[TylerE]

South Deals, NV, Swiss Teams

♠xx
♥AKJxxxx
♦x
♣xxx

♠AKxx
♥xxx
♦AK
♣AKJx

Our actual auction was a bit unscientific...

2NT (22-23) - 3♦
3♥ - 6♥.

We actually won IMPs the board as the other table went +400 on these cards (I'm not sure of the story...I'm guessing some sort of confusion ending in 5♣ or something.

[ASkolnick]

I would be tempted to raise to 7 with your hand. The only question is if he would do this with long hearts and no AH, but for that he should probably bid blackwood first.

Worst possible hand I can see is

xx
AKQxxx
xx
xxx

and now its at least 50/50 with squeeze possiblities. Your 9 control hand with a fit has at least 6 known tricks, 6 tricks in parnters hand, and 1 probable from either your clubs or one of his fitting Q.

[han]

My auction would start with

2NT - 3D
3NT (3-card support, good hand for hearts)

Then responder could ask for keycards and confirm all. Opener can reasonably bid seven.

[jdonn]

han, on Oct 22 2008, 12:48 PM, said:

My auction would start with

2NT - 3D
3NT (3-card support, good hand for hearts)

Then responder could ask for keycards and confirm all. Opener can reasonably bid seven.

I don't think it can be done scientifically without south being able to show three hearts. If either player bids keycard, the other can't risk showing the queen in case north has AKJxxx or south has xx. After north guesses, yeah south could bid the grand and will usually be right, but he takes a huge risk that his partner is on a distributional powerhouse that might even be off the trump ace, for example Qxxxx KQJxxxxx - - would probably guess to bid 6.

[han]

Thanks for writing a plug for our methods, I agree that it can't be done with confidence if opener isn't able to show 3-card support.

[rogerclee]

Han, how do you bid keycard in your methods after 2N p 3D p 3H ? Do you bid 3S first or something then keycard?

I personally use texas followed by 4N as keycard, and I view the north hand as a keycard hand, so I would start with texas even playing your methods (unless there's more to it so I can bid keycard after 2N p 3D p 3H).

Also, in reply to Jdonn, I think a lot of experts play that after the queen ask and the rejection, the next step asks for extra length. That solves the 10 card fit problem. Here it might go:

2N 4D
4H 4N
5C 5D
5H 5S
7H

Opener with 3 trumps and 3 kings obviously would just bid 7 after that. Unfortunately if you play 1430 with retreat to the trump suit rejecting it would go:

2N 4D
4H 4N
5D 5S
6H

This is why theoretically it's better to play first step denies the queen. Then it could go:

2N 4D
4H 4N
5D 5S
5N 6C
7H

Again opener could bid 6D with 3 trumps and not such a great hand, 6H with 2 trumps, 7 with a great hand, etc.

This is also a big gain for kickback because you can go:

2N 4D
4H 4S
5C 5D
5H 5S
7H

etc. Kickback is a big winner if you know how to utilize all the steps (gains a lot on third round controls for instance).

[han]

Quote

Han, how do you bid keycard in your methods after 2N p 3D p 3H ?

I bid 3S, setting hearts as trump and showing slam interest. I can ask for keycards later. We (cherdano and I) don't play Texas so we have no choice.

[kenrexford]

I agree with the super-accept. With AKAKAK on the outside, and 3-card support, super-accept.

If this shows 6 covers, then this is easy. Responder asks for keys and then asks for the trump Queen. When Opener has no internal honors, he MUST have something like AKAKAK, or AKAKQA, or some other assured 6 covers.

Sucks if Qxx is behind... LOL

[Cascade]

Key card is fine with the north hand if you find three if not then you could easily be off a cashing AK - we only know of 30 hcp.

Automatically super-accepting with a fit and showing controls works well on this hand.

2NT 3♦
4♥ 4♠
4NT 5♦
7♥ Pass

4♥ 3+ hearts and a control in every side suit
4♠ Kickback
4NT 0 or 3
5♦ Kings? Grand Slam try
7♥ I have everything

We play 2NT is good 20-22 and would bid the same way.

This hand is a huge 22 for slam purposes and possibly would warrant an upgrade to 23. Following on from the discussion in another thread an average 22 HCP has a little under 8 controls. Only 19% of 22 counts have 9 controls (a further 4% have 10 controls).

Our NT ranges are split 18-Bad 20 and Good 20-22. I split 20s more or less based on controls and hence slam suitability - with 7+ controls I will show a good 20 and with 6 or fewer controls I will show a bad 20. Occasionally there might be a hand that I will upgrade or downgrade for some other reason.

[benlessard]

This isnt a tough hand.

You show H, you keycard, you ask for the Q of H and you make a move toward 7.

Bridge is simple

[jdonn]

benlessard, on Oct 24 2008, 06:20 AM, said:

This isnt a tough hand.

You show H, you keycard, you ask for the Q of H and you make a move toward 7.

Bridge is simple

And who shows the queen of hearts?!? Or does south show it when north could have AKxxxx?

[benlessard]

xxx isnt the Queen so opener will respond no, responder still make a grand slam try despite lacking the queen. xxx is now enough.

[jdonn]

benlessard, on Oct 24 2008, 05:33 PM, said:

xxx isnt the Queen so opener will respond no, responder still make a grand slam try despite lacking the queen. xxx is now enough.

What grand slam try? Do you play an ask for extra trump length? Obviously that would make it easy, but most people I know don't. It's even worse if the queen denial bid is 6♥ (agree with prior comment that is inferior, but it's also not uncommon). My point is you make it sound trivial, but it really depends on methods. It is not even ridiculous to agree that after a queen ask and denial, all further bids are focused on strain and a grand is out of the picture.

[fan13027]

Our partnership would have south opening 2♣ with this hand. Using Steps, north would reply 2♠ to indicate 7-9 HCP. At this point, and with his distribution, south realizing partnership holds at most 28-31 HCP between them would sign off with 3NT.

North would correct to 4♥ and if south's holding was less than 3 card ♥ support he would pass. North's correction of 4♥ promises at least 6♥'s in his hand.

But now, knowing a nine-card fit exists, south could/would explore for slam using Blackwood RKC and would likely end up at a 6♥ contract. And north, now knowing that South would not have explored for slam without at least 3 card support for ♥, and being NV, can gamble and raise to 7♥ knowing the actual fit is a 10 card fit.

Still not scientific, but more often than not, it would get our partnership to where we want to be

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

Most likely I would have bid 4H instead of 3H, I am not sure
opener will feel happy, if 3H gets passed out
After that Responder can take over, he will discover
AK in clubs, diamonds and spades, and that the Queen
of hearts is missing, which wont bother him, having 10 hearts.

With kind regards
Marlowe