[olien]

At a recent tournament, my partner and I held the following hands playing 2/1.

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I was south and was thinking that my partner has to have values somewhere and clearly has short ♦ to bid 4♦ with no keycards. I could have bid 6♦ as a further probe, but if partner has ♣Kxxxx, the ♠K is irrelevant. The finesse in ♠ lost, and we lost 17 IMPs. Obviously playing kickback would have helped some, but we are an infrequent partnership and wanted to avoid any mishaps with kickback.

[masse24]

I like 6♦ as a "further probe".

You get the blame.

[Codo]

1. You explained 6 ♣ as: Heart Queen- King of Clubs with or without the King of spades. If this is your agreement, you should have asked for something extra with 6 ♦.
Yes Partner has few HCPS for his bid, but the great shape and the void are so big upsides that he was right to bid the way he did.

[broze]

I think you have to take a stand and open hands like that 2♣ or 2NT if you have puppet stayman available. That hand is worth well more than 21 HCP and you're not so 2-suited for it to be important.

EDIT: Just checked the K&R evaluator and it puts your hand at 24.4!

Therefore something like:

2NT - 3♥
3♠ - 4♦
4♥ - 4NT(♠)
5♦ - 6♠

does not seem unreasonable. Or,

2♣ - 2♠
3♥ - 4♥

followed by an asking sequence and 6♥. As you point out Kickback is most useful for this.

[gnasher]

I'd like to be in 7♥. With diamonds 7-4 the finesse is 60%, and ♠K might make West's hand too strong for 3♦ anyway.

If you want to find out about the black kings, cue-bidding would work better:

...-4♦
4♠-5♣
5♦-5♥
6♣

would make it fairly clear that you wanted to hear about ♠K.

This post has been edited by gnasher: 2012-January-30, 10:43

[phil_20686]

7H looks like a fine spot? You were unlucky to find partner with such a pile of mince for his 4d bid, but he is in a tough spot.

[TWO4BRIDGE]

When ♥ are agreed, I suggest using 4S! = kickback-RKC because it allows you to :
-- make a ♥Q-ask BELOW 5H or
-- make a specific K-ask with 5S ( thus allowing patner to bid 5NT with the ♠K .

So, on this hand:

1H - ( 3D ) - 4D! - ( X )

XX - 4H [ no further interference ]
4S! - 5C ( 2nd step = 0/3 )
5D ( next step = ♥ Q-ask ) - 6C ( ♥Q + ♣K, denying ♠K ; 5NT would show ♥Q + ♠K )

[phil_20686]

Yes you could pass over the dble then when partner xx you then bid 4s, partner will bid 5c and you can.... not sure how you will find out about the spade K tbh, I would bid 6c now, hope partner realises I need an extra spade control.

[aguahombre]

Dunno if 60 percent is the mathematical place to gauge a grand at IMPS. I thought it was higher. But, I would have been mildly surprised on this hand that the spade king was off.

[rogerclee]

I like your auction.

[phil_20686]

aguahombre, on 2012-January-30, 10:53, said:

Dunno if 60 percent is the mathematical place to gauge a grand at IMPS. I thought it was higher. But, I would have been mildly surprised on this hand that the spade king was off.

Its about 57% if opponets are 100% to be in small slam.

[Fluffy]

I also like your auction

[benlessard]

South should bid 6D (Ks ask) and it will be north to decided if QJT and a likely well placed Ks is worth a shot a 7. North hand could easily be same without the J of S

[AlexJonson]

I'd argue that if the length of your match is your lifetime, then maybe just blasting 7 is correct.

In short matches, -17 may be too much of a risk against typical opponents. Check it out and go for certainty.

However if the A/E game has become so tight and mathematical, go for it.

[aguahombre]

I would find it hard to determine when risking 13 by not bidding it is as likely as losing 17 by bidding it.

But, that's just me.

[AlexJonson]

aguahombre, on 2012-January-30, 14:40, said:

I would find it hard to determine when risking 13 by not bidding it is as likely as losing 17 by bidding it.

But, that's just me.

More like the game you think you are in - are your oppos risking -17.

[gszes]

as pointed out a couple of times 6d should be used to ask for
more info. The point if bidding 6d is that you want to go for
7 but need something else to make it happen. It also needs to
be fairly obvious. Your side has all of the key cards and trump
Q and club K yet p is still searching. You having a dia void
cannot be the key so the only logical solution to the 6d question
is do you have the spade K or no. If p needed queens they should
not have blackwooded but cue bid more:)

[olien]

When I bid 7♥, I figured I could gain in one of two ways:

1) Partner has ♣Kxxxx in which case the ♠K is irrelevant

2) Partner has ♠QJ and the K is with the NON-preemptor

I would break even when partner had ♠K

and I would only lose if I was on a hook into the preemptor AND it lost.

The full hand was as follows:

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As can be seen, E-W have an 800 point sacrifice into 1430. Our teammates did not manage this sacrifice, however if the ♠A was in the opposite hand, they were risking losing 13 (assuming we were in 6) vs winning 8 (since now -1100 vs -1460).

Broze, I find it contradictory to tell me that the K&R evaluator (which is a frequent reference tool for me as well) evaluates my hand as 24.4, and then suggest an auction beginning with 2NT. Also, the auction you suggested that begins opening 2NT assumes some non-standard agreements; it is not "standard" here for 2NT-3R// 3M-4X to be a cue-bid, but rather as natural.

The auction at the other table was:

---

Our teammates said that South never thought of re-raising and their auction shows how much harder it was for them when they opened 2NT. If they had opened 2♣, the auction would have continued (3♦)-3♠-(4 or 5♦) to me. I doubt that anybody would know what to do at this point beyond guessing. Opening 1♥ put us in a much better position to know what to do later on.