[MinorKid]

mikeh, on Mar 26 2010, 09:14 AM, said:

bab9, on Mar 25 2010, 09:44 PM, said:

I must be missing something.  If you use 4NT to ask for key cards, and find you are missing 1 key card.  If you then ask for kings you are already at the 6 level and you might find that you are missing the AK in one suit.  Or is this a percentage play?  Do you only ask for kings if you are considering playing in NT?

The answer to this concern about being off an AK is simple: never, ever ask for Aces unless you know that the partnership has at least 2nd round control of every side suit.

This can be done by looking at your hand and seeing that you cown these controls or by cue-bidding before (or instead of) asking for keycards.

If you follow expert bridge, you will only rarely see exceptions to this approach and they will be on auctions where the partnership has announced so much power (or the opps bidding leads to a strong inference that partner is short in their suit) that the chances of being off AK are very, very small.

It seems that you play in a club with no strong players so cannot expect to learn how to bid properly through playing there.This forum is an excellent resource, but I would suggest joining the BIL sextion on BBO and/or buying some books on modern bidding..they are easily available over the internet.

Of course, if you want to bid well at your club, you need to find at least one partner also interested in learning.

Good luck.

What if the opps don't lead the weak and a side suit able to take discard?

We win a swing.

[manudude03]

MinorKid, on Apr 5 2010, 05:02 AM, said:

mikeh, on Mar 26 2010, 09:14 AM, said:

bab9, on Mar 25 2010, 09:44 PM, said:

I must be missing something.  If you use 4NT to ask for key cards, and find you are missing 1 key card.  If you then ask for kings you are already at the 6 level and you might find that you are missing the AK in one suit.  Or is this a percentage play?  Do you only ask for kings if you are considering playing in NT?

The answer to this concern about being off an AK is simple: never, ever ask for Aces unless you know that the partnership has at least 2nd round control of every side suit.

This can be done by looking at your hand and seeing that you cown these controls or by cue-bidding before (or instead of) asking for keycards.

If you follow expert bridge, you will only rarely see exceptions to this approach and they will be on auctions where the partnership has announced so much power (or the opps bidding leads to a strong inference that partner is short in their suit) that the chances of being off AK are very, very small.

It seems that you play in a club with no strong players so cannot expect to learn how to bid properly through playing there.This forum is an excellent resource, but I would suggest joining the BIL sextion on BBO and/or buying some books on modern bidding..they are easily available over the internet.

Of course, if you want to bid well at your club, you need to find at least one partner also interested in learning.

Good luck.

What if the opps don't lead the weak and a side suit able to take discard?

We win a swing.

Sure, it could work, and maybe even advisable if you are in real need of imps.

More likely than not, they'll find the right lead though (lead aggressive vs small slam). Sometimes the opening leader is sitting with that AK! Even if you are still alive after trick 2, you will still occasionally find yourself with no way of getting rid of those losers anyway. Any time either of those occur, you've just lost the same swing.