[daveharty]

Captain Kirk's ready room was the scene of the latest fracas between Dr. McCoy and Mr. Spock. The unlikely pair had entered the Enterprise's weekly duplicate, with predicable results: the doctor's face was a worrying shade of scarlet, and the Vulcan's left eyebrow was raised to half-mast. They had come to the captain for arbitration.

"We were leading the room by a country light year until the last round, when this pointy-eared hobgoblin decided to set himself in a cold three notrump," snarled McCoy.

Spock raised his eyebrow another millimeter. "Simple logic, Doctor. An elementary analysis will demonstrate that playing for ten tricks via a repeating vice squeeze was a superior--"

"And then!" the doctor bellowed, pointing accusingly at Spock's chest. "And then, on the last hand, he showed all the backbone of a Denobulan water slug!"

This was the hand in question. Missing the cold slam had been costly; even 7S would have come home.

---

"How can he pass four hearts? Even on Vulcan, that's a four-loser hand!" The doctor threw back his Romulan ale and wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve.

"Your contention that I should strain to make another slam try when you are known to have wasted values in the diamond suit is irrational, Doctor. Surely once you bid past the potentially lucrative three notrump after I had shown a strong six-four hand, I must place you with a void or small singleton in spades--"

"What do you want me to do, you green-blooded fiend? Raise you with the stiff ace? You're the one with the club stopper!"

"Your references to my non-human physiology serve no purpose other than to illustrate your illogical dependence on insulting me when you have no valid--"

"Why you smug, emotionally-stunted excuse for a Starfleet officer--"

Kirk sighed; these two might be at it for hours. How should he split the Gordian knot?

[billw55]

That's a royal fizbin

[ArtK78]

I am afraid that you are dating yourself, Dave. But I enjoyed the presentation of the problem immensely.

[masse24]

billw55, on 2012-September-20, 11:41, said:

That's a royal fizbin

What are the odds of getting a Royal Fizbin?

[billw55]

masse24, on 2012-September-20, 14:12, said:

What are the odds of getting a Royal Fizbin?

I have never computed them.

[heyrocky]

billw55, on 2012-September-20, 14:21, said:

I have never computed them.

Astronomical.

[Vampyr]

ArtK78, on 2012-September-20, 12:21, said:

I am afraid that you are dating yourself, Dave.

Not necessarily; Star Trek was on in reruns during the early 1980s. Midnight on weekdays -- that was when I saw all the episodes for the first time.

[bigbenvic]

tough hand, I'd bid it a little differently than west.
1♠ 2♦
2♥ 3♣* 4th suit GF
3nt - Do you show 6th ♠ or ♣ stop? It's not clearcut and should be partnership based.
.....- 4♦ I'm interested in slam and have better ♦ that I've mentioned
5♠ I'm slam interested too and have 6 decent ♠ (stiff or void ♦)
.....- 6♠ I wouldn't be brave enough to try for Grand, it's been tough enough as is.

[ArtK78]

bigbenvic, on 2012-September-20, 21:44, said:

tough hand, I'd bid it a little differently than west.
1♠ 2♦
2♥ 3♣* 4th suit GF
3nt - Do you show 6th ♠ or ♣ stop? It's not clearcut and should be partnership based.
.....- 4♦ I'm interested in slam and have better ♦ that I've mentioned
5♠ I'm slam interested too and have 6 decent ♠ (stiff or void ♦)
.....- 6♠ I wouldn't be brave enough to try for Grand, it's been tough enough as is.

Given that this partnership is playing 2/1 game forcing (else the 3♦ rebid would be nonforcing, which is clearly not the intention), 3♣ is not "4th suit GF." Since the partnership has the ability to bid naturally at this point, it is clear that a 3♣ call would be natural, and that would be a gross distortion of responder's hand.

