[FrancesHinden]

This is given for amusement's sake only. If there is a moral, it is not to play against bad teams if you can avoid it, it gets you into bad habits.

You hold

♠ AKQxx
♥ AK
♦ AJ10xx
♣ Q

Your partner opens 1♦, first seat at game all, promising 4+ diamonds in a strong NT/5-card majors/short club context. The auction progresses, and you find out that partner has:

12-14 balanced (you only open very good balanced 11 counts vul)
3 spades
4 or 5 diamonds
Not a low doubleton heart
The ace of clubs
The king of diamonds
Definitely not the queen of diamonds
Not a hand with 5 diamonds super-suitable for slam in diamonds (unsurprisingly!)

You now have to select the final contract. You trust your partner's declarer play, so there is no worry about who is playing which denomination.

You are playing very weak opposition.

What do you bid?

(this is IMPs)

This post has been edited by FrancesHinden: 2009-January-28, 08:44

[Fluffy]

7♦. On average it will have around 65% legitimate chances, and opponents are not missing slam on this board (maybe paly in spades though).

If you will finese because no lead in trumps that's another history.

[mikeh]

mps, 7N (especially as I asume partner is playing it and if he is missing the club K, he has the AJ).

Decent team 7♦

Much stronger team: good case for 6♦, hoping grand fails

Much weaker team: again, good case for 6♦, trying this time to avoid big swing, thinking that they will miss the grand or play the wrong one (7N)... or that 7♦ fails..but I'd still bid 7♦

[mtvesuvius]

In theory I agree with Mike, but I bid 6♦ because since this is posted, ♦ are 4-0 .

[rogerclee]

7n, don't care who my opponents are.

[Fluffy]

I think I overstimated legitimate chances of winning, they should be around 60% or so. Still bid 7♦ because I cannot imagine my opponnets stopping below 6, and hardly below 7.

[bid_em_up]

Against strong opposition, I would bid 7D.

Versus weak opponents, I would consider stopping in 6D, as they may well not even be in game at the other table. (but will probably end up bidding 7D anyway).

[RichMor]

7NT

Pard has
♠)xxx
♥)Qxx
♦)Kxxx
♣)AKx

and Diamonds are 4-0 and pard misguesses which opp has 4.

[kfay]

At IMPs I'd MUCH rather be playing 7♦ than 7N, now I don't have to worry about a 4-1 spade break and can just focus on diamonds? This seems clear to me.

[Fluffy]

kfay, on Jan 28 2009, 04:32 PM, said:

At IMPs I'd MUCH rather be playing 7♦ than 7N, now I don't have to worry about a 4-1 spade break and can just focus on diamonds? This seems clear to me.

and you might get a safe trump lead

[y66]

6D seems obvious, esp. against a team that might play in the wrong slam. So, 7D.

[Hanoi5]

7NT.

[jdonn]

7♦ at imps for sure. Don't worry about a bad spade break, and pick up diamonds much more often since you will get a trump lead. I'd probably even bid 7♦ at matchpoints, I can't imagine scoring too badly for making a grand off an important card.

[Hanoi5]

When TC specifies that pd doesn't have the trump Q it means (I think) that you asked for it in the bidding. I don't think we're getting a trump lead unless they're REALLY bad.

[jdonn]

Hanoi5, on Jan 28 2009, 11:56 AM, said:

When TC specifies that pd doesn't have the trump Q it means (I think) that you asked for it in the bidding. I don't think we're getting a trump lead unless they're REALLY bad.

Well a lot about the auction matters.

Did we ask for the trump queen and partner deny it, or were we in some sort of relay situation where partner was merely answering and would pass on the information automatically? If we bid keycard and partner responded 5♥ then obviously the leader doesn't know whether or not we cared about the diamond queen.

What does partner know about our hand? For example if partner knows our shape then he can probably pull 7♦ to 7NT if he holds the jack of spades, knowing that we must have AKQxx of spades to bid any grand. That of course would make bidding 7♦ much more attractive.

[Hanoi5]

You've convinced me of 7♦. But if I get a spade lead ruffed on the first trick I'm blaming you, ok?

[jdonn]

Ok you have a deal. And if I do badly on my homework tonight I'm blaming you, just because it feels fair.

[hotShot]

Weak opponents will not bid a grand here, probably not even a slam.
The ♦Q is most likely with the long cards in a 3-1 or 4-0 split. I would hate to lose 7♠ because one opp can ruff ♦, and I would hate to lose 7♦ or 7NT to an unfortunate ♦ split or a ♠ ruff, when opps stopped in 5♦ or 4♠.
So I'll stop in 6♦.

[keylime]

6♦, by a country mile.

[JLOL]

kfay, on Jan 28 2009, 11:32 AM, said:

At IMPs I'd MUCH rather be playing 7♦ than 7N, now I don't have to worry about a 4-1 spade break and can just focus on diamonds?

Quote

7♦ at imps for sure. Don't worry about a bad spade break,

LOL

Partner has the AK of clubs unless he has J QJ K AJ so what is all this paranoid talk about 41 spades? Even if partner has AK tight of clubs he will either have the HQ or the SJ in which case we still have no spade losers.

7N is the bid that caters to a bad spade split since they cant get a ruff on opening lead. Not just that but sometimes you won't even have to guess diamonds since you will often have thirteen tricks outside of diamonds.

In 7N you get to cash side winners and get a count before guessing diamonds. This is a big edge

In 7N we often just have 13 tricks without guessing diamonds.

The point that partner might "correct" 7D to 7N seems to defeat the point of the problem, Frances specifically told us we have to place the contract.

The only legitimate point in favor of bidding 7D is that they might lead a diamond from xx so that increases our chances of guessing diamonds, but given that we have 13 tricks so often in 7N without the diamond suit, and that they might lead a diamond against 7N trying to be passive anyways, I don't see how we can not bid 7N.