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You are in a slam auction. Do you control bid and show shortness in partner's suit?
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Control bids, showing shortness
#1
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Posted Yesterday, 11:34
#2
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Posted Yesterday, 11:47
I do not.
#3
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Posted Yesterday, 13:39
It is not the first control that gets shown.
With kind regards
Uwe Gebhardt (P_Marlowe)
Uwe Gebhardt (P_Marlowe)
#4
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Posted Yesterday, 13:44
mike777, on 2026-November-03, 11:34, said:
You are in a slam auction. