[jh51]

Scoring: MP

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This hand occurred the other night at a club game. Partner (holding this hand) opened 1♥ and I made a limit raise of ♥. Partner then bid 4NT (RKC) but I had no aces. The final contract was 5♥ and the opponents were able to win their 3 aces, so we were off 1.

Had we been playing Baby Blackwood, that would have allowed us to stop in game. Would there be any drawbacks to this convention after a limit raise of a major? Is there an alternative way of exploring for slam short of game? Cue bidding does not seem to work, as cue bids below game typically show 1st or second round controls. We had all the second round controls (In addition to partner's singletons, I had all the missing K's Q's and J's)

[jdonn]

I would have had the same auction you did, and considered myself quite unlucky that partner has no aces!

The disadvantages to baby blackwood here are that it will very rarely help you, and there are other useful options for 3NT instead. For example it helps to have a shortness ask about partner's hand on this auction.

[Jlall]

jdonn, on Jan 28 2010, 12:43 PM, said:

I would have had the same auction you did, and considered myself quite unlucky that partner has no aces!

Because if you bid 3S and partner bids 4H he clearly has 2 aces?

[jdonn]

Well I don't play cuebids here, everything either shows or asks for shortness. I shouldn't have incorporated my own methods into the answer though, wasn't thinking. Of course if you cuebid 3♠ and partner doesn't cuebid he won't have two aces, and if he does cuebid it now becomes safe to bid blackwood.

[jjbrr]

Cuebidding 3♠ seems clear.

The result was a bit unlucky though.

[Jlall]

jdonn, on Jan 28 2010, 12:49 PM, said:

Well I don't play cuebids here, everything either shows or asks for shortness. I shouldn't have incorporated my own methods into the answer though, wasn't thinking. Of course if you cuebid 3♠ and partner doesn't cuebid he won't have two aces, and if he does cuebid it now becomes safe to bid blackwood.

Yes I agree, cuebidding is not really a good system in this auction.

Playing your system I think 3N would show a slam try with a club side suit. Playing that, partner would probably cuebid with 2 aces including the CA, or 2 side aces and the CJ/doubleton club, so I would do that. Or maybe 3N shows spades and 4C shows clubs for you, but same concept (partner would at least last train with 2 aces and the CJ).

I don't see any reason why we'd have to blackwood here.

edit: sry I see that your bids show shortness, not side suits, I misread. OK same concept, you could show shortness somewhere and expect partner to cuebid/last train with the appropriate hands. Or you could ask for shortness with 3S, and when partner showed none with 3N, you could cuebid 4C.

Blackwood just seems lazy.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

Using 3NT as a bid to investigate slam makes sense, but Baby Blackwood
would only be of limited use.
You could play 3NT in this seq. as some kind of "Serious 3NT", which would
ask p to start cue bidding, if he likes his hand, than your p could look at his
Aceless and Keycard less limit raise and has the chance to decide, that he
doe not like what he is sees and would stop in 4H.

Similar you could start a cue bid seq. (the general advice would be to start
with 4C - a first cue showing values), you could start with 3S, if p bids
4H your problem is solved, if he bids 4D and you bid 4H he should again look
at his hand (if he sees 2Aces - than this is more than you could have expected)
and he should make another another move, but this is not 100% clear since you
may miss, 1st / 2nd round controls in clubs, when he is looking at ...

Last but not least - ***** happens.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[jocdelevat]

If you used Gerber then no problems.