Friday, October 14, 2011

Friday, October 14th 2011

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Board 14: East opens 1H on xx AQJ10xx AJx xx and West looks at Kxx xxx K AKQJxx. 6 clubs tricks and two Kings looks like at least 8 tricks, plenty enough for slam with a fit for partner; but West is short on "prime" cards (Aces and the King/Queen of trumps.) An immediate leap to 4NT (RKCB) will tell West everything he needs to know about slam, but could easily be down one if partner is missing, say, an Ace and two trump losers, or the spade King is under the enemy Ace. West should want to suggest slam below game level, and a strong jump to 3C is perfect. Opener should certainly drive to slam holding four key cards or three plus the Queen of trumps.

East has a minimum but a strong suit and good values in diamonds; a three level jump shift should not have a side four card suit, so East's most useful rebid is 3D, showing a concentration of values (5+ hcp in the suit.) This will assure partner the suit is stopped (for notrump) and controlled for slam (does not have two quick losers.) West revels his heart support with 3H over 3D; lacking a spade control, and having made one constructive rebid, East simply raises to 4H, which should end the bidding. As it happens 6C or 6NT by West are makeable, but only because the King of hearts is finessable. A slam requiring a finesse in a key suit is not a good bet.

Many bidders play 2/1 game force with weak jump shifts, so West would respond 2C. The game-force leaves room for slam exploration, but suufers from some ambiguity about responder's goal. East rebids the good hearts (no need to invent a diamond bid here) and West raises to three. East might simply bid 4H at this point, but West is unlimited and it would be better to give him another chance to make a slam try below game. A popular method is "Serious 3NT", where 3NT after agreeing on a major shows the values for slam, while a cue-bid instead merely shows a control with no extra strength. On that basis East can rebid 4D, showing his diamond control but limited values. Personally, I prefer the opposite agreement: a cue-bid shows serious intent, while a "Courtesy 3NT" shows a willingness to cooperate if partner cue-bids. (It seems wrong to me to give the defenders the benefit of further describing opener's hand when neither partner is interested in slam.) East bids 3NT on that basis and West can assume he does not have 4 "prime" cards and so signs off at 4H.

If West were to bid simple Blackwood at some point, he'll find one Ace missing and won't know the full situation in hearts. In that case, West should proceeed to slam, but 6NT is safer than 6H, to protect West's King of spades. If the hearts come in there will be plenty of tricks.

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