[Kaitlyn S]

Hi - these problems should be very easy for experienced players but an I/N player needs to think about the right things in an auction. If you get them wrong, don't feel too bad as long as you understand the rationale for the answers. I'll provide the answers later but I'll put a hint as a spoiler. Try to solve the problem without the spoiler. Also, let me know if you would be interested in seeing more of these from time to time.

Assume you are playing Standard American (a natural system with 15-17 1NT openings and 5-card majors), IMPS, and nobody is vulnerable.

Assume you are playing Standard Blackwood, or RKC 1430.

You can use RKC 0314 but change the 5C call on Problem 3 to 5D.

1.

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Spoiler

5NT asks for kings. Is there any way out?

2.

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Spoiler

What does partner have? Is it possible that you can go down in a slam?

3.

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Remember - if you play RKC 0314, the bidding diagram should have 5D instead of 5C. If you don't know what I'm talking about, ignore this.

Spoiler

What contract is partner interested in when he bids 5NT?

[mycroft]

Nice Set Kaitlyn. Set 14, same hands (or maybe 1,2 same hands, 3,4, same hands w/o trump Q), one round earlier? Certainly the spoiler in 2 is "you should have thought of that last round, before deciding to bid 4NT." Maybe all of this is blue-for-advanced, but it's definitely one of my most common "can I ask you a bridge question" issues.

[Kaitlyn S]

mycroft, on 2016-November-15, 10:51, said:

Nice Set Kaitlyn. Set 14, same hands (or maybe 1,2 same hands, 3,4, same hands w/o trummp Q), one round earlier? Certainly the spoiler in 2 is "you should have thought of that last round, before deciding to bid 4NT." Maybe all of this is blue-for-advanced, but it's definitely one of my most common "can I ask you a bridge question" issues.

I must be missing something, because I feel like I'm well placed on #2. I'm sure if I missed something, I'll find out when I post my answers

I'm curious to see what you would have done differently on #2. I don't see a jump shift helping. Perhaps it would help in #1 if it elicited a mandatory control bid.

Since I am assuming a large part of my audience does not ask for key cards, I am hesitant to include examples where you need to find the trump queen, although excluding it on #1 seems immaterial unless you are also missing the ♦A with your 10-card fit. On #2 the trump queen could matter if you have all the aces but might not matter in the actual sequence.

[mycroft]

All in spoiler to protect the set (and because it's perhaps a little esoteric, and in these specific cases, it only applies if we're using keycard):

Spoiler

I wouldn't have done anything different in #2 (or #1). That's why I was commenting on the nice set - because you're well placed for all the answers.

My point was that your spoiler for #2 was "What does partner have? Is it possible to go down in a slam?" This is not a question that should be asked now; the question needs to be asked at 3♠. 5♥ simply gives us the answer.

"If I blackwood, will I know what to do after any response? Are all possible answers safe?" If the answers are not both "yes", look for a different slam try (perhaps even the Hamman Slam Try - bid slam, try to make it. The opponents have been known to make bad blind leads).

In #1, the answers are "yes, and yes - partner can't bid 5♠ as I have the trump Q". But if you don't have it, and partner bids 5♠, you no longer have an out.
In #2, the answers are "yes, and yes" - but if you didn't have the spade queen, maybe you don't know what to do after a 5♥ response. Is there a better way to get to slam on #2, if you don't have the Q? Yes, cue 4♥ and hope partner can Blackwood.

My "most common question" from flight B is "I keycarded and found out we were off 1. Should I go?" To which the answer is "Yes. Always." "But I don't know if..." "Then you shouldn't have keycarded. You need to find a different way to look for slam."

Yes, I'm ignoring the useful-void-showing responses. La la la I can't hear you :-)

[Kaitlyn S]

Answers: (more advanced material is in blue; I am assuming any key-card discussion is more advanced)

1.

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Hint: 5NT asks for kings. Is there any way out?

Answer: You were hoping that partner had at least three aces for his raise to 3D. Four aces would give you 13 top tricks in 7NT; 3 aces would make a diamond slam (6NT is probably okay but why risk going down on a club lead if you're missing an ace and the ♣K or the ♣AQ? East can double 6NT for a club lead in that situation. If you're curious, look up Lightner Double.)

