Posted 2012-June-26, 15:22
Well, now this deal is funny. What I am about to propose is REAL, and I would in fact bid this way, as this very topic has come up in discussions.
The obvious start is a 1♥ opening.
As Responder, I do not like splinters with voids or with running six-baggers, and I do not like Jacoby 2NT with this type of hand. I also hate muddying the waters with a 1♠ response. So, the only remaining option, which is almost knee-jerk obvious for me, is a 2♣ GF response. 1♥-P-2♣. (As an aside, this leave me with options to pull a faker if I want to later, and it has the slight dissuading effect on a club lead should I end up zooming. It also blocks a club lead-director bid by fourth seat.)
Opener now rebids 2♦, because I like 2♦ after a 2♣ call as "balanced or diamonds." 2NT would ideally show a really good diamond-heart two-suiter. I could live with the treatment of 2NT as the 18-19 balanced hand (only bidding 2♦ if balanced when weak), in which case we start this auction at 3♥ agreeing trumps. But, I will continue as if 2♦ was the call.
Responder now sets trumps. 1♥-P-2♣-P-, 2♦-P-2♥
Opener bypasses 2♠ because he lacks a spade control (Ace, King, stiff, or void, and hence 2+ spades), bypasses 2NT because he has good trumps (two of the top three honors or better), and cuebids 3♣ because he has one of the top three clubs (ostensibly "my suit"). 1♥-2♣, 2♦-2♥, 3♣. (This is even more fun,as we now have really made a club lead sound bad.)
Responder can hold back on the club situation for a minute and continue cuebidding, bidding 3♦ to show a diamond control. As Opener denied a spade control, this shows a spade control, as well.
Opener now cuebids 3♥ to show all three top hearts.
Responder, who already inferentially showed a spade control, can now cuebid 3♠ to show first-round control in spades.
Opener, who has 18 HCP, bids 3NT as Serious.
The auction so far:
1♥-P-2♣-P-
2♦-P-2♥-P-
3♣-P-3♦-P-
3♥-P-3♠-P-
3NT-P-?
At this point, North does not know whether South has a club control or not. North could be practical and bid 4♦ as another cue to assure that the diamond control is first-round, thereby isolating the potential club problem, but this would not be entirely clear to South, as North would need both top club honors to cue 4♣. However, this would strangely be an auction calling for Lackwood, even though 4♦ is not LTTC but rather a true cue (as the partner of the Serious 3NT bidder cannot bid LTTC in my methods), strange because I rarely see the use for Lackwood. Well, here it is.
North also has another practical option, which is a 5♣ call. When 5♣ cannot be Exclusion, I play this as RKCB for clubs, even though hearts ar agreed. This treatment works wonders here, because (1) Responder already knows about all three top hearts (which often occurs in these types of cuebidding sequences), (2) clubs is the issue (which often is the case, as well), and (3) it still leaves the opponents blind about clubs, at least somewhat. It has some downside, though, in that a grand might be hard to discover, seeing that the key card might be the King and that the difference between 2-5-3-3, 3-5-2-3 and 3-5-3-2 is enormous. At least the spade doubleton could be found later, by an asking bid, but the club question would be unresolved, which is bad. So, that option only works for small slam seeking. (I hav not thought this through to see what might happen in given auctions, but I think the grand is not discoverable this way.)
North could also try 5♦ as Exclusion, planning to bid a funny "find the lead" 6♥ if h wants to be exotic, while preserving a fair shot and finding a grand when it is there.
So many tactical choices...
"Gibberish in, gibberish out. A trial judge, three sets of lawyers, and now three appellate judges cannot agree on what this law means. And we ask police officers, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and citizens to enforce or abide by it? The legislature continues to write unreadable statutes. Gibberish should not be enforced as law."
-P.J. Painter.
Help
TWO4BRIDGE, on 2012-June-25, 20:36, said:
