[shyams]

Scoring: XIMP

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This came up in the club the other day. South dealt and opened 1♥ and West overcalled 2♣. After that, N/S bid uncontested to 5♠, making 6 easily when East had doubleton ♠Qx
South - North
1♥ (2♣) 2♠
3♠   -   4♣*      * cue bids; 1st or 2nd round control
4♦*  -   4♥*
4NT -    5♥         4NT=RKCB
5♠   - all pass
1. Would you want to be in slam at IMPs?
2. Which bid/(s) were poor, and contributed to the missed slam?
3. Who (if any) takes the blame for missing slam?
In case it matters, the opening lead is a club (same lead likely vs. slam). 4 out of 9 tables bid to slam (of which one went down); the other 5 (incl. our table) played in 4♠/5♠

[helene_t]

The auction is fine. Maybe South would bid slam if he knew about North's diamonds but there isn't anything to do about that.

I would like to be in slam because it is almost cold on a non-club lead and still has slightly more than 50% on a club lead.

[hotShot]

I don't see poor bids, there is no blame to take for missing the slam.

But, North knows that that he has 6♠'s, South does not. There is a 40% chance that the ♠ are 2-2. So if North wanted to create a swing, He could bid a risky 6♠.

[P_Marlowe]

#1 yes

#2 the slam was missed, because South was bidding 4NT,
he did not know about the 6-3 fit, he had to fear a 5-3
fit, 1KC + the Queen of trumps missing => it was good
to sign of, so no bad bid, maybe except the 4H bid, see #3

#3 Maybe North can take over after the 4D cue, if he reads
the cue as the Ace, he should not bid 4H, he basically knowes,
that only the quality of the trump suit matters, so 4NT instead
of 4H would have been better, but ...
But the above is only true, if North can read the 4D cue as Ace.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[helene_t]

Suppose ♠Q is sec and diamonds split 5-1 (not stiff jack) and the short diamonds are with the long spades, can you make it?

[Jlall]

I would not want to be in slam. LHO is likely to have short spades, but I cannot hook righty for the queen since I need to ruff a diamond. Also as helene says you could go down when the stiff Q of spades drops on 5-1 diamonds. Also LHO never has 4 trumps so it's not like being able to pick up a 4-0 trump onside is going to help you %agewise. I would guess that this is <50 % on the bidding.

If you play keycard you recognize you miss slams that are ok sometimes since it's not a huge deal anyways even if you miss one that is on picking up this trump suit, and usually you arent solid in every other suit so it's worse than that (as here). It's not a big deal. You had a good auction.

[ONEferBRID]

Edit: I'd sign-off at 5S also....after the 5H reply.
From South's point of view, North could be missing the ♠A ... and the J.

That said, I think North should be the one to "go 4NT" after the 4D-cue by South
( no 2 quick losers and Diam as a source-of-tricks -- if that cue were the Ace and not a stiff ).
When South replies 5H = 2 - sQ, I'd stop at 5S also ( for the same reason as above ).

However, with a 5S reply, I'd go 6.

[gnasher]

I don't think it was a good auction. It was OK up to 4♥, but South had no reason to take control. He might have been opposite KQ10xxx Axx Qx Ax or K10xxxx Ax KQJx x, so the number of keycards opposite wasn't a particularly useful piece of information.

South does have a good hand in context, but he should just complete the description by bidding 5♥, and then pass 5♠ if that's what partner bids.

I don't think North should bid keycard over 4♦, either. He's more-or-less forced South to cue-bid. Can't opener have xxx KJxxx Ax Axx, or worse?

[jdonn]

I think south's keycard bid was fine, I'm not sure how much more he was supposed to have for a non-forcing 3♠ bid. Making another cuebid rather than bidding keycard could give north a guess about the ace of trumps.

If there was a questionable decision it was north's to push so hard in my opinion. His hand looks very nice but both his long suits are full of holes. There will certainly be south hands that make slam good but I don't think north will ever be able to find out for sure that south has one of them. But that being said the overall auction was ok.

[Fluffy]

hotShot, on Feb 1 2010, 02:41 PM, said:

I don't see poor bids, there is no blame to take for missing the slam.

But, North knows that that he has 6♠'s, South does not. There is a 40% chance that the ♠ are 2-2. So if North wanted to create a swing, He could bid a risky 6♠.

If nroth wants to gamble he can show spade queen with 5♠ instead of 5♥, not risk to bid a hopeless slam off 3 kecards.