Sadly, partner only has two aces so you can't make any slam, 5NT asks for kings, and you are past 5D. Fortunately, there is a way to get out at the five level. Make an impossible bid, in this case 5S. You can't possibly want to play in 5S on this auction. What 5S says (and this is standard bridge) is "You gave me an embarrassing answer and I would like to get out in 5NT." Your partner should bid 5NT which you will gratefully pass. You should lose only the two aces, since the only way partner can have a 3D bid is to have great clubs. It is possible that someone might lead from ace-jack in a major suit, and you'll have to lose an ace in a minor suit to East who will lead the major back, but that would be very unlucky. However, staying at the five level is the only hope for a reasonable contract missing two aces, barring the unlikely event of partner having a void. I certainly would not bid 6D hoping for a void or a defensive mistake.

The recommended call is 5S.

Some of you play Roman Keycard Blackwood where the next step asks about the queen of trump. You may be asking why the 5S bid requests partner to bid 5NT and does not ask about the trump queen. The answer is that your 5H bid already denied the trump queen so there is no sense in asking for it; the next step (that can't be a final contract) only asks for the trump queen over a 5C or 5D response. If you play standard Blackwood, you should ignore this entire paragraph.

2.

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Hint: What does partner have? Is it possible that you can go down in a slam?

Answer: Wow - you have 22 HCP (23 points counting length) and your partner showed 16-18 points. Sounds like you have a grand slam - but let's check and make sure we're not missing an ace.

Surprise! Partner only shows two aces, so the opponents do have an ace. We thought we had about 39 points but the opponents have an ace. Surely we must have everything else. Before bidding 6S, let's ask ourselves what could possibly go wrong if we are only missing an ace?

Hmm - somebody might get a ruff. Perhaps West has a singleton and East has either that ace or the trump ace. It's not likely but why take the chance? I suppose there is also the off-chance that someone has all the missing trumps and you can't avoid a trump loser and the ace.

When we think of what could go wrong, the solution is just around the corner. Partner has virtually all the missing high cards except the missing ace so 6NT should be easy - just give up the ace and take 12 tricks.

What does partner have is a more advanced question involving visualizing partner's hand. They showed 16 points but only with you having 22 HCP The opponents have an ace so partner has at most 14 HCP and must get the rest of his 3S bid from shortness which is almost certainly a singleton diamond. (It's pretty hard for him to get 14 HCP with a singleton heart and an ace missing.) So partner has something like: S-Axxx H-KJx D-x C-AJxxx. As you can see, you won't make 6S if West has ♠JTxx but can make 6NT. Or partner could have S-AJxx H-KJx D-A C-JTxxx or S-JTxx, H-KJx, D-A, C-AJxxx where a club ruff will set you but again 6NT makes by promoting the suit missing the ace.

3.

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Remember - if you play RKC 0314, the bidding diagram should have 5D instead of 5C. If you don't know what I'm talking about, ignore this.
Hint: What contract is partner interested in when he bids 5NT?

Answer: If your partner was only interested in a small slam, he would have bid 6C. Partner must be interested in a grand slam if you have enough kings. This means that partner has all the aces. Partner can't be worried about trump quality since partner plans on bidding a grand slam if you show the right number of kings. Or the right king if you play specific kings. Again, if you haven't heard of specific kings, don't worry about it. I haven't played them either

Since partner is looking for a grand slam and you have no aces, he must have all of them. In fact, when your partner asks for kings, he is promising that your side has all the aces and giving you permission to bid a grand slam if you have an undisclosed source of tricks that would make up for a missing king; i.e. you think there are thirteen tricks. Your partner has the SA, the HA, the DA giving you six diamond tricks, and solid clubs missing the king. If partner has five clubs or a king, you can count thirteen tricks in notrump, and 7NT is a reasonable bid, which will need a heart finesse if partner has only four clubs and no king.

However, 7C might be the right contract. Partner knows he is giving you permission to bid a grand slam with a source of tricks, and partner may be asking for kings with something like S-Axx H-Axx D-Axx C-AQJx hoping that you will bid the grand slam with solid diamonds, and settling for 6NT otherwise. You will need a spade ruff for your thirteenth trick to avoid a heart finesse.

I would probably choose 7NT since partner might have C-AQxxx and a side king where you have a shot to make 7NT but a club loser will doom 7C.

Take full credit for bidding 7NT or 7C. Take partial credit for planning to bid either of these after partner bids 6NT after your king answer. You only get partial credit because if partner thinks for a while and then bids 6NT, the director might rob you of a successful conversion to a grand slam.

Asking for kings gives permission to bid a grand slam. This means that you don't ask for kings when you have three aces and a void and partner doesn't show the other ace. It also means you don't ask for kings just to find out if 6NT is better than a suit slam. Partner's option to bid a grand slam with a source of tricks is too valuable to give up.

