[Phil]

Yesterday I played in the club. I thought it was a NAP qualifier (our district final is a week from Sunday), but it turned out to be a Charity pairs. Better points, but not what I needed. You are playing with a partner whom you haven't played with since 2010.

I was treated with the craziest set of boards I have ever seen. In a 27 board stretch, I held four hands with 8 baggers.

Here's the first:

♠AKQxxxxx ♥void ♦Q ♣AKJx

In 3rd seat, I mentally review our responses to 2♣ and try to remember if we have talked about 2♣ - 2♦ - 3♠. In the midst of this, partner places a 1♥ call on the table and RHO passes.

Your call? You do not play strong jump shifts. If you bid 1♠, try to anticipate your auction over partner's rebids.

[MrAce]

Phil, on 2012-August-30, 09:22, said:

Yesterday I played in the club. I thought it was a NAP qualifier (our district final is a week from Sunday), but it turned out to be a Charity pairs. Better points, but not what I needed. You are playing with a partner whom you haven't played with since 2010.

I was treated with the craziest set of boards I have ever seen. In a 27 board stretch, I held four hands with 8 baggers.

Here's the first:

♠AKQxxxxx ♥void ♦Q ♣AKJx

In 3rd seat, I mentally review our responses to 2♣ and try to remember if we have talked about 2♣ - 2♦ - 3♠. In the midst of this, partner places a 1♥ call on the table and RHO passes.

Your call? You do not play strong jump shifts. If you bid 1♠, try to anticipate your auction over partner's rebids.

If 2♠ is not strong jump shift, what it is ? Wjs ? Because if we are playing 2♠ like you and i play (invitational) then 1♠ followed by 3♠ will be forcing.

But regardless i would start with 1♠ as well as most people in the forums i suppose, so why don't you stop the torture and tell us what pd will bid over 1♠ ?

My second choice is 4NT, if this is asking general aces, not keycard ( we debated this in an old topic, when there is space to set the trumps and not used then 4NT asks aces not keycards theory) Of course you may still miss grand when pd says he has 1 ace, but still much better than asking keycards when pd says 2 aces.

This hand can be bid much better by a well oiled pdship but when you say you didnt play since 2010 and you can't even remember the responses to 2♣ opener, i am afraid attempting to bid this hand fancy will result poorly. I would definetely avoid it.

[ahydra]

1S then...
over 1NT (12-14 I assume) I'll try 3C, provided that's not conventional and I don't have some obvious method of setting spades as trumps in a forcing manner (3S?).
over 2anything I'll bid 3S (GF) with a hope to asking for aces, assuming one of them is the HA and bidding slam in spades accordingly. (Interesting question - what is this auction for you - 1H-1S; 2D-3S; 3NT-4C ?)
and over 2NT I'll bid 7NT.

Main issue here is that without excellent partnership understanding, 5H is never going to be Exclusion.

ahydra

[aguahombre]

We won't be lucky enough to get a 1NT rebid after 1S. If we did, a competent checkback scheme would be able to set spades as trump and drag the diamond bullet out of partner.

CHO will undoubtedly rebid some number of hearts or diamonds, and rot will possibly set in. First things first, trying 1S. Maybe it is a good day. I will be thinking well-worn and not-so-clever ways to discourage a diamond lead before blasting.

[TimG]

aguahombre, on 2012-August-30, 10:12, said:

CHO will undoubtedly rebid some number of hearts or diamonds, and rot will possibly set in. First things first, trying 1S. Maybe it is a good day. I will be thinking well-worn and not-so-clever ways to discourage a diamond lead before blasting.

Two that come to mind are an immediate 5D and going slow by establish diamonds as trumps before bidding 7S. The second is probably pretty obvious, so I think I'd opt for exclusion.

[Phil]

Timo, 1♦ - 2♠ is Reverse Flannery.

Agree that an invitational 2♠ is helpful here.

Over 1♠, partner bids 2♦.

[JLOGIC]

I would bid 1S and then 3C lol. I'm not going to anticipate every possible bid from partner, I'm going to bid spades in a forcing manner, then create a force since I cannot bid spades in a forcing manner, hope to rebid spades (now in a forcing manner) and go from there. Along the way I will note what partner bids.

[Fluffy]

I guess in the end I will have to use some form of blackwood, and bid 7NT if he has 2, 6♠ otherwise. Star with 1♠ then 3♣ obviously

[Phil]

JLOGIC, on 2012-August-30, 10:52, said:

I would bid 1S and then 3C lol. I'm not going to anticipate every possible bid from partner, I'm going to bid spades in a forcing manner, then create a force since I cannot bid spades in a forcing manner, hope to rebid spades (now in a forcing manner) and go from there. Along the way I will note what partner bids.

OK, 1♥ - 1♠ - 2♦ - 3♣ - 3N....

I don't know of a forcing spade call here. Even 4♣ doesn't sound like a spade flag - it sounds natural and 3N might have confirmed a 5-3 club fit.

