[Free]

Scoring: IMP

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This was an interesting hand I saw on live broadcast today. This hand has 6NT on a double squeeze, and 7S in a 5-2 laydown. Reaching 6 is easy, but can anyone find 7 here?

[inquiry]

There are two legit ways (in standard, this ideal for relay systems perhaps) I can think of to bid the grand slam in spades. The reason the grand is a fair shot is the spade JACK. So one way would be double trump agreement, followed by six key card RKC... i could imagine

1S - 2D
2H - 3C
3D - 3S
4S - 4NT
5C - 5D
5NT - 6H
7S

where 3C is naturalish and forcing (since 2D was game force)
3D showing fitting card in a forced auction
3S double trump agreement
4S ok.. I can play in spades
4NT six key card blackwood
5C = 3 key cards (two aces and diamond K)
5D = queen ask, 5NT = spade queen
6H = improvised grand slam try. The concern here is trump quality (josephine), but I already know about the SPADE ACE and QUEEN, and I would not be trying for grand slam off the trump queen)...
7S.. you must be looking for a sixth trump or the spade jack.. I have the jack.

You can imagine a similiar auction but with one trump agreement...

1S-2D
2H-3C
3H-3S
3N-4C
4D-4NT
5S-5NT/6H

The choice between 5NT and 6H is on rather or not you think your partner will take 5NT as grand slam force (once again Spade AQ already shown) or pick a slam.. if pick a slam, use josephine 6H instead. The key here is 5D shows a fitting card not a singleton.

Chances of anyone bidding this way are fairly slim, but then at least it is reasonable. To reach grand, East has to find out about the diamond king, the heart ACE, the spade AQ, and still be able to ask for EXTRA spade quality.

Ben

[Cascade]

A relay system should do it ...

1♠ 1NT* *GF Relay
2♥ 2♠*
2NT 3♣*
3♦ 3♥* 5413
4♦ 4♥* 5 controls
5♣ 5♦* ♠/♥ honours no ♣honour
5♠ 7♠* second ♠ honour no second ♥honour

Maybe I should relay once or twice more to be certain of the ♠J

[EricK]

Cascade, on Aug 10 2004, 02:01 PM, said:

A relay system should do it ...

1♠ 1NT* *GF Relay
2♥ 2♠*
2NT 3♣*
3♦ 3♥* 5413
4♦ 4♥* 5 controls
5♣ 5♦* ♠/♥ honours no ♣honour
5♠ 7♠* second ♠ honour no second ♥honour

Maybe I should relay once or twice more to be certain of the ♠J

You are lucky that you are playing a relay system which counts a singleton K as a high card control.

Eric

[Free]

EricK, on Aug 10 2004, 10:05 PM, said:

You are lucky that you are playing a relay system which counts a singleton K as a high card control.

Eric

Yes, that was actually my point. Slam with ♦K is nice, but many relay systems don't count singleton K. With MOSCITO, there's probably no way we can find out about ♦K, unless we decide to play in ♠ right after the exact shape is shown. And I'm not sure weither natural systems can easily bid this grand slam as well. There are many imps at stake here!

I'm interested in slam approaches which can find singleton K's (and Q's), cause I've noticed these are sometimes very important, like here... Like Viking Club which uses CRASH-relays, but I don't know that system well enough to judge if it works here.

[Cascade]

EricK, on Aug 11 2004, 09:05 AM, said:

You are lucky that you are playing a relay system which counts a singleton K as a high card control.

It is not luck it is design.

We tried relays where we hid the stiff King but decided it was more important to show it. Partner can almost always work out that is what you have from the denial cue-bids.

As Free says even stiff Queens can be important.

[luke warm]

yeah, stiff K and Q are important but in all relay systems i'm familiar with, stiffs are bypassed for denial purposes... i know you can design your own, and that works just fine as long as nobody forgets what's happening

if you had a control asking bid before the spiral scan, that would work just fine... then the stiff K would be located

[Antoine Fourrière]

I may have a sequence in my system:
1♠ 2♦ 2♥ 3♣ 3♠ 4N 5♥ 5N 6♦ 7♠.

3♣ retransfers in diamonds with a one-suiter (but a forcing 3♦ would have the same effect),
3♠ suggests six cards but seems better than a nonforcing 3♦ or 3N,
4N and 5N are RKCBs.

Still, although the retransfer helps South treat his five-bagger as a six-card suit, the sequence seems to fare well rather to be well thought out.

What I don't like in all the proposed sequences (including Moscito's, I think) is that they rigidly have the player with the singleton ♦K and the all-important ♠QJ telling rather than asking.

[Fluffy]

My dear partner made a singleton control cuebid on my suit, I hate such biddings, but for the first tiem in my life the singleton contrtol was maded on the TRUMP suit , ,I finished passing blackwood, thinking someting not good was going on for +490 :-(


My suggested auction (we didn´t play 2/1)

1♠-2♦
2♥-3♣
3♠-4♣
4♦-5♣
5NT-6♦
7♠

[Gerben47]

Only one pair in the room found it. I didn't, but at least we got to ♠

The one pair that bid it were the Dutch Schools:

Hop - de Pagter
1♠ - 2♦
2♠ - 3♦
3♠ - 4♣
4♦ - 4NT
5♠ - 5NT
6♠ - 7♠

2♦ was GF, 2♠ waiting, 3♠ suggested extras in ♠, then cuebids, ace asking. 5NT asked for extra's and 6♠ said nothing else, so must be solid spades and the ♦K to cater for the previous bidding.

Gerben