[MrAce]

Hand 1 is definitely not a good example for educational purposes. It teaches a sort of convention (5♠) while it grossly skips the bridge logic that teachers often fail to pass to their trainees. Hand 1 basically shows how to recover from a gross mistake that was made previous round. It is much better to teach them when not to RKCB and which cards to look at when pd invites to slam.

Do not use RKCB. Always ask yourself if the response can put you in this awkward position before you RKCB.

Make your slam try. If pd has 3 aces, he will go himself, if he has only 2 aces, he will be the one to ask RKCB and you will not need any mambo jambos after you already passed your safe level. This is important. NEVER refuse or deny slam invitations when you have too many keycards and pd made a slam invitation without them.

You are not even safe in 3 NT, let alone 5 NT. if pd has something like

x
AJT
xxxx
AKQxx

If you think this is not a 3♦ , you are definitely in great danger in 5 NT when pd has

x
AJT
xxxx
AKQJT

or

x
AJT
Axxx
KQJT9

[Kaitlyn S]

MrAce, on 2016-November-19, 20:20, said:

Hand 1 is definitely not a good example for educational purposes. It teaches a sort of convention (5♠) while it grossly skips the bridge logic that teachers often fail to pass to their trainees. Hand 1 basically shows how to recover from a gross mistake that was made previous round.

I agree. However I unashamedly included this problem because my audience here are not my students, but a group of people, some of which have been taught incorrectly, and others that self-taught while playing with other novices.

MrAce brings up a very good point that being that sometimes a slam should be bid without Blackwood. IMO many novice pairs would be better off not using Blackwood at all for a long time in their development. Their slam bidding judgment will improve much more quickly, and they will avoid many misuses of Blackwood.

What Blackwood is: A way to avoid bidding a slam missing two cashing aces when you've already decided that you have enough partnership strength to bid a slam if you are missing no more than one ace.

What Key Card Blackwood is: A way to avoid bidding a slam missing two cashing aces or an ace and the trump king when you've already decided that you have enough partnership strength to bid a slam if you are missing no more than one ace, and also not missing an ace and the trump king.

What Blackwood isn't:
- A way to see if you have enough strength for slam.
- A way to see if you can control one of the first two rounds of a suit.
- A way to see if you have a source of tricks that will bring the trick total up to twelve.

I'm sure MrAce could productively add to that list if so inclined.

There are many improving players who have not progressed beyond the stage where they want to bid a slam without using Blackwood whether they need it or not. If you are in this group, you should consider using Blackwood far less than you are using now. In a new partnership that I have some hope might last awhile, I like to start with the premise that in a given auction, 4NT is not Blackwood if there is another logical meaning for 4NT.

However, I am well aware that you are playing with human beings here on BBO, many of which are also of the mindset that all slam auctions must include Blackwood (especially the I/N's) and I would be really hesitant to assume that partner's 4NT was not Blackwood.

In fact, in a thousand or so deals on BBO, I have assumed my partner's 4NT bid was always Blackwood and was only wrong once despite the fact that I would have assumed that 4NT was something else in any regular partnership in many of the cases.

[Kaitlyn S]

dupicate post

[smerriman]

MrAce, on 2016-November-19, 20:20, said:

Make your slam try.

For completeness' sake, which bid is that? Assuming you cue bid aces before kings.

[MrAce]

smerriman, on 2016-November-20, 16:08, said:

For completeness' sake, which bid is that? Assuming you cue bid aces before kings.

Cue bidding aces before kings is one of the worst methods ever.

-It prevents you from learning early which suits you have 2 quick losers or it prevents you from learning early that you do not lose 2 quick tricks.
-It prevents making slam invitations and/or intentions.
-It prevents you to cue a major at 3 level for 3 NT purposes after 3♦ (So imo even the people who plays this awful method, won't deploy it at 3 level)

But even if you play aces before kings, 4♦ is forcing over 3♦, a slam path. 4♦ is not an invitation to 5.
There is also lot to be said about 4m being minor RKCB, which would have saved us in this particular hand. But it' also has a lot of downsides unless used properly. It's just another convention which I do prefer not getting into. Bridge logic and the thinking pattern is what I prefer to pass to my trainees.

[Kaitlyn S]

MrAce, on 2016-November-20, 17:02, said:

But even if you play aces before kings, 4♦ is forcing over 3♦, a slam path. 4♦ is not an invitation to 5.

While I agree with most of your post, I must say that if I dared to bid 4D playing with a novice (and that includes many unknown 'experts' in the Main Bridge Club), I would do it with great trepidation and would not be shocked that I was playing in 4D.

Actually if I was playing with a random expert in the Main Bridge Club, I think 4NT is the safer call. IMO, the chances that they know that 5S is a get out over Blackwood are far greater than the chance that they know 4D is forcing.

