. I thought6 was strongly showing good trumps; he probably thought it was just taking a shot at slam. I think my interpretation is more logical; in order to bid slam and not have another cue bid available, what else can I have? But I've learned that "logical" in the bridge sense means "what I think," not "what an intelligent player ought to think."
b) We bid
| Dealer | Responder |
| |
| |
| |
| Pass |
- LEN
- Dealer didn't know about the fifth club or the running spades.
- JOEL
- Both players goofed. over
3 , bidding4 seems like a good start. [I agree. --Jeff] Now it goes4 -4 -4 -4NT (DI because of all the cue bidding [I don't agree. It's still key card. --Jeff])-5 -5 -5 -7 . Alternatively if 4NT is keycard, then6 -7 . Opener should've bid out to7 after the jump to 6 on the actual auction. - JEFF UPON REFLECTION
- The point that opener's splinter with
extras might not be such a good idea has merit, but I think
the rule shouldn't be "don't splinter with extras," but
rather, "don't splinter unless you know what to do if
responder rebids 3NT." At first, I thought, "no problem.
I will simply pass if responder bids 3NT," but upon reflection,
I've changed my mind. Even a misfitting minimum like
In our methods, by the way, opener doesn't have the option of bidding
2 naturally. We play Kokish's methods over1 -2 , so2 is an artificial club raise, stronger than a direct3 . Opener could have chosen that, but the splinter seems sensible. This seems like a weakness in the methods, but perhaps it's not critical to recover a 4-4 spade fit when on for a club grand.Upon reflection, it seems to me that if opener should drive to slam opposite responder's 3NT rebid, then he really ought to bid the grand if responder cues and then jumps. On the other hand, responder could have made it much easier; instead of jumping to
6 , he could have bid 4NT and then 5NT. Opener, reassured that the trump ace is not offside, could then drive to the grand. I like this auction:
The only reason for opener to show theDealer Responder 1 2 3 4 4 4NT 5 5NT 6 7 Pass 7 might be sensible to prevent partner's perpetrating the dreaded slow 6NT.
Jeff Goldsmith, jeff@gg.caltech.edu, Jan. 16, 2005