[jocdelevat]

Dealer: West Vul: NS Scoring: IMP

♠ AKQ ♥ KQ2 ♦ AKT ♣ AT74

West North East South

 Pass  1♣    Pass  7NT
 Pass  Pass  Pass  

Hi all
I played in a tourney where no kibitz allowed. My pard was advanced level. I was the one that bid 7nt. I recognize my pard openning was a weak one however is not my fault.
What you bid with my hand?
If I were in opps shoes I think I will call TD too for this kind of biding which didn't happend at my table but I saw some other players calling TD to revise board for strange biding.

thank you all in advance for your advice

[jillybean]

You have 5 losers so unless your partner has psyched 1♣ or opened a bad 11 count, both very unlikely given position and vulnerability - 7nt looks fine. The hand has a horrible shape but I cant see any losers.
I could quite well be missing something here!

No grounds here to call the director.

[helene_t]

Please don't call the TD when there's no need to do so.

7NT happens to be a perfectly normal bid, but that's irelevant. There's no law that prohibits strange bidding.

My impression is that most TD calls (other than "XXX is sleeping" or "YYY and ZZZ are chatting in Guarani during play in spite of us asking them to use English") are a waste of the TD's time. A lot of players seem to think that the laws protect them against bad luck or gainst opponents having different agreements and/or styles.

[hrothgar]

I have 25 HCP and partner opened...

Furthermore, all my points are Aces and Kings. Lets construct a hypothetical hand for partner

♠ Jxxx
♥ AJx
♦ QJx
♣ QJxx

I don't consider this an opening bid. Swap the King of Clubs for the Queen and you have something a bit more reasonable.

Personally, I'm not sure that I like blasting to 7N. You have a wealth of controls, but no running suits. If you have a club loser, you aren't going to be able to park it anywhere.

I'd start with a 1♦ response and give partner the chance to start showing his shape. I'll get a lot more excited if partner rebids 1M rather than 1N.

[hotShot]

Blasting to 7NT is not a good bid!
You hold 25 HCP and partner opened. He should at least hold 11 HCP. So you could have an Ace missing or there might be a king offside. You don't know anything on partners hand. He might have a weak 6-5 distributed hand. Opps have to be silent, with together less than 10 or more likely 4HCP. You can always force partner to bid on.

But it's not a strange bid, trying to play 7NT with expected 36 HCP is not unreasonable.

[inquiry]

One of a suit ---- 7NT is an rare auction, but not unheard of.

In October, this auction occurred precisely 27 times in BBO tourrnaments and team games. For the record, 7NT made 12 of those times. A few of the times it went down only due to, well, very very poor play. And once of the 27 times, the 7NT bidder was doing it "to punish his partner" and the bid was not even close to serious (-3400 xx).

Here are the three hands where more than one player choose the immediate 7NT bid....

♠ AQ6 ♥AK32 ♦KJ ♣AQ75 --- 23 hcp, balanced
♠ KJ2 ♥AKQ3 ♦K87 ♣AKJ ----- 24 hcp, balanced
♠KJ ♥A1095 ♦AQ ♣AKJ97 ---- 22 hcp, balanced

I wouldn't bid 7NT immediately only any of these hands, but as you can see, this is not such an odd occurance with 25 HCP that the director should be called.

[kenberg]

Before seeing declarer's hand, opponents should allow for the possibility that the bid is proper. After seeing the hand, they have no reason to dispute the call.

A direct leap to 7NT may not be for everyone, but it is not crazy and it certainly is not something a director should interfer with. Nor should opponents regard it as suspicious or wrong in any way.

What should be done depends somewhat on the methods available. As has been mentioned, a club loser could prove unavoidable opposite some hands. If you are playing SAYC, 1C-3C isn't even forcing. But suppose you are playing inverted minors. Then 1C-2C-something-rkc may get the job done since you can find out about the king and the queen of clubs (two keys with the Q) given partner holds the presumed ace of hearts. Of course it might go 1C-2C-2NT, in which case you must have an agreement as to what call constitutes rkc for clubs. After which you bid 6 or 7 NT depending on the answers. The fact that you only have four clubs is no barrier to the inverted minor here since as soon as you get the required information you will be placing the contract in a NT slam.

But in most games, with most partners, ie where I have no such detailed agreements, I think I would just bid 7NT over 1C, just as you did. If I need a finesse in clubs, maybe it's on.

[Elianna]

hrothgar, on Nov 13 2006, 05:30 AM, said:

Lets construct a hypoethical hand for partner

♠ Jxxx
♥ AJx
♦ QJx
♣ QJxx

NT is usually easier when partner has 14 cards. I sometimes prefer 12 when playing in a suit, though.

[HeartA]

Your 7NT bid is prefectly fine. If pd opened a hand at first/second position with sub-minimum, it's his problem.

[neilkaz]

Nothing at all strange about your bidding. You have 25 HCP and unless pard opened a 10 or 11 count, you have a minimum of 37 HCP.

However, since PD is extremely unlikely to have a 5 card suit other than ♣ you'll need to have a winning ♣ finesse if PD holds the ace of ♥ but lacks the K of ♣ since there's no chance to take 12 tricks outside of ♣.

With that in mind, you are gambling if you bid 7NT without knowing that your PD has both the ace of ♥ and K of ♣. Even so, you could still need to find a Q to make 7NT, but I'd take that chance !

So, what harm can be done from asking for key cards or aces ?

Is a direct 4NT Blackwood for you, or is it RKCB ?

It would be nice to set the trump suit as ♣ and then ask for key cards, but SAYC which simply is horrible when it comes to any kind of science in minor suit bidding has no way.

If playing invm, you can just bid 2♣ and then the jump to 4NT should be RKCB
(unless you play 4♦ jump as kickback, or 4♣ as minorwood).

Anyhow..even playing simple SAYC I wouldn't blast to 7NT here since I don't want to hand PD if he opened an unbalanced 11 HCP hand missing the ace of ♥ as I have Blackwood at some point to find out about it.

If playing MP's opposite a PD who rarely opens light, the 7NT blast gives no info to the opps and perhaps they get a bit squeezed and err, but I still think I'd want to find about about key cards if I could.

Your opps should be ashamed to waste the director's time by calling him prior to realizing that you have 25 HCP and that your blast to 7NT is reasonable.