Thursday, August 4th 2011

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Forcing Minor Raise -- Board 6: South opens 1D and North has a prime 14 count with six card support.  North can count two points for the long suit with a known fit and perhaps one or two more for his doubletons, as South may be able to pitch a loser or two. Call it 17 in value, enough to invite slam but not enough to insist on it opposite a minimum. Oddly, many players lack a method of establishing partner's minor suit as trumps and then exploring for slam. Most of the time you'll have another suit to bid, so such hands are rare, but missing a good slam or going down in a bad one would be quite frustrating.

Let's confirm North's slam interest with visualization: can we construct a balacned 12 point hand that would make slam a virtual laydown? Try KQxx xx Kxxx Axx opposite North's Ax Axx AQ109xx xx -- 11 top tricks, ruff a heart for 12 (after conceding a heart), and pitch a club on the Queen of spades to avoid a  loser there. If North drives to slam, South may have a less suitable 12 count and the cotract may have no play. But if North can invite slam and South accepts, there are many more hands that will make 12 tricks. So inviting slam is justified. However, if the combined values don't add up to 6D, North would like to play 3NT or at least 4NT unless the clubs are wide open. That adds to the complication -- if North can establish a game force with a diamond fit, any 4NT bid is sure to be interpreted as Blackwood or a Key Card asking bid. And yet it is nearly impossible to suggest slam in a minor below 3NT -- all the bidding tools are aimed at the all-important 3NT game.

As a practical matter, North should probably settle for 3NT at matchpoints -- with only 14 hcp, the field won't be in slam and 3NT should score reasonably well. At teams, it would be better to try for slam and stop, if necessary, at 5D.

Now let's look at bidding tools. Some pairs may still play 1D-3D as an old-fashioned forcing raise, and I'd recommend that for far more partnerships -- simple, and reasonably effective. On today's hand South would probe for 3NT with 3S; K10xx may not be a double-stopper opposite a singleton, but then again 5D might fail on the duplicated values in that case. North lacks a club stopper and may as well cue-bid 4H on the way to 5D. South has a prime 14 count, control of the unmentioned suit (clubs) and is delighted to hear about the heart control, so I would expect 4NT (Blackwood), 5S (3 Aces), 6D, pass. South should bid the slam over 5H (two Aces) as well, and can pass a 5D reply. The only drawback to this method would be landing at 5D rather than 3NT at matchpoints.

More popular is 1D-3D as a "limit raise", inviting game but not forcing. Unfortunately, many pairs combine this with 1D-2NT not forcing, leaving North with absolutely no sensible way to bid this hand! Many would guess to bid 4NT (Blackwood or RKCB), and compound the crime by stopping at 5D if partner shows no Ace with the excuse "I was worried about clubs, partner." The purpose of Blackwood is to stay out of slam missing two Aces. (Completely unethical, of course, is the common habitof thinking a long time after, rather than before, using Blackwood, inviting partner to proceed to slam if he likes his hand. But pairs who bid this way make enough mistakes I try not to leat it bother me.)

Better would be to combine "limit raises" with a forcing 2NT and splinter raises: a double jump in a new suit shows game values, good trump support, and a singleton or void in the suit jumped. Many play splinters over a major but they are also useful over minors. "Game values" should be at least 13 high card points (enough for 3NT if opener has a stopper-and-a-half opposite the shortage), and trump support should be 5 or 6 cards with no side four-card major.

On today's hand Norrth has no singleton and so cannot splinter, but a forcing 2NT at least keeps the bidding open. Since 2NT generally denies a four-card major, South's rebid over 2NT can be similar to Jacoby 2NT over a major (Warning! -- non-standard method here.) South bids a new suit to show a singleton, which will guide North to choosing between 3NT and 5 or 6 diamonds. With a balanced 12-14 such as today's hand, South simply raises 2NT to 3NT. With a balanced 18, South can invite slam by raising to 4NT (quantitative, not Blackwood; 4C would be Gerber.) Finally, with no singleton but 5 or 6 diamonds and extra values, South can rebid 3D over 2NT.