I find the 3NT call to be exceedingly strange. Why would opener bid 3NT with 6-4 in the majors and a club stopper of Ax? Partner has a game forcing hand. If 3NT is right, he can bid it over 3♠

I would duplicate the auction that took place. The 4♥ call should not be an offer to play in 4♥ - it should be a cue bid moving towards slam. If responder had real heart support, he could have shown it over 2♥. Instead, he rebid his diamonds. I admit that the 4♥ call does have a slight risk that opener will take it as natural, but it really should be forcing on this auction. Besides, why would opener want to play in a 4-3 (it certainly cannot be a 4-4 fit) holding KQJxxx of spades? If responder has a minimum game force, it is quite possible that spades will play at least as well as hearts, maybe better.

Spock should take the targ by the tusks and RKCB. 7♠ can be reached at this point.

Bones was right. Spock really wimped out on this hand.

[lalldonn]

I take 4♥ as not forcing and natural, just looking for the best game. x AJx AKxxxx xxx or something. But by no means do I think the actual combination is easy to bid anyway. I think west should bid 4♣ over 3♠ showing a strong raise to 4♠. But I don't think it's unreasonable for him to just bid 4♦ either (assuming you aren't one of those who would play it not-forcing!)

[SteveMoe]

I think an auction like
1♠ - P - 2♦ - P
2♥ - P - 4♦ - P ...
Might seem inelegant but gets the point across.
4♠ - P - 5♥ - P
6♣ - P leaves West well placed to avoid the Romulans...

[mike777]

Not sure what this star trek stuff is but I sense trouble with tribbles:

1s=2d
2h=3d
3s=4d(yes we have 7d)(pls dont tell me nf)
?
--

Option 2 is 4c over 3s agreeing spds.

[TWO4BRIDGE]

SteveMoe, on 2012-September-21, 16:00, said:

I think an auction like
1♠ - P - 2♦ - P
2♥ - P - 4♦ - P ...
Might seem inelegant but gets the point across.
4♠ - P - 5♥ - P
6♣ - P leaves West well placed to avoid the Romulans...

I like your 4D-jump.... setting trumps and asking for cue-bids (!) starting with the cheapest one:

1S - 2D ( 2/1 GF )
2H - 4D
4H! - 4S!
5C! - 6D

[SteveMoe]

TWO4BRIDGE, on 2012-September-21, 16:55, said:

I like your 4D-jump.... setting trumps and asking for cue-bids (!) starting with the cheapest one:

1S - 2D ( 2/1 GF )
2H - 4D
4H! - 4S!
5C! - 6D

I like your build - I was more inclined to finish the 6=4 pattern first...
Steve

[gszes]

alas poor doctor mccoy must have been imbibing too much romulan ale and his
thinking was off.

the key is the order in which spock opted to handle the bidding. By bidding hearts over
2d then showing the 6 bagger in spades spock was showing a hand with slam interest
(with weaker hands it is best to rebid spades then introduce hearts). Mccoy failed to
recognize this difference and bid out his own slam oriented hand as if it were like
void Axx AKJxxxx xxx. If mccoy had realized spock was showing slam interest the
very least mccoy could have done was bid 5s. Spock would have zero problems then
bidding 6c now showing interest in a grand. With spock trying for 7 missing 3 aces the
spade suit must be pretty darn good so mccoy should have little trouble bidding 7s
(a case can be made for 6d asking for 7n with dia help but that risks being left there in
a less well oiled partnership).

[SteveMoe]

How did Captains Pike and Kirk do in the closed room?

[masse24]

daveharty, on 2012-September-20, 11:25, said:

Captain Kirk's ready room was the scene of the latest fracas between Dr. McCoy and Mr. Spock.

McCoy's face was scarlet cuz Kirk had no Ready Room, so he was probably hanging out on the exterior of the ship.

Ain't no bridge discussed on the bridge of course.

And Spock's eyebrow (scientist that he is) was raised because he was curious how long McCoy could hold his breath.

[lalldonn]

The characters have lost me! But I hate having responder jump rebid 4♦. He doesn't know what strain he wants to play in yet, which could easily be anything but clubs.