[SimonFa]

Partner is weak but says she wants to learn and be challenged. The system notes we inherited from a mutual partner who has left the area included splinters and after mentioning them a couple of times I thought the time had come to give them a go, bearing in mind I had only used them once.

Playing 5-card majors I picked up this hand:

♠A
♥KJ97
♦952
♣AK872

R v W, MPs

Bidding started:

(P) 1♣ (p) 1♥
(p) ?

I thought long and hard about my next bid. A raise to 2♥ was on and partner is fairly aggressive, so we would be unlikely to miss game if it is there but what about the lonely A♠? Could this be the time to have a go at splinters even though I was a bit weak and didn't like the diamonds? What could go wrong I thought? Well if partner misunderstood I was sure we could get back to 4♥ and any learning curve has a few mistakes along the way so I took a deep breath and the bidding continued:

3♠ (p) 4♠ (p)

Ooops, or words to similar effect were muttered under my breath. Now what? Partner didn't alert so she obviously hadn't picked up it was a splinter and we were now way overboard. At this point I also realised that I might also have a UI problem, although at the club level and with these ops I don't think that was such a big deal. I reckoned I had two alternatives: 4NT for RKCB or 5H. As I had shown slam interest I suppose I had to follow through with it and maybe slam was on. Bidding continued:

4NT (p) 5♦ (p)
?

Now I had another another problem, partner showed one ace and if she thought we were in Spades she might not take 5♥ as a sign off, but what else could I do?

5♥ (p) 5♠ (P)
?

OK, so now she is either trying to play in spades of showing no kings but we can't stop in spades:

6♥ all pass

A bit of a disaster but never mind, if 6♥ is on we got there if it isn't then it was always going to a be a bottom once it went wrong. As it happens there was a slight outside chance.

I'll post the full deal later today but I don't want to get distracted by analysing bidding or if the slam could be made, but for now here are a few questions:

1. Is this the right hand to splinter? Looking at what the Bridge Guys say I reckon it is.

2. Did I have a UI problem after partner failed to alert?

3a. If I did have a UI problem did I handle the bidding correctly? If not how should I have bid?

3b. If I didn't have a UI problem how should I have bid?

4. At the end of the bidding I explained to Ops what had gone wrong, should I have called the Director first and explained in his presence? In hindsight I suspect I should as I believe Ops may have been allowed to withdraw their last pass?

Thanks in advance,

Simon

[gwnn]

The ethical stuff I'll leave to others to address, it's complicated (sorry don't have time right now).

I can only say that 3♠ is game forcing and you should reserve it to stronger hands.

You can either bid 2♥ or 3♥ depending on your style. I don't mind either, but slightly prefer 2♥ and like 3♥ on better hands.

[farrnbach]

I think your 3S bid was on the forward going side, but I think it's acceptable

Yes, you have an UI problem, if p does not alert 3S

I do not think, that you misused the UI and o would have a hard time to prove, that they are damaged by the lack of alert

Before o makes his first lead, I would tell them that 3S was a splinter and should have been alerted

[Zelandakh]

1) A 3S splinter in this auction shows a hand that is worth game opposite a minimum response. For me your hand is only worth 3H. A secondary thing to consider is whether you and your partner want to make splinters with a singleton ace. This is a complicated subject where there even experts do not always agree. Just an example to illustrate the issue, if partner has KQJx opposite a splinter it is usually just about the worst holding possible. Yet opposite a singleton ace it might be very powerful allowing 3 discards. This makes it very difficult to evaluate correctly.

2) Yes. You must carefully avoid taking advantage of knowing that your partner has misinterpreted your bid.

3a) I think 4NT here is less likely to wake partner up than 5H so I do not think you have taken advantage of the UI. After 5S you have AI that something is amiss. Your partner's 5S bid here should show 4 keycards and the SK, clearly impossible. So now you are allowed to try and work out where the auction might have gone off the rails.
3b) If partner really bid 4S over your splinter then they are denying a diamond control so, in truth, 5H is probably a better bid.

4) You did the correct thing. You were not allowed to draw attention to the irregularity during the auction.

[Phil]

You aren't good enough for 3♠, but I like the idea of using it in a non-serious game, since exposing partner to it will help you both develop, but I might mention afterward, "I don't think I'm good enough for this call, but I wanted to roll it out".

