Some hands don't seem to be biddable to their limit - or is it just my bidding system? This one appeared tonight:
| Dealer North; All Vulnerable | ||
 Q 8 6 4 2 A 6 A K Q 9 2 6 |
||
| |
 |
|
| A K 10 4 3 9 5 J 10 4 9 8 3 |
||
| North 1 4 |
East 1 All Pass |
South 1 |
West Pass |
I opened a diamond (playing Benji Acol, weak no-trump and 5-card spade suit) intending to rebid spades twice (if necessary) to show 5-5. After the overcall and partner's 1S what next?
I chose 4S - not necessarily the best bid - and this was the final contract. The post-hand discussion covered several other possible sequences but I still don't know how we can reach the unbreakable 6S scientifically.
Bobby Ainsworth
Comments (3)
Dick Andrews:
Mar 04, 2011 at 01:47 AM
Playing standard english, I'd open 1S, and now the slam is unbiddable. With a D open and a S response, the hand is a "4 loser" and a splinter 4C might encourage S to look.
Bobby Ainsworth:
Mar 04, 2011 at 03:05 AM
We did consider that as a possibility (although in our case it would be a cue bid, so it wouldn't apply) but South can only enquire and discover that there's an Ace missing - and if it's the heart (most likely from East's bid) then there will probably be 2 heart losers on the marked lead.
Another possibility for us was for North to rebid 4H, which must be a first-round control agreeing spades (in our system, at least) but how is South to know that there's only one club loser? Maybe North can follow South's 4S bid with 5C, which should show second round control in clubs, but South will now think "why didn't partner cue bid 4D first - must be missing the Ace of diamonds!".
There must be a logical way somewhere. Maybe North should rebid 3H to give more space? But this doesn't agree spades as trumps.
Perhaps the best option is for North to cue bid 4H then use a 4NT enquiry after South's 4S - assuming a "5-Ace" convention - and after hearing "2 controls" take a chance on the diamonds running to discard any remaining hearts from dummy?
g white:
Mar 07, 2011 at 05:43 AM
suggest that north should bid 2 hearts before bidding 4spades which is more encouraging and allows south to bid support in diamonds. now north can bid rkcb which establishes the slam in spades. although the 4 spade bid demonstrates the 19 point values it uses up bidding space.
Add a New Comment
This thread has been closed from taking new comments.