[scoob]

Scoring: IMP


Playing 2/1 with a pickup:

S - W - N - E
P - 2♠ - P - 4♠
all pass

---

North took A♦ and switched to Q♣. West makes 6 (♠ finesse).

1) is this a slam you would like to be in?
2) if so, how would your partnership bid it?
3) comments on this auction?

Thanks!

[whereagles]

1. No.
2. A 2NT relay seems fine.
3. Seems pessimistic.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

1) No, but I dont mind to reach a 50% slams
3) The auction was fine

You have only a chance to reach this slam with a
certain confidence, if you are playing straight
Blackwood, you are green versus red, and partner
would certainly open 2S if he holds the king instead
of the Ace, sometimes it may even be only
XXXXXXX and nothing on the side.

I doubt, that one can expect opener to move on, in case
he holds the Ace and stay out, in case he holds the King.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[luis]

1) is this a slam you would like to be in?

Yes because it makes.

2) if so, how would your partnership bid it?

I don't think we'll bid to 6, 2 keycards missing. No way.

3) comments on this auction?

None, all roads will lead to 4♠

[hrothgar]

The slam rates to be less that 50% on best defense...
You pretty much need 3-2 Spades with the King onside.
This isn't enough for me to want to bid a white slam

With this said and done, you don't always get best defense and this changes the odds quite a bit... With any lead but Ace of Diamonds and a Diamond ruff, I'd be happy to play 6...

Regardless, i don't see a convincing way to bid this... The J/T of Spades are crucial and you can't show them unless you're playing something special.

[SoTired]

I hold: Qxx AKQJx Q Axxx
Partner holds: AJ10xxx xx xxxx x
Would you like to be in this slam - No < 50%

What are the spade suits opener can hold?
xxxxxx - SLAM? No, 5S unsafe
Kxxxxx - No, 5S mostly safe (JS also)
Axxxxx - No, 5S mostly safe
AKxxxx - Yes
Axxxxx with AD - Yes
Kxxxxx with AD - Yes
xxxxxx with AD - No

Note: With Kxxxxx you have 1 loser when 1) partner has JS, 2) 2-2, 3) 3-1 with singleton ace which you lead thru
At spades, get 5 spades + 5hearts + 1club, + diam ruff = 12 if don't lose 2 tricks

So 5S is mostly safe. Seems reasonable risk to just bid 4N RKC. If opener has 2 keys, bid 6S.

[pigpenz]

i would be happy with 4♠ contract, seems again after reading some of the responses we get into again what type of hands does your partner open with two's with. If its 2/3 top honors then 6 would be reasonable but with alot of the other stuff that we see getting opened weaks twos with 4♠ is just fine

I know it is almost forgotten by most of us but when we were in our bridge diapers that is what we were taught six card suit 2/3 top honors at least if we had that then six spades would be more than 50% chance

[Winstonm]

For some it seems the determining factor would be whether or not partner got a good look into LHO's hand.

For the rest of us, no, not a good slam.
Won't get there; don't care.

[Chamaco]

Quote

1) is this a slam you would like to be in?
2) if so, how would your partnership bid it?

No, because we're off 2 keycards, but assuming better trumps (e.g. AJT753 ), you would need a tool to get to 6.

The key to geth there is for responder to have a tool to set trumps below game AND find out at least if/where you have a singleton.
In this hand the magic firt is found because of clubs Axxx opposite a singleton.

So one simple way to play (by no means I claim it's the best) is to use 2NT as feature ask for NT oriented hands, and 3C as asking bid for suit oriented hands.

Over 3C responder can rebid his major (or cheapest step) if minimum, otherwise bid his shortness (if any).

I am sure there are better schemes around, but this one is fairly simple

[luke warm]

1) of course i would
2) we'd never bid it
3) seems fine to me

[luke warm]

because it makes... i wouldn't want to bid it tho

[beatrix45]

(1) It's a 50% slam. Who cares? (2) With a pick-up partner, KISS (keep it simple stupid). (3) Your auction was perfect.

[FrancesHinden]

This isn't a "perfect fit" slam, as you don't need the club singleton opposite: if opener has AKxxxx responder can count 12 tricks barring a 4-0 break (or 5-0 break if you can open 5-card weak twos).

So if
a) partner usually has a decent suit for a 2nd in weak two opening, and
AKxxxx is possible

then RKCB by responder seems not unreasonable, and you then play in 5 off two key cards. But your auction is also OK; after all if partner has KJ10xxx xxx x xxx the 5-level is too high.

This could be a (3)4 or 6 hand if partner has, say, AJ10xxx xx xx xxx, but I don't know how to distinguish AJ10xxx and KJ10xxx in opener.

[cherdano]

FrancesHinden, on Jul 4 2005, 12:01 PM, said:

This could be a (3)4 or 6 hand if partner has, say, AJ10xxx xx xx xxx, but I don't know how to distinguish AJ10xxx and KJ10xxx in opener.

To me, this is the border between a "bad suit" and "good suit" response to Ogust. This makes particularly sense opposite 2 or 3 small (expecting one loser with the good suit), but may of course mislead responder to believe the suit is running when he has Q or K, when it is really on a finesse, so I am not sure whether this is actually optimal.

Arend

[easy]

I think the partner of the 2s bidder was very pessimistic.

My pard and i play that a 4c response over a weak 2 bid is 1430. That would have been my choice. when pards shows 1 countrol we are off 2 controls and i sign off in 4s. I like our treatment a lot because it allows for slam investigation without going pass 4 of our suit.
Of course using this treatment you can't make a control asking bid for clubs

[pclayton]

Although not quite as loudly, we also play a 4C response as rkcb. The responses are: 0,1 without TQ, 1 with, 2 without, 2 with. I'd certainly roll it out with this hand. I think this system came from "preempts A-Z".

[Double !]

Let's hear it for Keycard 4C.!


You could also get a sense of the quality of the spade suit by playing ogust or feature-ogust, or disciplined weak 2s where you know opener doesn't have Kxxxxx and a little something outside (as seems to be the trend these days). But that's just what the 4C treatment is for, so you're OK if P opened a less-than-disciplined 2-bid. n.b.: it's also used over opening 3-bids: a nice toy to have available to stop you from getting too high.

[Double !]

pclayton, on Jul 9 2005, 06:06 PM, said:

Although not quite as loudly, we also play a 4C response as rkcb. The responses are: 0,1 without TQ, 1 with, 2 without, 2 with. I'd certainly roll it out with this hand. I think this system came from "preempts A-Z".

I got it from Better Bidding with Bergen (Vol. 1, i think).