[Phil]

The Grand National Teams for my district just wrapped up.

A month ago we choked in the "A" flight and blew a 14 IMP lead in the last quarter and lost.

In the Open flight on Saturday, we beat the best team in the event, but couldn't get it done in the final. Here's some of the more interesting decisions:

1. w/r: AKTxxxx, Q, JTxxx, void. (2♥) - ?

2. ATxx, void, AT98xx, KQT (opps are silent): 1♦ - 1♥ - 1♠ - 2♣ - 2♦ - 2♥ - 2N - 3♥ - ? (2♣ is 4th suit). Agree with the auction so far? What now?

3. r/w: KQ98xx, A, AJ8x, QJ

1♠ - (3♥) - 3N - (4♥)
?

[ArtK78]

1. w/r: AKTxxxx, Q, JTxxx, void. (2♥) - ?

2♠. I am tempted to bid 4♠, but I don't want to give partner the impression that I have a powerhouse hand. 2♠ will not end the auction, and I should get chances to either describe my hand or, at worst, bid 4♠.

2. ATxx, void, AT98xx, KQT (opps are silent): 1♦ - 1♥ - 1♠ - 2♣ - 2♦ - 2♥ - 2N - 3♥ - ? (2♣ is 4th suit). Agree with the auction so far? What now?

I would have bid 3♦ rather than 2NT despite my strong club holding. There is a very good chance that this hand belongs in diamonds rather than NT. Partner might have the right hand for a diamond slam - even a grand. It doesn't take that much. x AT9xxxx KQJ Ax would be an easy 13 tricks. If pard has a singleton or void in spades, a lesser diamond holding - as little as QJ - could be sufficient for a small slam. It is hard to get partner to support diamonds when he has 7 hearts. If partner doesn't support diamonds after you bid them 3 times, then you can trot out 3NT.

3. r/w: KQ98xx, A, AJ8x, QJ

1♠ - (3♥) - 3N - (4♥) - ?

4♠. I don't think slam prospects are that great given that partner has something in hearts. But I don't really want to defend 4♥x either. My spades are playable at the 4 level opposite a singleton 10 or higher or any doubleton.

I don't want to make a forcing pass on these cards since I don't want to defend 4♥x, and if I pull partner will take me for a spade suit playable at the 6 level, which I don't have.

[quiddity]

1. 4♠. I suppose this must be wrong or it wouldn't have been posted.
2. 4♥. With solid hearts partner could have jumped to 3♥ a round earlier, so I'm not worried about missing a slam. Even opposite a broken 7-card suit I think my prime honors argue for a suit contract.
3. pass (forcing). I don't know if partner has Ax of spades or a stiff, QT9x of hearts or Kx. Maybe his 3NT is based on a long strong minor suit, who knows? Anyway I have extras and I'm not sure what's right so it seems best to pass the blame.

[JLOGIC]

If my partner, who had heard me bid diamonds twice, and had already bid hearts twice, chose to rebid AT9xxxx rather than support me on KQJ, then a major lol to him! Same for QJ. Partner is going to bid 3D for you with those holdings art, don't worry!

Likewise, if my partner chose to bid his AT98xx a third time rather than bid 2N with KQT of the unbid suit on his fourth bid of the auction, especially when bidding 2N is much cheaper, then lol to him!

[JLOGIC]

Hand 1: Don't preempt over a preempt? I would be quite sad if this was some layout where 2S could get passed out though but it seems very unlikely. Partner trying/driving for slam over a 4S jump may be ok if we get lucky but often we will just be too high. This is a good hand for system; Joe recently taught me some system where 4D shows a strong 4S bid and 4S is just gambling in this auction.

Hand 2: 3 spades seems automatic, we have a fabulous hand for slam in hearts and it seems likely that's the direction we're headed in, and it also gives partner a chance to offer 3N which we should take with a heart void.

[Phil]

JLOGIC, on 2011-May-09, 13:57, said:

Hand 2: 3 spades seems automatic, we have a fabulous hand for slam in hearts and it seems likely that's the direction we're headed in, and it also gives partner a chance to offer 3N which we should take with a heart void.

Would you also take 3♠ as a chance for partner to bail out in 3N?

[JLOGIC]

Yes, the primary message of 3S is I'm not sure where to play. If partner self cuebids over that then I will be happy to cooperate, I like my hand.

[FrancesHinden]

What would 2H have meant over 1D?
What would 3H have meant over 2D?
What would 3H have meant over 1S?

In my normal methods, partner has denied a hand that wants to play in hearts opposite a void by not jumping in the suit earlier (for me, it would have been 3H over 1S). But if you think we have a great hand for hearts, you obviously play something different.

[Phil]

FrancesHinden, on 2011-May-09, 14:44, said:

What would 2H have meant over 1D?
What would 3H have meant over 2D?
What would 3H have meant over 1S?

In my normal methods, partner has denied a hand that wants to play in hearts opposite a void by not jumping in the suit earlier (for me, it would have been 3H over 1S). But if you think we have a great hand for hearts, you obviously play something different.

1. 1♦ - 2♥ is reverse flannery, so there's no inference available.

2. 3♥ after 2♦ would be a solid suit I think, since we are in a forcing auction.

3. 3♥ over 1♠ is invitational.

[awm]

(1) 2♠. Jumping seems more likely to get us too high than to miss a good game. I can always rebid spades later.

