[hrothgar]

The Hog and I had a less then auspicious outing in tonight's Abalucy tournament. However, the following hand might be interesting.

You hold the following VERY nice hand

2
AKJ8
AJ83
AKQ6

When your slightly unbalanced partner opens 4S in first seat.
What is the best way to intelligently investigate slam?

Answers tomorrow!

[inquiry]

Richard didn't say, but the 4-Spade opener was first seat vulnerable verus non-vul at imps. If that is at all relevant for your bidding decision.

Ben

[Laird]

Hello All

My simple minded approach would be to say 4nt Blackwood asking for Aces ... if the answer comes back 5c then can bail out in 5s...if it comes back 5d then chance 6s as you have likely only 4 spade cards outstanding and if they are 2:2 they will fall in 2nd round?
Partners likely distribution 8,3,2,0 - 8,2,2,1 so communication between both hands likely by ruffing ?

Look forward to seeing the correct answer!

John :-

[badderzboy]

If we're vunerable my ptr should be looking for two winners then my spades should be pretty robust and 10+pts and 7/8+ of them (in ACOL) so I would use RKCB to find out the composition of the spades...

We have three key cards so...
5C 0 keycards - rebid 5S no chance of more...
5D 1 Keycard - Ptr should have queen for opening but has he the DK? bid 5NT ask for kings if yes then 6NT if no drat 6S and plan to void ptr's D's before starting on Spades...

5H 2 without Q - bid 5NT ask for DK if yes then 6NT if no drat 6S and and plan to void ptr's D's before starting on Spades... as I should get 6S/3C/2H/2D discarding a winner somewhere along way to SQ unless she drops

5S 2 with Queen - Where's that 7NT card at counting 7/8S, 3H,1D,2C only prob is 4-0 split with Ptrs LHO but how likely is that...

I tend to be a bit of a gambler but is there a better way or system?

Steve

[Poky]

4NT as RKCB.

On 5C -> 5S
On 5D -> 6S
On 5H -> 6S
On 5S -> 7S (no 7NT on IMPs cause p could theoretically have [AKQXxx x xxx xxx], maybe )

Poky

[luke warm]

i think i'd just bid 6S ... pard's 4S should show a solid suit vulnerable and first hand (given my cards).. i'd rather have the lead coming to me, but can't have everything.. if pard opened 3S it might go differently, but i think 6 would always be in the picture

[luis]

5c, if he can't bid 5d then I just settle for 5s.

[inquiry]

I agree with what Ron (BBO knick The_Hog) bid with this hand (I was kibitizing). But without giving the answer, here is a question to answer that might affect your bid. What do you play an opening bid of 3NT as? Gambling with a solid suit? If so, can that solid suit be a major? How does such a consideration affect your bid?

Ben

[hrothgar]

For what its worth:

A 3NT opening shows a bad 4 level preempt in either minor
4C would show a good 4 level preempt in Hearts
4D would show a good 4 level preempt in Spades

The main inference available is that opener does NOT have a "good" 4 level preempt.

[Free]

I'll try for slam, but I'll be carefull. I won't go to 6S with 1 top honour, with AQ I'll go for 6S, AK same thing.

You have 6 tricks in your hand, and with this vulnerability and playing imps, i suspect partner has at least a 7-card S. A 3-2 break most probable.

I guess 4NT RKC S...

[hrothgar]

At our table, my partner decided to focus on the quality of my Spade suit. The Hog held 6 "sure" tricks in hand, so he needed to understand how many spade tricks that I could provide. Therefore, he decided to raise my 4S opening to 5S. Conventionally, this bid asks me how many trump losers I have in a spade contract. In response:

Pass would shows 2 or more trump losers
Six Spades would show one trump loser
A cue bid would show second round control of the side with no trump losers.

In this case, I had preempted on

KQJT986
x
x
JTxx

and we reached a nice 6S contract. Admittedly, most of the rest of the field reached the same contract, however, some of the other auctions seemed somewhat unconvincing. Then again, we came in dead last, so what do I know. :-)

[luke warm]

5S is a nice bid, given that conventional treatment...