[kenrexford]

Scoring: IMP

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West opened 1H, East splintered 4C, West LTTC 4D, East cuebid 4S, doubled.

West passed, and East now bid 4NT. West answered, and the Binsky level was reached. With a nice diamond guess, it was down one.

West explained LTTC, "Opposite AKQ of spades and the diamond Ace, slam is solid. Different values also work."

East countered, "The fifth heart looked like enough."

Thoughts?

[Kalvan14]

Both sides erred on the side of optimism.
I'd assign the larger blame to E: the splinter was already stretched. He should not accept LTTC (W is looking for a miracle slam, IMO he's not without blame).

[awm]

Well, west's 4♦ transferred the blame, so obviously it is east's fault for making the wrong decision right?

Really I'd have to blame west; he has a minimum hand, AJxx is not a wonderful holding opposite the splinter, and the ♥JT9 are not particularly useful or necessary with a big trump fit.

[sceptic]

I think west is solely to blame for not signing off in 4 spades first

he has a diamond singleton 3 bad spades and wasted values in clubs

(I have made wests bids many times and paid a painful price)

East is NOT to blame as west knows he is over excitable and should not have encouraged him. hahah (light hearted comments)

IMHOFWIW

[Chamaco]

IMO East's splinter is marginal but a barely acceptable minimum.
The requirements for a splinter fall within the shaded area of partership discussion.

However, East's 4D goes beyond my imagination LOL ... With a marginal opener, AJTx in opposite shortness and, above all, xxx in spades, keeping the auction alive is criminal, unless... well, the only justification for west, IMO, is *if* he was used to play UNLIMITED SPLINTERS (stronger than here) that commit responder to cuebid even if he has no slam interest.
A bad agreement in my view but I have seen so many play that way that it would be not a surprise to know that west's choice was affected by such a reasoning.

[cherdano]

kenrexford, on Feb 7 2006, 05:30 AM, said:

West explained LTTC, "Opposite AKQ of spades and the diamond Ace, slam is solid. Different values also work."

This would be too strong for a splinter the way I am used to play: 10-12 decent hcp, 4 trumps, singleton. (Even playing 10-13, AKQ A would be too strong.)
If you need a perfect supermax for slam to be so-so (if they lead trumps, you have lost or need a 3-3 spade split; otherwise, you will still have communications problems to arrange all your ruffs), it must be better to sign-off.

Arend

[coyot]

If the 4♣ splinter denies 16HCP or so, then with a minimum hand it is criminal to bid anything but 4♥. The odds for finding the perfect hand are too low to be worth the risk.
Believe me, I am a pro when it comes to 5M-1 (because against "this and that" it would be a good slam.

Give me 4 small clubs and AJx in either remaining suit and I will show interest gladly, because now the odds of a reasonable slam are much higher.

AJxx against singleton is worth one trick. AJxx against Kx(xx) is worth 2 to 4 tricks.

[Codo]

1. I would blame the partnership for not discussing splinterbids.
2. If their Splinters are limited to 10-14 HCps, or around 7 loosers, West has no excuse to bid 4 Diamond.
3. If they play unlimitted splinters, it is still Wests fault to bid 4 Diamond, because he should have limitted his had with 4 Heart.
4. His excuse: Opp. AKQ of Spade and A of D, slam is laydown, is ridicolous. With
AKD, xxxx, Axxx,x East should see himself, that he should make another move.

But I disagree, that AJxx is a bad holding opps. a Singelton.
With xxxx in a suit, opps may lead trump twice, before you can start to ruff.
This is not often possible, when you hold the ace in the splinter suit. So it is not allways right, that the holding Axxx plays worse then xxxx opps. a singleton. It is just a wasted jack, which is not that much.

[inquiry]

West, West, West... 1000 times west (hope that wasn't you).

Unlike others, I think EAST's splinter is close to too good rather than not quite up to snuff. This is a maximum splinter for sure. And if WEST shows interest after I hold this hand, I would be good to go also. West hand with three small spades, and missing both red aces too boot, simply has no choice but to sign off. East can't ahve enough stuff to make the slam a reasonable bet (he will need at least two of the three missing ACES, plus enough hcp to cover two addditional losers in spades. The best holding for him is AQ of spades and a red ACE. and with this MAGIC hand, the slam is at best 50% (you have to manage to ruff three clubs in dummy, which may not be possible, especially if dummy has only four trumps and they start a trump, and the spade finessee will have to work).