If I had answered first, my answer would have been to bid 4D if you can trust partner to know that it's forcing.

At this point, I should probably make a clarification. I believe that all of MrAce's advice is excellent if you are working on a steady partnership, or if you are playing with someone strong enough to understand what he is saying. His students, who are either going to play with his other students or decent players, are going to benefit greatly from his very sound advice.

However, I am assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that most of the audience for these problems are doing what I'm doing - playing with random players in the Main Bridge Club. While we are going to have the same answer most of the time, my assumption is that if you are a novice, you are playing with a stranger who is far more experienced than you are, and is likely to know the basics but isn't likely to be able to handle fine-tuned bidding, especially with few or no agreements. So while 4NT is theoretically the "wrong" bid on my problem #1, and yes I am fully aware that it is the technically wrong bid, I would bid it in the Main Bridge Club because if I concoct some other slam try I have no guarantee that partner is going to be on the same wavelength, or even that partner is going to bid over my forcing bid! I would be shocked if 4NT was passed. Of course, I wouldn't bid 4NT with a decent regular partner who will understand a more subtle slam try and will appreciate three aces and not much else.

However, if you are being helped by my problems and you are in a regular partnership who discusses things and really wants to improve quickly, you should take his advice over mine when we disagree. I'm not saying just because he's a better player, but because he is talking to partnerships where both partners are going to have a clue, while I am making no such assumption.

[akwoo]

I think playing with random strangers in the Main Bridge Club is a terrible way of developing your bridge skills. Get thee to a face-to-face club where you can find a regular partner, or at least someone you'll play with consistently for three hours. If you can't do that, put some effort into finding some regular partners in the MBC.

[Kaitlyn S]

akwoo, on 2016-November-20, 18:16, said:

If you can't do that, put some effort into finding some regular partners in the MBC.

I have. I have been in email contact with three new BBO friends discussing conventions, right before a month-long period of no time to play

My current work schedule makes forums okay (since I can start a post and finish it later) but playing bad as I might have to leave in the middle of the first hand However I was really lucky that I had time for a few hands, logged on, and lo and behold one of those partners was not only logged on but available

[MrAce]

Kaitlyn S, on 2016-November-20, 17:40, said:

While I agree with most of your post, I must say that if I dared to bid 4D playing with a novice (and that includes many unknown 'experts' in the Main Bridge Club), I would do it with great trepidation and would not be shocked that I was playing in 4D.

Actually if I was playing with a random expert in the Main Bridge Club, I think 4NT is the safer call. IMO, the chances that they know that 5S is a get out over Blackwood are far greater than the chance that they know 4D is forcing.

If I had answered first, my answer would have been to bid 4D if you can trust partner to know that it's forcing.

However, I am assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that most of the audience for these problems are doing what I'm doing - playing with random players in the Main Bridge Club. While we are going to have the same answer most of the time, my assumption is that if you are a novice, you are playing with a stranger who is far more experienced than you are, and is likely to know the basics but isn't likely to be able to handle fine-tuned bidding, especially with few or no agreements. So while 4NT is theoretically the "wrong" bid on my problem #1, and yes I am fully aware that it is the technically wrong bid, I would bid it in the Main Bridge Club because if I concoct some other slam try I have no guarantee that partner is going to be on the same wavelength, or even that partner is going to bid over my forcing bid! I would be shocked if 4NT was passed. Of course, I wouldn't bid 4NT with a decent regular partner who will understand a more subtle slam try and will appreciate three aces and not much else.

I think your educational posts are very helpful, useful.
And believe me, when it comes to teaching bridge, I rarely make this kind of compliment. Not that I am such an authority whose compliments matter, but I spent long time doing this job and I believe I have the experience to recognize something valuable on this subject when I see one.
But, imho, you should not limit down your teachings here to the "how to be successful with the BBO main bridge club random partners"
There will be many people, who does not even know BBO and googled and searched something that google will bring here. As I said before, you are doing a great job, you are not doing it professionally, I am guessing you are doing it because it gives you satisfaction and/or happiness to help people who needs it. Don't let the main bridge club players and their average decide your limits. Even though this forum belongs to BBO, it still has a lot of valuable content that has nothing to do with BBO.

[NickRW]

Kaitlyn S, on 2016-November-20, 17:40, said:

...IMO, the chances that they know that 5S is a get out over Blackwood are far greater than the chance that they know 4D is forcing...

You're probably right. But it is sad commentary on the state of affairs.

The one crumb of comfort that I take out that is that this appears to not just be a British disease.