[mikl_plkcc]

In the robot tournament last hour, there were 3 slam boards out of 8! I only got 1 right because I had suitable forcing bids available and could picture the cards.

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I held 17 points shapeless. Opener had rebid showing a minimum hand which was explained as 12-16, therefore I was interested in a small slam if opener had 15 or more. However, a 5♥ bid here in the robot bidding system would show 5 ♠ (I didn't know why) so I stopped at 4, a massive underbid. 4NT would be Blackwood and 5NT would be Grand Slam Force so they were both not applicable, and it was not possible to start cue bidding because the trump hadn't been set yet, and all jump bids would show a GF in a new suit.

On the actual lie of cards, a grand was cold, but it relied on diamonds 3-3 so it was out of consideration.

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I held 18 points, 3=3=2=5 and opened 1♣, preparing to jump rebid. However, I got a forcing raise instead, showing a massive fit in clubs. I bid 3NT, showing 18-19 HCP, hoping that the auction would continue over a non-minimum, as against a minimum balanced I wouldn't want to go past 3NT. The auction died as the sum didn't add to 33, and we got 3 overtricks which was the result by most tables, however 1 table went straight to 6♣ making after the forcing raise. Should I ignore any prospect in NT after I saw a club raise?

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After a preemptive opening in ♠, I could already picture a slam with suitable cards, so I started making forcing bids. I needed to know the quality of the trump, and if there was a second round control in ♣. (Am I correct that the initial new suit is forcing in this situation?)

I showed a suit of myself, and the opener responded me a second suit as well. The use of RKCB here would be with ♣ as trump, so I used it, and it returned me the critical ♣K for a grand slam. Unfortunately as ♣ was the presumed trump suit, there was no way for me to query the ♠Q which was missing (I thought that there was a high likelihood that the preempter would hold it), and the grand was made only by luck (it dropped), that I would rather stop at 6 instead.

What was the proper way to bid this hand?

[smerriman]

On hand 1, I would say if you wanted to force you should start with 3♣. How this works in human partnerships can be quite complex - I think there's a BW thread on it somewhere - though in this case the robot will respond a natural 3♦ and you can follow up with a game forcing 3♥. Of course, playing with a robot, don't expect a scientific slam investigation.

On hand 2, GIB's system is hopeless.

On hand 3, I'd just start with 4NT. If you wanted to find out more information, 2NT first, but the way GIB plays it I doubt it'll help.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

#1 you could start with 2NT instead of bidding 1S.
In the end, you will make a strong slam move, even forcing to slam,
if p showes more than dead min.
Now 2NT promises 4+ trump support, and I know the N/A peoble get angry,
if someone suggests, that the way to go is using 2NT.
Funnily, after a while they started to develop a method, that uses 2C
as a catchall for gf hands with only 3 card support.

#3 I have been wrong before a lot of times, when it comes to play, and will be
again, but it seems the slam is 50%, you need the Ace of hearts on the right
side.
Assuming this to be case, missing a 30HCP slam bal. vs. bal. is nothing to
loose time about.

#5 Setting the fit helps, I would have started with 2NT. As it is, you always can
bid 6S.

[akwoo]

On the last one:

If partner has AQxxxx of spades and nothing else, then you have 13 tricks - 6 spades, 4 hearts (at least at MPs the odds no defender has 5 are good enough), 2 diamonds, and a club(*). If partner is lacking either the A or Q of spades you don't want to be in grand (and if partner is lacking both you want to be in 5♠).

You have a good way to figure out if partner has those cards - 4N does the job perfectly. So you just bid it.

At IMPs with a good partner, it's worth it to try to find the Q♦ or the K♣ (because a 4-3 split in hearts isn't quite good enough odds) so you can bid 2N (if you're playing feature and not Ogust).

(*) Being able to look at your hand and say this is an essential skill for slam bidding.

[smerriman]

akwoo, on 2025-March-20, 11:43, said:

At IMPs ... (because a 4-3 split in hearts isn't quite good enough odds)

How do you get this? It seems the chance of an opponent holding 5 hearts is low enough even for IMPs (even handling the bad 4-0 trump splits where partner doesn't turn up with the ♠J or finessable T, and not taking into account partner could have the ♥J).

[akwoo]

smerriman, on 2025-March-20, 13:16, said:

How do you get this? It seems the chance of an opponent holding 5 hearts is low enough even for IMPs (even handling the bad 4-0 trump splits where partner doesn't turn up with the ♠J or finessable T, and not taking into account partner could have the ♥J).

Knowing partner has 2 hearts, this is true, but you don't know that. Partner might show up with AQxxxx x xxxx xx - okay I guess in that case you also make on a 2-2 spade split or a 3-3 diamond split, and that's enough chances combined with the 4-3 heart split (which by itself is 62%, not quite the 2/3 you need for a grand).

[smerriman]

Why is a singleton heart different? Unless trumps are 4-0 and you can't pick them up, you draw trumps, cash three hearts, and ruff one. As long as neither opponent has 5 hearts, your last heart is the 13th trick. Even if partner has a heart void, you still make on a 4-4 heart break.

2/3 doesn't sound right to me either.. surely you won't have that many other tables stopping in game.

[smerriman]

For reference, I get 77%, so that even works if the threshold was 2/3 (though not sure where that comes from) - let me know if I have a mistake in my conditions:

produce 10000
predeal south SK62, HAKQ72, DAK8, CA2
predeal north SAQ
condition spades(north)==6 and hearts(north)<4

trumpsok = hascard(north,JS) or spades(west)<4 and spades(east)<4 or hascard(north,TS) and spades(west)==4

heartsok = hascard(north,JH) or hearts(west)<5 and hearts(east)<5

action frequency(trumpsok and heartsok,0,1)

Frequency :
    0       2291
    1       7709

[pescetom]

If you think that all three hands are interesting problems (and I agree that two are) then would it really cost you much to open a separate topic for each, rather than engage everyone in supplying an accurate list of replies or figuring out which board a particular reply refers to?

I think it would also be useful to make clear if you are looking for advice on how to bid the hand with GiB, or generic discussion on how to bid the hand. Unfortunately the two diverge.

Having said that, I obediently reply in list (hoping that nobody numbers them 1 2 3).

Board #1: with a partner on the same wavelength I would favour a pragmatic 2♣ rather than a perfectionist 1♠: yes we might be able to pitch diamonds losers on the hearts, but with 16 HCP and a shapely fit I prefer to explore/settle for the obvious hearts slam, especially at MP. I would expect Opener to rebid the diamonds with this hand and be grateful that he did.

Board #3: a pass over 3NT 18-19 HCP is not bridge, a good beginner would bid 6NT.

Board #5: I struggle to understand why people expound bidding Feature or Ogust here (or why it should set trumps). I rarely consider bidding RKCB and almost always find a better alternative, but here I see none (we play 4♣ as the ask, which keeps level low). Settling for a jump to the small slam might be realistic in a weak field, but bad for your kharma