[ahydra]

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Here's a hand from today's match (IMPs). Anyone want to be in grand here (7D and 7S seem the same, both need spades to break)?

If so, how would you bid to the grand? I've put our auction above - 3C was 4sf, 3S shows spade support and 4C, 4D, 4H, 5C were cue bids. I was East and had no idea partner had such a perfect fit - we talked about whether I could have bid 6D after 5C asking for 3rd round control, but I'm not sure that's the best option.

ahydra

[mike777]

as a b/i I can see missing the grand.

Prefer 4nt after 4d but that still does not make the hand easy.

[Quantumcat]

You can't be too upset if you miss a 28 pt grand slam! Especially since some of the points are wasted.

If you have suit-asking bids after blackwood it might go something like,

1♥ - 1♠
2♦ - 3♣
3♠ - 4♣ (Opener's hand must be worth 16+ to not bid 2♠ immediately, so slam will be on)
4♦ - 4NT
5♥ - 6♣ (2nd step besides signoff asks for 2nd suit - diamonds. If opener holds a good side-suit a grand is on, if some of his points are in clubs or hearts it's not as good, will settle for small slam).
7♣ - 7♠ (7♣ was five steps: showing the king-queen.)

Moral: remember to always support responder's major when you have three cards and 12-15 hcp. Otherwise if you later show 3 cards you show 16+ hcp. (Opener's hand was worth 16+ after the spade bid).

[inquiry]

First question is a routine IMP question. How good does the grand slam have to be to risk the small slam bonus to bid a grand slam at imps?

In a short match, you probably need just a little more than even chance, as bidding it or not bidding it is likely to decide the match.

Not vul, if you bid the grand when small slam makes, you win 11 imps but if the slam goes down, you lose 14 imps.
Vul, if you bid the grand when small slam makes, you win 13 imps, while you lose 16 (minors) and 17 (majors) when it goes down.

This is used by some people to suggest bidding grand when the odds favorite (win 11 lose 14 on this hand, would mean bid the grand slam if the odds were 56% or better (14/(11+14), etc. I actually want a little better, because there is a risk that the opponents might not even bid the small slam. But in a 7 or 8 board match, as noted above, you might well take a risk as long as the odds of the grand is higher than 50%.

Now to the hand. What do you need? Well 3-2 spades seems like a big help. As you know, odds of a 3-2 spit is 68%. Is a 3-2 split enough? Well, no. There must not be 5=0 diamond split if you play in spades and a diamond ruffed at trick one, etc, but surely that is low enough to forget.

I think a reasonable auction might start...

1♥ - 1♠
2♠ - 3♣
3♦ - 3♥
4♣ - 4NT
5NT - 6♦
7♦ - 7♠
Pass

3♣ = game/or/slam try
3♦ = stuff in diamonds
3♥ = cue-here
4♣ = cue bid
4NT = rkcb
5NT = 2 key cards, plus a void (has to be clubs here)
6♦ = asking bid
7♦ = KQ of diamonds

You would have to be playing a pretty sophisticated RKCB for this auction.

[Fluffy]

your auction was fine, all hat wes had to do was to realice that he has already shown club shortness, and hence, 4♣ cuebid must be the ace, since club King is uselesss opposite singleton. After you know East has ♣A the only keycards West is missing after 4♥ are ♠AKQ, and he can ask about them with 4NT.

[Mbodell]

I think the "right" answer for auction that I'd have opposite myself is similar to OP until the 4♦ call and then similar to Inquiry's after that.

1♥ - 1♠
2♦ - 3♣ (f2f)
3♠ - 4♣ (cue)
4♦ (cue) - 4nt (1430 for spades)
5nt (even key cards and a void) - 6♦ (do you have the ♦K?)
7♦ (yes, and also the ♦Q) - 7♠

As others have pointed out, the E hand should keycard as soon as he figures out we will not be off two cashing ♦, which is immediately after the ♦ cue.

[ahydra]

I've always preferred the french style (don't support responder's suit with 3) - one can always find out about support later, eg via 4SF. Hence I think Mbodell's auction is pretty good, making use of the fact that cue'ing 4H is inferior to simply finding out about the HA, and some nice high-level specific card asks.

ahydra

[JLOGIC]

It is easy to see someone missing small slam on these cards (depending on the level of your opps). Because of this significant chance that people play game, I would not want to be in a grand slam.

If it was a routine slam then I would definitely want to be there on a 3-2 break though.

BTW I agree with the 2D rebid, raising with 3 small rather than bidding my AKQxx suit seems way too extreme.