You should understand that your partner's lack of alert of 3♠ is unauthorized information to you and you can't rely on it. Nor can you draw any conclusions from partner's subsequent bidding based on what (s)he thinks key cards are. Still, what else can 4♠ be with a newer player? We are looking at the ♠A singleton, so its probably not a cue bid.

[Phil]

gwnn, on 2011-August-05, 05:36, said:

but slightly prefer 2♥ and like 3♥ on better hands.

[G_R__E_G]

With 15HCP, a singleton and half of the controls in the deck, this hand is WAY too good for a 2♥ rebid in my opinion. I think it's close to good enough to force game, but not quite, so 3♥ it is. And as it was said above, a lot of people feel that it's best to avoid bidding a splinter with a singleton ace. Whether you want to do it or not is more a matter of style but you should make sure that you and your partner are on the same page with it.

[aguahombre]

G_R__E_G, on 2011-August-05, 11:15, said:

With 15HCP, a singleton and half of the controls in the deck, this hand is WAY too good for a 2♥ rebid in my opinion. I think it's close to good enough to force game, but not quite, so 3♥ it is. And as it was said above, a lot of people feel that it's best to avoid bidding a splinter with a singleton ace. Whether you want to do it or not is more a matter of style but you should make sure that you and your partner are on the same page with it.

Agree with all this. However, the last sentence and two "heart" symbols in that post make me wonder who you really are

[gwnn]

I was wrong, this is a 3♥ bid. Sorry for any confusion caused by my previous post.

[VM1973]

The hand has maybe 5½ losers. As mentioned it's a bit light, but really what bothers me is the stiff ♠A. I'd much rather have the ♦A. The hand is probably worth a 3½♥ bid but they don't permit ½ bids.

At MPs I would only bid 3♥

[Siegmund]

3H-and-not-close in my book. Short on strength for the game force, and even when I do have enough to splinter, I am pretty strict about not splintering with a singleton ace or king.

[MrAce]

Phil, on 2011-August-05, 08:52, said:

Still, what else can 4♠ be with a newer player? We are looking at the ♠A singleton, so its probably not a cue bid.

4♠ should be something like xxx AQxxxx Qx xx , if pd had x KJxx Axx AKxxx instead of what he actually had, it would be an appealing slam, and with the original hand they could stop at 5.

I would not splinter with original hand though. It is clear 3♥ bid imo.

[chasetb]

Another 3♥ here as well. Your hand is worth close to 18 points, which is definitely invitational range. When opener splinters, (s)he should have 20+ points counting shortness (as well as a few 19s).

[Quantumcat]

Here are some things to think about.

When you know where you want to play, you bid it. If you don't, you describe your hand and see what partner thinks of it.

With your hand, opposite a weak-to-medium response, you are happy to just play in game, therefore bid it. If partner is better than weak-to-medium, they will continue on by themselves so you won't miss any slams.

Splintering is for when you want to invite slam - you have enough high cards to be in slam when partner has a medium or better hand.

You don't have enough for slam opposite a medium partner, so you just bid game and let partner make a move if he wants to.

Another thing to think about:

Splinters are a way to describe your hand so that partner can evaluate his cards better. Splinters carry the message "If you have no high cards in this suit and your high cards are elsewhere, your hand is better than it looks. If you have queens and kings (or heaven forbid, jacks) in this suit, your hand is worse than it looks."

With a singleton ace, you don't want to be telling partner that he may as well throw away his king in the suit! So splintering with singleton aces will usually make your partner mis-evaluate his hand for slam purposes.

[Cyberyeti]

Put me down for 3♥ too.

Splinters are always a good source of confusion, experienced player playing with novice opened 1♠ with something with 6 or 7 spades and no hearts, partner bid 4♥. Is this a splinter ? has partner even heard of splinters ? well he passed and played in a 1-0 fit.

[neilkaz]

3♥ for me, inviting game. This hand isn't good enough to force game, IMHO. Also, when I splinter with a stiff ace, I want something extra since PD may missevaluate since PD is expecting me to have a smaller stiff and not to have three losers in ♦.

.. neilkaz ..