[pescetom]

This hand 21

cost Italy 13 IMPs and a vital win against leaders USA1 in the Bermuda Bowl. A very surprising mishap by a team famed for precise slam bidding - almost any system (even stone age Blackwood and number of Kings) should lead straight to grand here.

I can only guess that 4NT was intended by Bocchi as RKCB but Sementa took it as Turbo - in any case not conceivable at this level.

[FelicityR]

pescetom, on 2019-September-19, 07:45, said:

This hand 21

cost Italy 13 IMPs and a vital win against leaders USA1 in the Bermuda Bowl. A very surprising mishap by a team famed for precise slam bidding - almost any system (even stone age Blackwood and number of Kings) should lead straight to grand here.

I can only guess that 4NT was intended by Bocchi as RKCB but Sementa took it as Turbo - in any case not conceivable at this level.

Yes, not a good result. But England had their own slam mishap in the earlier rounds missing a 13 trick laydown grand against Indonesia. Board 19

https://www.bridgeba...ch.php?id=65554

[sfi]

I don't know what happened here, but it's easier to bid if South asks for key cards. If North asks, South at some point will need to decide they have enough extras for the grand.

Missing it does look like an error though.

[pescetom]

FelicityR, on 2019-September-19, 08:24, said:

Yes, not a good result. But England had their own slam mishap in the earlier rounds missing a 13 trick laydown grand against Indonesia. Board 19

https://www.bridgeba...ch.php?id=65554

Not sure what Robson was worried about there, but maybe they have too wide NT ranges for East to bid this quantitatively.

[pescetom]

sfi, on 2019-September-19, 08:28, said:

I don't know what happened here, but it's easier to bid if South asks for key cards. If North asks, South at some point will need to decide they have enough extras for the grand.

Even the weakest players in our Friday night field are capable of:
1♠ 4NT
5♥ 5NT
6S 7NT


We would probably bid:
1♠ 2♣
2♦ 3♠
4♣ 4♥
5♦ 6♣
6♥ 7♠.
South knows the clubs situation and that we have all the keycards.

But any decent system should get there I think. Only a few countries failed to call 7♠.

[sfi]

Well, your weaker players have to find a queen to make 7NT and you have some problems if North doesn't have the DK, assuming I understand your auction correctly. If North is 5251 you may be in a very poor spot. I agree that you should find it, but those auctions have problems.

As I said, if South takes control it's obvious to bid. If not, there is a bit more work to do.

[barmar]

sfi, on 2019-September-19, 09:49, said:

Well, your weaker players have to find a queen to make 7NT and you have some problems if North doesn't have the DK, assuming I understand your auction correctly.

It looks like the weaker players are using old fashioned Blackwood, so 6♠ showed 3 kings and all the aces and kings are accounted for.

West appears to be triple-squeezed on the run of the spades, but would the weakest player find that?

[barmar]

In case anyone is curious, we asked GIB how it would bid this. It doesn't find the grand, either.

1♠ - 2N
3♣ - 3♥
6♠

[pescetom]

barmar, on 2019-September-19, 09:58, said:

It looks like the weaker players are using old fashioned Blackwood, so 6♠ showed 3 kings and all the aces and kings are accounted for.

West appears to be triple-squeezed on the run of the spades, but would the weakest player find that?

The weaker player does not know what a squeeze is

[pescetom]

sfi, on 2019-September-19, 09:49, said:

Well, your weaker players have to find a queen to make 7NT

The weaker player doesn't have a clue, but that was the point - he would still call a grand, as would almost everyone at their own level.

sfi, on 2019-September-19, 09:49, said:

you have some problems if North doesn't have the DK, assuming I understand your auction correctly. If North is 5251 you may be in a very poor spot. I agree that you should find it, but those auctions have problems.

As I said, if South takes control it's obvious to bid. If not, there is a bit more work to do.

You didn't understand my auction entirely correctly. South knows North is either 5251 or (more likely) 5341 and more specifically
♠AKxxx ♥Kx(x) ♦AKxx(x) ♣x.

[smerriman]

barmar, on 2019-September-19, 10:34, said:

In case anyone is curious, we asked GIB how it would bid this. It doesn't find the grand, either.

1♠ - 2N
3♣ - 3♥
6♠

GIB never finds a grand. The other day it had 13 top tricks including a long running suit and all aces and kings, and still stopped in 6.

[ahydra]

smerriman, on 2019-September-19, 14:11, said:

GIB never finds a grand. The other day it had 13 top tricks including a long running suit and all aces and kings, and still stopped in 6.

Give it some credit. It will happily bid grand slam in a 4-2 fit after you double then try to show a good one-suiter.

ahydra