After 1D-2NT-3NT, North must decide between a matchpoint pass or trying for slam. 4NT, quantititive, is a possibility (no suit has been agreed and it is a raise of notrump, so it shouldn't be Blackwood) but 4D confirms the fit, is a clear slam try (it would be senseless for North to suggest 3NT and then run from it in fear) and seems a good description of North's hand. South, having limited his values with 3NT, should love his hand and can proceed with Blackwood or RKCB or can cue-bid spades or clubs and the slam should be reached. Again, the drawback with this approach is that once North bids 4D, it is impossible to land back at 3NT or even, in most partnerships, 4NT. A look at the results shows 3NT scored 6 of 8 matchpoints (75%), 6D a full top, and 5D making 6 earned a mere 25%. So the reward for bidding slam was only 25% of the matchpoints while stopping a 5D cost 50% and 6D failing would likely have cost a 75% score. I think passing 3NT is the practical matchpoint bid.

For those not prepared to play splinters, a reasonable alternative is to use the jump shift in the other minor as a forcing raise: 1C-2D and 1D-3C. Actually, I'm such as fan of strong two-level jump shifts that I'd prefer to keep 1C-2D for that purpose, but 1C-3D would be fine, so "3 other minor = forcing raise." It is normal to show notrump stoppers after such a raise; South can bid 3S (suggesting a problem in hearts) or perhaps 3D (asking North for major suit stoppers, so implying a stopper in clubs.) North is essentially faced with the same 3NT-or-diamonds dilemma as above, and 3NT is the practical bid.

Finally we come to the popular "Inverted Minor" raise, which most 2/1 Game Force partnerships use. 1D-3D is 6-9 with 5 card support (just enough for 3NT if opener has a balanced 18 count) and 1D-2D shows 10+ with 4+ diamonds (and no major and no great length in clubs.) It is common to play opener's rebids of 2NT and 3D as minimum, not forcing; with extra values opener begins bidding stoppers (any new suit) or jumps to 3NT (keeping in mind responder may have a singleton somewhere.)

Today's South (looking at a good 14) can bid 2S or 3C over the raise; planning ahead 3C may be the better call since North likely cannot stop the clubs and may be stuck for a second bid on a good hand like today's. "Extra values and stuff in clubs" should delight North, who can proceed with 4NT followed by 5NT (all the Aces or all five key cards + the Queen.) But 5NT will prove disastrous if South is expected to show how many Kings he has, as his 6H or 6S reply will land the partnership too high at 6NT or 7D.

Better to get South to do the asking: 1D-2D; 3C-3H; 3NT-4S (an obvious slam try); 4NT-5S (3 aces) or 5C (0 or 3 key cards) or 5D (0 or 3 playing "1430"). The 4S cue-bid rules out 0 key cards and South can bid 5H to ask about the Queen. There are two popular methods of replying to the Queen-asking bid: first step = no, second = yes; or, agreed suit = no, other bids = yes, and any suit bid also shows the King of that suit. (I actually play cheaper of agreed suit or 5NT as the negative.) North shows the Queen but no side King and South signs off at 6D.

Well, that's a lot of discussion for one hand but it certainly would be nice to reach this good slam while avoiding a poor one on a day when South's cards are less suitable. "Inverted mnors" appears to be the winner, but 3NT scored 75% and for many partnerships the added complexity of Inverted Minors may not be worthwhile.

Side note: playing forcing jumps, how can responder make a "limit raise" ? Most of the time by bidding a new suit, then 3 of the minor, and for this purpose a good 3 card holding in the other minor is acceptable. For those rare birds such as today's hand with no rational side suit to bid, just force to game with 12 and make a simple raise with 11 -- opener likely has only 12 or 13 hcp and you won't have enough for game; even opposite14 game is only about 55%-60% and stopping short is no great bridge crime.