[FrancesHinden]

1.

Scoring: MP

P P 1♣ 3♠
x P 6♣ P
?

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A not particularly high-standard field. Is your answer different at imps?

2.

Scoring: MP

P P 1♣ 3♠
x P 6♣ P
?

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(Scoring is actually 'play with the experts' - you get to score up with someone's card from a big championship a long time ago)

3.

Scoring: MP

P P 1♣ 3♠
x P 6♣ P
?

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Partner's 1NT is 10-13, may be any 5332, 6322 with a long minor or 5422 without both majors. If you doubled 3S, that would have been take-out; 4S would show a 2-suiter. (You systemic call was probably double, but you decided you didn't want to take 800 against a possible slam). Partner's options over 4C were 4 red suit natural likely to have little in spades, 4S a good 5C bid, 4NT natural with spade stuff.

[mikeh]

1. In a weak(ish) field, few pairs bid grand unless they have 14 top tricks. At the risk of exaggerating my skill level, I usually expect to win in a weak field, unless I get fixed too much or give away tops... and bidding grand here is a top/bottom swing. I will try to win the event on other boards....pass.

However, if mid way through the game and things are not going well, then 7... what the heck?

At imps, it is even clearer, in my view, not to push to 7 unless in need of a swing. The imp odds strongly suggest not overreaching for a grand.


BTW, I expect partner to hold good, longish ♠ and at least one short red suit... no 4♠ bump on my left and no effort to reach notrump... so AKx Ax void AQJ10xxx is possible... and, yes, that is 13 tricks... but AKx KQ void AQJ10xxx is not.

2. 7♣. I am putting a lot of faith on a slender inference. Partner could have placed us in slam by bidding 5N rather than 4N. So this sequence should be a very strong grand slam try. Ax void AKQxx KQJxxx is enough, I hope, despite the likely bad breaks. One minor concern: what is the difference between the given auction and a 5♥ cue at his second turn?


3. 5♠ should show both red aces, 1st round ♠ control and grand slam interest... but am I quite good enough for that? I think so: even if we are missing the ♥Q, we may be ok if he has ♦ length or the ♥10....or Kx♥ and a 4th ♣.... and it is not clear that he will leap to 7 on 3 bare Kings and at most the side ♦J. The reason 5♠ shows both red Aces is that we could cue the one we hold if we were missing one. While this answer (an aggressive try for grand) may seem inconsistent with the answer to the first problem, I don't think it is: on the first problem, I had to make a committal decision with insufficient information, while, here, I am trying to give partner the information he requires. I have nothing against bidding grands at mps provided that we are not flat-out guessing. And I am NOT passing 5♣

[whereagles]

1. Hum.. got 2 unexpected goodies: ♣K and spade void. That's not just 1 goodie, that's 2 and I could easily not even have the ♦A! Seems like 7 is there if pard is a reliable player. If he's an overbidder, I'll just pass and hope he makes. Might also bid 7 if in need of points.

2. Pass. Rather nice hand, but I only got 1 sure trick. The ♠K might be of dubious value.

3. Pass. 5♣ is about the weakest thing pard could say, except perhaps for 4NT if you play that as natural misfit. It's still a bit of a guess, but I don't think 6 is the percentage action here.

[awm]

1. This is a much better hand than partner has a right to expect. I actually think bidding 7♣ is a percentage action, but MikeH is right about weak club fields. If this was a national-level event I'd bid 7, but at the club I'll just pass.

2. Pass. Partner is bidding under a lot of pressure and may well be counting me for a "little bit" of help. Partner could've cuebid over 5♣ and didn't. I don't believe this is a "serious try for a grand."

3. I think it's clear to bid on -- partner doesn't have great spades and we've got a void. If partner has something like 8-10 working points (outside spades) we're easily in the slam zone. Would partner consider something like Qxx Kxx Kxxx Kxx as a "good club raise"? It's a flat eleven with a wasted spade queen, and yet 6♣ is virtually cold. If 5♠ shows a void I'll bid that and then respect partner's 6♣ signoff (move the ♠Q to ♥Q and it's still not clear if this is a "good raise" on 11 and a flat shape, but 7♣ is cold).

[Codo]

1. PD expects me to have about ten working points, so my hand is nice but not much nicer then he expects. So I surely pass in a club game. In a more serious event, my pd and me had surely some tools to explore grand slams, so I still wo´nt bid one with this hand after this bidding. Just with an unkonwon pd in a strong tournement, I would bid 7 Club.

2. 6 club is nice, I have not enough goddies to carry on.

3. Very unlucky, that I did not convince pd, that 4 in a minor is always KC for this minor. In that case, Ihad found out about his Kings. Really unlucky. Now I bid 5 Diamond and await pds move. Okay, if we play just first round controlls at the 5. level (I do) then this won´t take me anywhere and I just blast 6 Club, again no GS.

[FrancesHinden]

It's not quite a weak club game, they are all from mid-week Brighton events (about equivalent to a strongish club game). You are playing with your oldest and most regular partner

Anyway, the common theme was really from the strong hand: if you are guessing to bid a small slam, how much extra do you need to make a grand slam try on the way?

On the first hand, mikeh's guess is very close to partner's hand:

AKx
AKx
x
AQJ9xx

(it's all very well saying you'd like to bid the hand scientifically, but how have you progressed matters if you bid 4S and partner bids 5-red suit?)

6C+1 was only 50% of the matchpoints, though I think it would have been more if the HQ had been wrong as many people sadly aren't capable of managing the trump suit to ruff out diamonds. My partner said he would have bid 7 at IMPs but was expecting a good board for slam anyway.

mikeh also seemed to have close to a wire on the second one, where partner has
Ax
-
AKQxxx
KQJ109

The grand makes even with clubs 5-0 and a heart lead.
Another hand where partner was playing you for one good card when she bid 6C: you know you have one good card but you don't know the SK is working.

On the third, I didn't make a grand try but I think I should have done. I just raised 5C to 6C and this time 6C+1 was a good board. Partner has the perfect hand:

Qxxx
Kxx
Kx
Kxxx

(You are both very happy that you don't play 1NT (3S) 4C as key-card in clubs which would not help here: how could you tell the difference between the ace of spades and the king of clubs?)