[CSGibson]

Your rag-tag team has played its way into the field of 64, and now gets to face the 8th seeded Jacobs team in the first round of the Vanderbilts as your reward for not being eliminated in a 4-way. Just to prove that computer hands are no stranger than hand-dealt, you have the following slam decisions dealt to you:

1.

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This first hand, partner opens an intermediate 2 bid, showing 9-14 HCP, and 6+ hearts. You bid a natural and forcing 2♠, and partner rebids 2N to show a hand with at best Jx of spades. 3♦ is natural and forcing, and 3♠ probably shows a small doubleton spade. 4N is keycard, and 5♣ shows 1, with the redouble showing first round control of clubs. If you bid 5N now, partner will give you specific kings. Alternatively, you can bid 6♦, which ostensibly asks for a 3rd round diamond control, though there is a small but very real chance partner will assume that you are making an offer to play and pass.

Do you explore for grand, bid grand, or settle for small slam here? Are there any previous calls that you particularly despise?

2.

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How would you go about exploring this hand? Any strong feelings about whether this hand should have been opened first seat? Partner's 2C bid could be a 20-21 balanced hand, a 24+ HCP balanced hand, or any unbalanced hand that would normally open 2C in 2/1 style bidding.

3.

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This was the most spectacular hand of the match, obviously. Your bid.

[cloa513]

CSGibson, on 2011-March-21, 23:33, said:

Your rag-tag team has played its way into the field of 64, and now gets to face the 8th seeded Jacobs team in the first round of the Vanderbilts as your reward for not being eliminated in a 4-way. Just to prove that computer hands are no stranger than hand-dealt, you have the following slam decisions dealt to you:

1.

---

This first hand, partner opens an intermediate 2 bid, showing 9-14 HCP, and 6+ hearts. You bid a natural and forcing 2♠, and partner rebids 2N to show a hand with at best Jx of spades. 3♦ is natural and forcing, and 3♠ probably shows a small doubleton spade. 4N is keycard, and 5♣ shows 1, with the redouble showing first round control of clubs. If you bid 5N now, partner will give you specific kings. Alternatively, you can bid 6♦, which ostensibly asks for a 3rd round diamond control, though there is a small but very real chance partner will assume that you are making an offer to play and pass.
No more than the small slam- expect a spade lead to get either a diamond ruff or loose one diamond. Partner shouldn't have honours in 3 suits.

Do you explore for grand, bid grand, or settle for small slam here? Are there any previous calls that you particularly despise?
Despise 4NT as keycard never use over a preempt- you were lucky with dumb opponents offering a double.
2.

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How would you go about exploring this hand? Any strong feelings about whether this hand should have been opened first seat? Partner's 2C bid could be a 20-21 balanced hand, a 24+ HCP balanced hand, or any unbalanced hand that would normally open 2C in 2/1 style bidding.

opening 4NT both minors is probably better.
now 4S- good two suits depends of course on bidding tools.

3.

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This was the most spectacular hand of the match, obviously. Your bid.

5H is sacrifice- partner is solid long diamonds with a spade cover and heart void and little else expect bad breaks all round. 4S could be dead -too hard to tell probably just loose 3 diamonds and their heart losers disappear on their long clubs and of course spades are finessed.

[gnasher]

Lucky you. When I'm the underdog I always get a series of balanced 9-counts.

(1) The auction seems to have worked out very well for you. I'd bid 5♦. If I can get partner to cue-bid ♦Q, I'll bid seven.

It's natural to criticise the 4NT bid, but the alternatives won't necessarily work well. After 4♣-4♥;5♦, there's some risk of getting to 7♥ missing ♣A (though it might make anyway).

(2) I'd bid 4♦, followed by 6♣ after partner's 4♥. I'd definitely have opened this.

(3) 3NT shows a good hand, but there's no guarantee that he has ♣A. I'd try 5♠, followed by 6♥.

[kgr]

gnasher, on 2011-March-22, 04:33, said:

(1) The auction seems to have worked out very well for you. I'd bid 5♦. If I can get partner to cue-bid ♦Q, I'll bid seven.

