| Board 6 East Deals E-W Vul |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
East opens 1C, West responds 1D, East rebids 1S. The natural bid for West would be 3NT (or 2NT, if that's played as forcing), but is 10xxx a stopper? I wouldn't think so if North or South had bid the suit, but with no such overcall I would gamble on partner having help or no five card length. East has perhaps an extra trick but not enough to venture beyond 3NT. As it happens, the Queen of diamonds can be ruff out so the suit provides an unlikely four tricks at a club slam. The field sensibly bid 3NT.
Many players are in the habit of responding 1H on a hand like West's. This is an extreme treatment sometimes called "Walsh"; the most common expert approach is to skip over diamonds only with less than game-going values. Others prefer a more up-the-line approach, bidding diamonds unless the suit is poor and/or the hand can easily be described by a minimum rebid in notrump. In any case, if it's your habit to bid a major before diamonds, be sure to check the box "Frequently bypass 4+ diamonds" on the convention card. No alert is required. When you do skip over diamonds, be aware that you can't show longer diamonds than hearts later -- a sequence like 1C-1H; 2C-2D; 2NT-3D suggests 5-5 shape, not 4-5. The logic of skipping over diamonds is that you expect to play notrump rather than search for a diamond fit, and that it may be advantageous to conceal the suit from the opponents. With four or five diamonds and a weak hand that's often true. But with six diamonds your best spot is probably diamonds, not notrump, and with 12+ hcp there may well be a slam, so I've never been convinced "majors first" is the best approach. With West's hand I'd be happy to raise hearts if partner bid them but I'd rather not mention them myself.
| Board 21 North Deals N-S Vul |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
North opens 1C; East should jump to 2D weak -- the vulnerability, shape, internal suit strength and high offense/low defense nature of the hand make up for the missing 6th trump. Some might overcall 1D but this is below the usual standard (typically 8 hcp) and, as the bid takes up no bidding room, seems pointless. If East passes South may have available a strong 2H jump. The bidding may proceed:
1C-2H
3H-4NT (Blackwood)
5D-5NT
6D-? South has five losers; length or the trump Queen are likely to cover one of those, and partner is known to have an Ace and a King. An opening bid can be expected to have at least one more trick so slam is obvious. Since there is no sure loser it's usually right to play in the suit contract, hoping for an extra chance at an overtrick; if there were 12 likely tricks at notrump and a likely loser, 6NT would be correct.
Playing RKCB, South can bid 5S over North's 5D to ask about the Queen; North replies "yes" and, depending on agreements, may be able to bid 6C to show both the trump Queen and the King of clubs. That doesn't make things any more obvious so 6H still looks like the best spot. Really, the key to the grand slam is four spade tricks, which would require South to show North the King of spades. Perhaps a 3S control bid before employing 4NT would be effective.
After a simple 1H response:
1C-1H
2H-2S (game try: at least 3 spades including one or two top honors)
4H-4NT (despite minimum values, North likes his spade cards)
5D-5NT
6D-6H or 7H -- South knows North has extras
After a 2D jump: (E/W pass afterward, though a 3D raise won't affect things much)
1C-(2D)-2H
3H-3S (control bid/slam try)
I prefer control bids on Aces and Kings rather than singletons or voids, where practical; this helps tremendously on hands like this where North's hand improves when South shows the King of spades. You can't always stick to this rule but here South must have a powerful hand and so would have other options with a singleton or void in spades. Continuing:
4C-4NT
5D-5S (one key card; Queen ask)
6C -- this normally shows the Queen of trumps plus the King of clubs -- but North has already shown that King. Perhaps this should promise extra values, inviting 6NT or 7 of something. Another possibility is for North to bid 6NT, under the assumption that South must have been willing to play at least 5NT if North denied the Queen. I really wouldn't expect to reach a grand slam in any of my partnerships but it's interesting to think about these bids.
Finally, for all the "1430" bidders: the point of inverting the 5C and 5D responses to RKCB is to leave more room for the Queen ask when the reply is one key card. I've been startled to learn that many players have adopted "1430" without the Queen ask! RKCB is designed to learn about six "prime" or "critical" cards: the four Aces and the King and Queen of trumps. The idea is that slam will usually be poor (worse than a finesse) if you are missing any two of those six cards. "1430" adds several pitfalls and complications that, on balance, make it worse than plain RKCB in my opinion; if you don't use the Queen ask, there is no reason to play "1430" at all!
A "1430" auction:
1C-1H
2H-4NT
5C-5D ( 1 or 4 key cards; Queen ask)
6C-6H (Q of hearts + King of clubs)
Well, no help this time. But sometimes a 5H reply to 5D, denying the Queen, would allow stopping at 5H, while the "0314" scheme might land you in 5NT or hoping for a 2-2 split at 6H. On the other hand:
(1) When the weaker hand is asking, the "0314" scheme is often better.
(2) If the opps interfere over 4NT, how do you handle it? An online poll showed that half the players using "1430" thought double of interference equaled the first step, 1 or 4, while the other half assumed that DOPI means double = 0, pass = 1, same as usual. Adopting "1430" with no discussion of interference is a disaster waiting to happen. I recommend that DOPI means what it says; there is no space difference between double and pass so there is no reason to invert the responses. But if you choose to do so, don't check the DOPI box, write "DFPS" instead -- Double First step, Pass Second.
One pair bid 7H and the rest 6H; not often the entire field bids slam. All took the obvious 13 tricks. On this occasion 6NT would've been better than 6H, but with only 30 hcp that would be difficult to find.
| Board 26 East Deals Both Vul |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
East opens 1H. A strong jump to the three level doesn't leave much room for figuring out where to play, so it's sound policy to avoid such jumps on a hand with a side suit. On the other hand a 2/1 response promises a better hand than a nebulous one bid, so there is less need to jump. West responds 2D. East jumps to 3H; while the scattered side cards are of dubious value, one or two of them are likely to be useful and so the hand is clearly worth more than seven tricks. West doesn't want to risk being passed at 3NT; a 3S bid, whatever it means, keeps the ball rolling. (3S should be assumed to be a notrump stopper; East is unlikely to skip over a spade suit for the jump.) East repeats the hearts and now West can proceed with 4NT. East replies 5D (one Ace) or 5S (two key cards + Queen). West should now bid 5NT to confirm all the Aces or all six critical cards. East can now assume his hand is worth at least eight tricks and reasonably bid 7H, planning to ruff a diamond if needed to set up the suit. If East merely replies "no Kings", West is strong enough for 6NT, which may be safer and/or higher-scoring than 6H.
Another rare everyone-in-slam hand. Most pairs reached 6NT, so 6H scored poorly.
No comments:
Post a Comment