West has a clear, and unambigious 4♥ call over the splinter. This seems clear cut to me.

[kenrexford]

In all fairness to West, the slam is not as bad as claimed, assuming the "right" stuff. Assuming the golden AKQ of spades and A of diamonds, trick twelve has many plausible sources.

First, East might be 5341, where spades almost assuredly produces trick 12.

Second, if East is 3451, diamonds can be established via ruffs if they are 3-4 or 4-3.

Third, clubs MIGHT be KQx.

Fourth, opposite 4441, spades could be 3-3.

Fifth, an automatic club-spade squeeze may materialize, or a one-way spade-diamond squeeze may exist, or some other squeeze.

Some of the problem on this hand, of course,boils down to agreements. What is the strength for a Splinter? The actual East hand was AQ10-xxxxx-KJxx-x. This promises three "assured" covers, plus two more (at least) via club ruffs. Hence, East needs Opener to have a slightly better six-loser hand. West had xxx-KQJxx-x-AJxx, a seven-loser hand, which screams of a problem.

However, can a Splinter have only four covers? Is the Splinter cover-card situation four or five covers, or five to six covers? It seems that 5-6 is more plausible, as that was the holding East held (potentially six covers). But, East HAD six potential covers.

Hence, I agree, despite West's plausibility, that West's aggressiveness was the culprit #1. The perfect hand was too remote.

(I was Binsky -- we needed a swing. LOL)

[han]

For me a splinter is a very limited bid, so clearly west.

I wouldn't go as far as Ben who says that east is super-max. It is important to discuss these issues though, how good can a splinter be?

[pclayton]

East has just about what I would expect for a splinter (except for the 5th trump). The hand is neither strong nor weak.

West has a fair hand opposite club shortness, but a LTTC 4♦ call is a but much.

Not sure what 'opposing splinters' means in the subject title. Is 4♦ supposed to show shortness or something?

[EricK]

West's hand started out as junk. He then discovers that nearly half his points are facing a shortage in partner's hand, so he makes a slam try. This is ridiculous, IMO

For slam he needs partner to hold ♦A, ♥A and great spades, or just one of the aces and solid spades. That seems rather unlikely to put it mildly. With such a good hand partner would use Jacoby 2NT, rather than leap to the 4 level.

[inquiry]

Hannie, on Feb 7 2006, 03:20 PM, said:

For me a splinter is a very limited bid, so clearly west.

I wouldn't go as far as Ben who says that east is super-max. It is important to discuss these issues though, how good can a splinter be?

Well traditionally a splinter shows what, somethiong like good 9 to bad 12 hcp and a singleton, or a little bid lighter and a void. This hand has "only" 10 so I know what you are thinking... 10 hcp is close to the lower limit. Matter of fact given a defined splinter here as good NINE, then ten could be viewed as minimum, not max.

But what ten hcp hand you have. You have

• A fifth turmp, that is as good as adding heart queen to your hand if partner is missing that card
  
• AQT of spades, that is a good a 6 hcp as you are going to have in a s uit, ands a lot of power to potential JACK of spades in partners hand
  
• KJ9x of diamonds, Again a suit with lots of extras for its mear 4 hcp.

I don't know, this looks like a hand on the strong end of a splinter to me, rather than one on the light end. The reason being, with the quality of your stuff in the diamonds and spades, if you tell partner you are short in clubs and he is excited, how could your hand be worse? You have first or second round control of all three side suits. This looks SOOO much better than 10 to me.

[luis]

With the information we have it is impossible to blame East.
It just depends on how the pair play their splinter bids.
Splinters must be a limited bid, but some pairs play around 10-12, others 12-14 etc. Assuming East has his bid then it is 100% west's fault because East just can't have what west needs for a good slam.

Luis

[kenrexford]

For the record, confessing my sins and all, we agreed that Splinters show 13-15 HCP's. Otherwise (10-12), we go through Bergen 3C. By "opposing splinters," I just mean opposing stiffs. 4D was LTTC and not a stiff cuebid.

With out approach, 4C seems a tad rich, but compensated for by the fifth heart. Compensating twice seems too strong. But, I was primarily interested in determining the strength MOST have for Splinters and the expectations here.

Even opposite 13-15, though, I think my bid was a bit much. Accurately, slam is far too much to seek. As it turned out, I tried for a swing and managed to avoid it. I went down one in 5H; the opponents went down one in 4H. So, I already had my swing. Dumb, eh?