[thepossum]

Hi all

I recently had this hand as responder playing IMPs white vs white, opposite a 1 Spade opener.

How do people feel about the best ways to progress with this.

We have a total of 32+ points and despite my hand being flat few enough losers to consider slam in spades or NT. I wasnt sure how to progress and bid Blackwood immediately, receiving a 5D response and debated on going to 6NT or 6S missing possibly two aces, but decided to sign off in 5S+1

Sure enough 6S and 6NT make since we had the Ace of Spades. Other options I considered were Jacoby 2NT when opener follows up with 3D (short diamonds) then cue bids etc. However as far as I understand the cue bids it is hard for North to show its Ace of spades without it being a sign off

How would you evaluate this hand and chances of slam and what do you think are the best ways to bid and the best chance contract. I know I was being a bit cautious and on another day would have taken a chance on 6NT or 6S. Is the chance of 6 high enough at IMPs to take the chance

It was definitely one that got away

regards P

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PPS Undeleted. Sorry

[FelicityR]

2NT Jacoby. To lose two rounds of bidding with 4NT is just wasteful. At least explore at a lower level what partner's hand is. 4NT and partner's response can always be saved until later.

[Tramticket]

When you jump to 4NT you take out three rounds of bidding at one bid. This is three rounds that could have been used to find out more about partner's hand! You have the values for a slam so it might seem obvious to just check for controls. But maybe a grand slam is on? Or slam in another strain (e.g. no trumps).

Why not start by making a forcing bid to agree spades? Do you play a 2NT response as Jacoby? At the moment you know nothing about your partner's hand other than he/she has opening values and 5+ spades (if playing five-card majors). Maybe partner has a void?! Or a second suit which might have a legitimate play for slam?

I assume that the 4♦ response showed one keycard - meaning that you are missing two. A slam missing an ace and the king of trumps is likely to be on a finesse at best, so I would not want to be in it. If it happens to make, there is not much you can do - there is no bidding system that can pin-point which opponent holds a specific card!.

[Lovera]

thepossum, on 2019-July-18, 00:32, said:

Hi all

I recently had this hand as responder playing IMPs white vs white, opposite a 1 Spade opener.

How do people feel about the best ways to progress with this.

We have a total of 32+ points and despite my hand being flat few enough losers to consider slam in spades or NT. I wasnt sure how to progress and bid Blackwood immediately, receiving a 5D response and debated on going to 6NT or 6S missing possibly two aces, but decided to sign off in 5S+1

Sure enough 6S and 6NT make since we had the Ace of Spades. Other options I considered were Jacoby 2NT when opener follows up with 3D (short diamonds) then cue bids etc. However as far as I understand the cue bids it is hard for North to show its Ace of spades without it being a sign off

How would you evaluate this hand and chances of slam and what do you think are the best ways to bid and the best chance contract. I know I was being a bit cautious and on another day would have taken a chance on 6NT or 6S. Is the chance of 6 high enough at IMPs to take the chance

It was definitely one that got away

regards P

---

This hand seems very close at that mine (#7) in "Redeal" that i bidded so:https://www.bridgeba...post__p__973835
Where was you playing and what's the opening lead ? Thanks.(Lovera)

[johnu]

thepossum, on 2019-July-18, 00:32, said:

Sure enough 6S and 6NT make since we had the Ace of Spades. Other options I considered were Jacoby 2NT when opener follows up with 3D (short diamonds) then cue bids etc. However as far as I understand the cue bids it is hard for North to show its Ace of spades without it being a sign off

Results merchant, and not in any good way. Unless North has 8+ spades, you basically need a spade finesse (only possible if North has the jack), or 1-1 spades if North has 7 spades. While I have been in worse slams, this is basically at best a 50% slam. How are you planning to find out about the trump jack?

If ♠K was offside, would you still be asking for ways to get to slam?

[thepossum]

johnu, on 2019-July-18, 03:48, said:

Results merchant, and not in any good way.

Thanks for ruining another of my threads with your obnoxious unnecessarily rude personal attacks

If you had bothered to even read my thread and look at my auction you would have noticed that I made the correct decision and stopped in 5S

What an obnoxious piece of ***** you are johnu. You and a bunch of others on this site

My thread was asking about options on how to explore slam with that hand. Some people had the politeness and decency to address my question instead of being a totally obnoxious ****

Never comment on my threads again please

I've been standing up to the bullies on this site for a year now and I will continue to do it whenever one of you dares to show your faces on my threads or at my tables.

[Cyberyeti]

There is a lot to be said for 4N direct over 1♠ to be normal blackwood not keycard given that you can go via 2N for keycard, it's clearly the wrong bid here.

Yes you explore via a 2N response and keycard and signoff.

What are you going to do if partner shows 2 keycards ?

Does he have AKxxx, KJx, J, xxxx ? where 6N by you is cold but 6♠ in jeopardy on a club lead thru the KJ or does he have KJ1098, Jx, J Axxxx which maybe you don't open but we certainly do where 6N is poor but 6♠is fine

[Vampyr]

Cyberyeti, on 2019-July-18, 05:16, said:

There is a lot to be said for 4N direct over 1♠ to be normal blackwood not keycard

Isn’t this 100% standard?

[Cyberyeti]

Vampyr, on 2019-July-18, 07:43, said:

Isn’t this 100% standard?

Not 100% by any means. I struggle to see a hand on which you'd use it, where other action won't be better, maybe Axxxxxx, KQJ, KQ, A opposite a 5 card spade, it's vanishingly rare.

[johnu]

thepossum, on 2019-July-18, 04:17, said:

...
Misc drivel deleted ...
...