Is 5♦ no longer asking ♠Q after the pass on 5♣X? Is that a clear agreement you have?

[gnasher]

kgr, on 2011-March-22, 06:55, said:

Is that a clear agreement you have?

No

[Fluffy]

I feel pesimistic today, I'd bid 6♠ only on hand one, where lack of ♥A makes it very hard to reach 13 tricks, and even 12 could be too many.

On second one 4♦ not its clear, only way to show 2 suiter is to bid both suits, and better start right now. The bidding won't be very scientific I'm afraid.


The third one whatever might work, I'd try 6♥ directly, the lead will be very important most likelly and LHO will be hopefully lost in the dark.

[akhare]

1) 6♠ unless you are desperate
2) 4♦ unless I have something fancy available
3) 6♥ -- might make or induce a lesser team into the phantom 6♠ . Oh wait, it's the Jacobs team, but still 6♥...

[wyman]

6♦
4♦
6♥

[straube]

6S
4D I would open
5H

[dcohio]

On hand 2 I'd have opened, but that ship has sailed. In this auction is 4NT pick a minor? If so, I'll bid that and raise whatever he picks to 6.

[whereagles]

1. Since opps are a better team, you can try a flier at 7. Maybe you find good cards across, maybe it's hopeless. Who knows?

2. 5NT. If this might be misinterpreted, 4♦ and follow up with 6♣ over the expected heart bid by pard.

3. 6♥. Same reasons as 1.

[CSGibson]

I'm going to give what happened at the table:

Hand 1 - I just bid the small slam. Partner had

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. They led a club, as requested, and RHO only had two diamonds but couldn't overruff the 7 of spades, so we made 7 for a push.

Hand 2 - I decided that 4♠ would show a minor two suiter with slam interest. Partner bid 4N, and I bid 6♣ in an attempt to avoid an accident. Partner corrected to 6♥ with

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, and it rolled on a diamond lead. The bidding sequence gained 11 imps when it disuaded RHO from leading his singleton club.

Hand 3 - I just bid 7♥, figuring that partner had a running minor, and that he might either have Jx of hearts, or the ace of clubs, and they would probably not lead the right thing as long as I kept the auction uninformative. Partner actually had

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, so slam rolled. They stopped in 6 at the other table. In retrospect, I like my decision, but if I decided to get scientific, I would cue 5 spades to see if partner bid 6 clubs or 6 diamonds, and choose 6 or 7 hearts accordingly.

Unfortunately, winning imps on these slam decisions wasn't enough to even make the match respectable (I think we lost by over 150 imps), but it was still fun.

[cloa513]

CSGibson, on 2011-March-23, 01:30, said:

I'm going to give what happened at the table:

Hand 1 - I just bid the small slam. Partner had

---

. They led a club, as requested, and RHO only had two diamonds but couldn't overruff the 7 of spades, so we made 7 for a push.
How do you avoid still losing a diamond?

Hand 2 - I decided that 4♠ would show a minor two suiter with slam interest. Partner bid 4N, and I bid 6♣ in an attempt to avoid an accident. Partner corrected to 6♥ with

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, and it rolled on a diamond lead. The bidding sequence gained 11 imps when it disuaded RHO from leading his singleton club.

Hand 3 - I just bid 7♥, figuring that partner had a running minor, and that he might either have Jx of hearts, or the ace of clubs, and they would probably not lead the right thing as long as I kept the auction uninformative. Partner actually had

---

, so slam rolled. They stopped in 6 at the other table. In retrospect, I like my decision, but if I decided to get scientific, I would cue 5 spades to see if partner bid 6 clubs or 6 diamonds, and choose 6 or 7 hearts accordingly.
What they didn't lead a spade?


Unfortunately, winning imps on these slam decisions wasn't enough to even make the match respectable (I think we lost by over 150 imps), but it was still fun.

[matmat]

cloa513 said:

How do you avoid still losing a diamond?

by ruffing one with the second round with the ♠3 and the third round with the ♠7, which RHO is kind enough not to overruff.