[JLOGIC]

The good news is it sounds like partner has the CQ based on his 3N bid (depends on your default position with 1543 though, but with no spade honors and no club honors I have to imagine he'd go 3D). At this point our choices are blast 7S and hope that even if we're off the DA they don't have it to lead so we can pitch on the HA, or to just bid 4C and try to get a 4D cue from partner (even if 4C is natural), or not. If he goes back to 4S we can try keycard planning to bid it opposite 2 or opposite 1, or keep cuebidding. If he bids 4D we can just blast 7 or we can keep messing around (5H?).

These hands are hard whether to go tactical or scientific since getting to 6 and outlining the diamond lead might be a disaster at MP, and 7N is in play, etc. Even with as bad as the dreaded 3C FSF followed by 3N is, we got very useful info re the CQ out of it so I am not too distraught. Other auctions would have had us worrying about our clubs, now all we really need to know is the DA, maybe the HA, so even if we have to go a little gangster in our bidding it's alright

[ahydra]

Phil, on 2012-August-30, 11:18, said:

OK, 1♥ - 1♠ - 2♦ - 3♣ - 3N....

I don't know of a forcing spade call here. Even 4♣ doesn't sound like a spade flag - it sounds natural and 3N might have confirmed a 5-3 club fit.

I had a gadget for this once but it never got used. After a natural 3NT by opener (mainly in an auction like this), 4C = slam try in opener's first bid suit, 4D = slam try in responder's first bid suit. So 4D here.

Without this or similar, you are indeed stuck - although 4C is forcing one round, it doesn't exactly help unless you are lucky enough to get 4S from partner.

ahydra

[aguahombre]

Phil, on 2012-August-30, 11:18, said:

OK, 1♥ - 1♠ - 2♦ - 3♣ - 3N....

I don't know of a forcing spade call here. Even 4♣ doesn't sound like a spade flag - it sounds natural and 3N might have confirmed a 5-3 club fit.

I think we will have to hope spades are 3-2 even if pard is void. 4♣ is forcing and obviously slammish. Maybe opener will still cue the diamond bullet (thinking clubs are trump --I don't care). If she does, I will try 7S. If she doesn't, 6S. She doesn't get to convert back to clubs in either case:)

[mike777]

Phil, on 2012-August-30, 09:22, said:

Yesterday I played in the club. I thought it was a NAP qualifier (our district final is a week from Sunday), but it turned out to be a Charity pairs. Better points, but not what I needed. You are playing with a partner whom you haven't played with since 2010.

I was treated with the craziest set of boards I have ever seen. In a 27 board stretch, I held four hands with 8 baggers.

Here's the first:

♠AKQxxxxx ♥void ♦Q ♣AKJx

In 3rd seat, I mentally review our responses to 2♣ and try to remember if we have talked about 2♣ - 2♦ - 3♠. In the midst of this, partner places a 1♥ call on the table and RHO passes.

Your call? You do not play strong jump shifts. If you bid 1♠, try to anticipate your auction over partner's rebids.

1s then 3c over 2d

will try 6nt over 3nt.

[JLOGIC]

6N is quite a bid

[lamford]

I would just bid 6S. Even opposite x AQJxx AJxx xxx I am nowhere near cold for seven. Partner might raise with AK, A as well. And opposite something like x AKQxx Kxxx xxx, 6S might depend on the lead, so why give information?

[Fluffy]

as Justin said set trumps with 4♣. bid 6 if partner fails to cue 4♦, otherwise bid 4NT RKCW for clubs and blast 6♠/7♠/7NT depending on how many keycards he has

[mike777]

Fluffy, on 2012-August-30, 23:32, said:

as Justin said set trumps with 4♣. bid 6 if partner fails to cue 4♦, otherwise bid 4NT RKCW for clubs and blast 6♠/7♠/7NT depending on how many keycards he has

just not sure 4nt is rkcw for any suit let alone which one.

If you have a clear path to rkc after 3nt, great.

[Phil]

I went full gangster on this one. I've never opened 7, and I've never responded 7 - until now. Worked fine - partner held x KQTxx AKxx Qxx.

I considered a slow approach (1♠), but figured I would never get much relevant information with this partner. He's a reasonable player, but our agreements aren't very solid.

Considered a direct 4N (knowing I would pitch the diamond off the ♥A), but feared a doubled of a 5♦ response - even though that meant I would need a ruffing heart finesse.

An interesting call is a direct 2♣. You'll find out about partner's club length, and you can discover the ♣Q + ♦A perhaps with a slow approach.

[aguahombre]

If someone did this (7S), and I were on opening lead ---I would probably guess that the "bluff" control (if any) was hearts and lead one, so doing it with that hand, Phil, would have a high success rate against me if Opener had a lot of hands different from the one he held.

[BunnyGo]

Phil, on 2012-August-30, 10:30, said:

Timo, 1♦ - 2♠ is Reverse Flannery.

Agree that an invitational 2♠ is helpful here.

Over 1♠, partner bids 2♦.

How does 1D-2S address the question Timo asked about 1H-2S?