Have you gone off your medications this week

BTW, if stopping in 5♠ is the correct decision, why would you possibly be looking for a "better" auction to get to 6♠/6NT

[Cyberyeti]

johnu, on 2019-July-18, 09:44, said:

Have you gone off your medications this week

BTW, if stopping in 5♠ is the correct decision, why would you possibly be looking for a "better" auction to get to 6♠/6NT

You really are unbearable, he didn't ask for an auction to 6, he asked for a better way to work out where he wanted to be, you quoted very selectively.

[johnu]

Cyberyeti, on 2019-July-18, 11:08, said:

You really are unbearable, he didn't ask for an auction to 6, he asked for a better way to work out where he wanted to be, you quoted very selectively.

Do you know how to read? Don't bother answering, that was a rhetorical question.

OP wanted to know how to get to 6 because 6 was making, apparently on a finesse. So, not only did opener have ♠A but not ♠K, but apparently the ♠J (and you might need ♠10 to make 6 a decent percentage). Since you are such an expert, please explain your methods to find the ♠J, maybe the ♠10 if there are only 9 spades total, and also how to make the slam better than ~50%.

I stand by my original post. If ♠K was not taking a trick and 5 was the limit, would OP have thought it worthwhile to ask for an auction to get to 6? Based on previous posts by OP, I have my answer so that's why I said it was result merchanting. What's your opinion?

[hrothgar]

I'm going to post what is (probably) going to be a rather unpopular view.

1. I don't like 4NT because you'll be poorly positioned opposite a number of different responses.
2. Jacoby 2NT also doesn't grab me. While it has the advantage of establishing a low level GF, here once again I'm not sure whether most of the answers will help me.

So, I am going to recommend bidding 2!D.

If partner bids 2!H, I'm golden. After any other bid, I can rebid 3!S and invite a cue bid from partner.

[Cyberyeti]

johnu, on 2019-July-18, 13:16, said:

Do you know how to read? Don't bother answering, that was a rhetorical question.

OP wanted to know how to get to 6 because 6 was making, apparently on a finesse. So, not only did opener have ♠A but not ♠K, but apparently the ♠J (and you might need ♠10 to make 6 a decent percentage). Since you are such an expert, please explain your methods to find the ♠J, maybe the ♠10 if there are only 9 spades total, and also how to make the slam better than ~50%.

I stand by my original post. If ♠K was not taking a trick and 5 was the limit, would OP have thought it worthwhile to ask for an auction to get to 6? Based on previous posts by OP, I have my answer so that's why I said it was result merchanting. What's your opinion?

I know how to read, you clearly don't, if you'd quoted his whole post which he's removed, it was clear to me that he was frustrated in that he couldn't see how to do anything better than bashing out keycard, a common beginners thought process.

I wouldn't be in this slam even if I knew partner had the A unless I thought from the auction he had a LOT of spades, but I don't think I would ever find out whether he had A or K.

[johnu]

Cyberyeti, on 2019-July-18, 14:09, said:

I know how to read, you clearly don't, if you'd quoted his whole post which he's removed, it was clear to me that he was frustrated in that he couldn't see how to do anything better than bashing out keycard, a common beginners thought process.

Clearly you either don't know how to read and maybe haven't read any of OP's numerous meltdown posts. I suggest you read previous threads by the OP and see if you can see a pattern.

I'm guessing that OP is upset with me mainly because of my post #10 in this thread:

https://www.bridgeba...__1#entry974921

[Vampyr]

hrothgar, on 2019-July-18, 13:42, said:

I'm going to post what is (probably) going to be a rather unpopular view.

1. I don't like 4NT because you'll be poorly positioned opposite a number of different responses.
2. Jacoby 2NT also doesn't grab me. While it has the advantage of establishing a low level GF, here once again I'm not sure whether most of the answers will help me.

So, I am going to recommend bidding 2!D.

If partner bids 2!H, I'm golden. After any other bid, I can rebid 3!S and invite a cue bid from partner.

This auction would be invitational for me. I am not a fan of 2/1GF, but it does work well in auctions of this sort.

[Lovera]

Having S that hand, with a surplus of points, we can say that N has ♠AJ1098 ♥K10xx ♦J ♣Qxx

[Cyberyeti]

johnu, on 2019-July-18, 15:56, said:

Clearly you either don't know how to read and maybe haven't read any of OP's numerous meltdown posts. I suggest you read previous threads by the OP and see if you can see a pattern.

I'm guessing that OP is upset with me mainly because of my post #10 in this thread:

https://www.bridgeba...__1#entry974921

I;m fully aware of his history and I felt this post was better which is why I'm defending him this time, I felt you'd had a go at him on reputation not on what he actually posted.

[Tramticket]

Cyberyeti, on 2019-July-19, 01:53, said:

I;m fully aware of his history and I felt this post was better which is why I'm defending him this time, I felt you'd had a go at him on reputation not on what he actually posted.

Unfortunately, thepossum's response at #6 was extremely unpleasant. It has been toned down through the re-edits.

I guess that we should all keep in mind when replying on the Novice and Beginner forum that poster are choosing to post on this forum because they are less experience. But there is no excuse for thepossum's response.

[Cyberyeti]

Tramticket, on 2019-July-19, 02:24, said:

Unfortunately, thepossum's response at #6 was extremely unpleasant. It has been toned down through the re-edits.

I guess that we should all keep in mind when replying on the Novice and Beginner forum that poster are choosing to post on this forum because they are less experience. But there is no excuse for thepossum's response.

There was also no excuse for selectively quoting the OP to distort what he said to make him look worse and belittle him as Johnu did. I'm not surprised he was angry, but yes the response was over the top.