| Board 3 South Deals E-W Vul |
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West opens 1C; East responds 1H. West has a nice club suit but the hand is, at best, on the high side of a minimum -- 14 hcp including a stiff Queen. West rebids 2C and 3NT by East should end the bidding. South leads a fourth-best spade for lack of anything better, but that allows declarer to risk the diamond finesse for at least +660. The recap shows 6C making but I see no obvious line for that.
| Board 8 West Deals None Vul |
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North opens 1C; South responds 1S, planning to rebid in diamonds. West does not have a sound overcall but at matchpoints I'm sure 2H was a popular choice. North raises spades. East can assume N/S have the values for 4S; there seems little point in bidding 4H and there isn't enough shape to justify sacrificing at 5H. South should clearly bid game; might there be enough for slam? Try visualizing: opener might have Qxxx xxx x AKJxx, for example. You don't want to assume such perfect cards but it reasonable to make some sort of slam try. One possibility would be a 4H self-splinter; a jump by opener could by agreement show shortage since with a 5-5 hand South could bid and rebid hearts, but I wouldn't risk 4H here without prior agreement. 3D initially sounds like a game try, but that's OK -- if partner accepts by bidding 4S then South can continue beyond game. North has four trumps (opener may sometimes raise with only 3), can ruff a diamond and has nice clubs, but the hand is minimum in high cards. North makes a "counter-try" of 3H, suggesting South bid game if values in hearts will be useful. This does little for South opposite the singleton so South settle for game. Twelve tricks seems to require the 2-2 spade split, finessing in clubs and finding the Ace of hearts with West.
| Board 22 East Deals E-W Vul |
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West opens 2C in third seat; North should come alive with his strong 6-5 hand and the favorable vulnerability. 3D to start with followed by spade bids up to 4S looks right. What are you agreements over interference? The classic approach would be double for penalty, pass for weakness, bids natural and forcing to game; East should bid with about six hcp and a fair suit rather than be shut completely out. This is a queen or so lighter than the usual slam-positive response without interference. A more "scientific" scheme would be double = 0-3 hcp, pass = 4-6, bid with 7+; this gives up the ability to specifically suggest a good hand for defense in exchange for better definition of strength. In any case, pass looks best here -- East does not want to bid 4C and pass up 3NT, nor is it clear to double for penalty. Pass is 100% forcing -- we don't allow them to play a contract undoubled after our 2C. South has nothing to say; West would double with a more balanced hand but here it must be right to bid hearts. North continues with 3S or, better, 4S. Over 3S East will support hearts and then double if North bids again. Over 4S East must guess whether to bid 5 or double North. It seems unlikely E/W will bid slam unless East has the opportunity to bid clubs, and even so 12 tricks depends on the club finesse.
| Board 27 South Deals None Vul |
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South opens 2C and North responds according to system, 2D negative (0-7), 2D waiting (0+), 2D semi-positive (promising at least King or perhaps two Queens, forcing to game) or 2H (steps, 4-6 hcp, forcing to game.) South has ten tricks in hand but need not jump -- a new suit by the 2C opener is forcing. Possible auctions:
2C-2D (negative, waiting or semi-positive)
3H-4C
4D-4H
pass
Opener sets the suit and asks for cue-bidding, then makes one more try with 4D, but should pass over 4H trusting that responder would continue with a better hand, such as the King of spades along with the Ace of clubs.
2C-2H (4-6 hcp)
3H-3NT
?
The steps response crowds the bidding, as it often does, but also lets opener know that responder cannot have both an Ace and a King or two Aces. Slam, then, requires something like AJx in either minor. This would be hard to diagnose; I would give up on slam unless I hoped for a swing such as in a team game against better opponents.
Three pairs (including mine) overbid to slam; one more stopped at 5H despite missing only one key card. As always, the most important question is "Do we have 12 tricks?" Only after establishing that does it makes sense to ask "Do we have two likely losers?", which Blackwood or Key Card attempts to answer.
RKCB theory question:
If you play RKCB (regular or 1430), what do you make of this auction: 2C-2H (steps); 4NT ? In standard methods the equivalent auction 2C-2D; 4NT would NOT be any form of Blackwood; opener has merely shown a huge balanced hand with 28-30 hcp, too strong to rebid 3NT. Playing steps, however, the 2H response creates a game force, so a 28-30 hand could simply rebid 2NT, then surprise partner by continuing over a game bid. My partner intended this as RKCB for hearts, the "last suit bid", but as 2H was artificial I did not assume such. There could be a problem setting hearts before asking, however; a jump in hearts would be to game and sound like a sign-off. There is some logic in this sequence to using 4NT to ask about hearts, but don't try this without discussing it first. I think a better solution would be to agree that when the 2C bidder bids a suit and immediately follows with 4NT, it asks about his suit, not "last suit." Example: 2C-2S (7-9); 3H-3S (both natural); 4NT. Since there is no room for opener to set either major as trumps before using 4NT, which will be more useful? With hearts as trumps the King and Queen of spades may not be important; but if spades are trumps the King and Queen of hearts, filling in opener's suit, are still apt to matter. So it could make sense to agree that 4NT asks about hearts but opener could be planning to play in either suit.
Some players avoid all this by using regular Blackwood unless a suit has clearly been agreed.
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