(2) 3♠. Agree that this is a good hand for hearts in context. We have already shown a 4x6x pattern with a club control right? We have at most a singleton heart, and other than the heart shortage our honor structure is great for playing in hearts (lots of controls).

(3) Double. We have multiple heart tricks and at most eight spades and extras. Certainly we could have slam here, but it will be hard to find and partner has at least some wasted values in hearts. I'll take my big plus score instead of hunting for an even bigger one that might fail.

[phil_20686]

On hand (3) I am tempted by a natural 4NT. Given the bidding its hard to beleive that partners hearts are better than Kx, and he doesnt have many spades, so I would put a lot of money on his 3N being speculative with a long minor and a single heart stop. On that basis 4S could be off on trump tricks when we have ten tricks in NT. Also if I bid NT now partner is likely to get the message when he was in a tough spot with AK-7 clubs or something, and he might guess to bid slam/correct to 5m when its right.

[Foxx]

(1) I don't feel great about this, but I would jump to 3♠ and bury the diamond suit. If we try to leave the diamond possibility open, we run the risk of the auction getting out of control. After the session, I resolve to sic a Domo-Kun on anybody who preempts against me.

(2) About the bidding so far, I MIGHT have bid 3♣ instead of 2NT. The operative words, are MIGHT have. That would leave open the prospect of playing in clubs on the off-chance that partner is, say, 6-5 with ♣J98xx.

At any rate, that has little matter now and I would raise to 4♥. With side-suit quick tricks, I'll count on partner to have good heart spots, and hope that he is ready to declare his butt off.

(3) Partner has a stopper in hearts and we have the ace? I'm doubling these turkeys. Here comes the Domo-Kun! RRAAAAARRR! Yeah, I know they're at favorable, but if we declare I don't know where we belong. Slam is possible, but doesn't feel too likely, and going on defense just feels more right with this hand.

[Phil]

Here's what happened:

1. I bid 2♠. LHO bid 4♥ and pard bid 4♠. Marshall Miles on my right bid 5♣, and over my 5♠, his partner bid 6♣, pass, pass. I saved which I thought was a great result, since 6♣ is on the guess for the A♥. I got a high diamond lead from a hand holding xxx, xx, AKQx,AQxx (dummy was QJx ATxx xx xxxx) so I could hold it to -1 which felt like a great result.

At the other table, Alex Kolesnik bid 4♠ with these cards. My teammate had a tough decision with the 3244 hand and chose 5♥ (lol) which can be made but wasn't.

I like Justin's idea, but that takes away leaping michaels, but 4♥ is a relatively free bid.

2. I just bid 4♥. I thought about 3♠ but I don't know how great this hand is. The primes are nice, but its a minimum and I have a heart void across from a hand that didn't jump to set trump. This time, I'm giving the charge to partner that held Jx AKxxxx Qx Axx. 4♥ isn't terrible - but a bad break (I don't remember where) killed it.

3. This was from Saturday. I confess I lost my brain on this one. I think a forcing pass is obvious in retrospect. Whether or not you should sit is another matter. I bid 5N and pulled 6♣ to 6♦. Pard held J, QTx, 9xx, AKTxxx and passed. Spades were 33, so 6♠ can make on the defense of a heart lead, and 6♣ can also make. However with these splits you crush 4♥ about 800 or 1100.

[whereagles]

Phil, on 2011-May-09, 10:56, said:

1. w/r: AKTxxxx, Q, JTxxx, void. (2♥) - ?

2. ATxx, void, AT98xx, KQT (opps are silent):
1♦ - 1♥
1♠ - 2♣
2♦ - 2♥
2NT - 3♥
?
(2♣ is 4th suit). Agree with the auction so far? What now?

3. r/w: KQ98xx, A, AJ8x, QJ

1♠ - (3♥) - 3N - (4♥)
?

1. Obvious 4♠ bid. KISS.

2. Would have bid 3♣ over 2♥, but 2NT certainly is ok. Now 3NT. Must tell pard his ace hearts are met with a considerable dose of skepticism

3. Dbl. What are they thinking of?? Expecting this to go a lot down on a trump lead.

(wrote before checking "solutions")

[Fluffy]

Hand 1: 4♠, the difference between 3♠ and 4♠ for me is ODR, we have very high ODR, we bid 4♠. Partner shouldn't go crazy over this.

Hand 2: Partner's failure to bid 3♥ te round before suggest 2 heart losers opposite void/small singleton, 3♥ could be bid with any decent 7 card suit such as KJ98xxx I don't wanna encourage any further moves and the only doubt at this point is to bid 3NT or 4♥. Our hand strongly suggests playing 4♥.

I would had bid a semi-nat 3♣ the round before to make it clear we have no interst in hearts, if partner insisted in hearts once more, I would have though something semi solid such as AQJ9xxx was there and make another move.

Hand 3: I don't think we have anything to bid except that we have extras, the way to show it is with a forcing pass, so that's what I'd do.

[pooltuna]

1] either 2♠ or 4♠ with a pref for 4♠
2]no I think a 3♦ rebid instead of 2NT then over 3♥ I would call 3NT
3] with partner having wasted ♥ values (for a ♠ game) sell out for 4♠

[MrAce]

1-2♠

2-3NT

3-Pass (F)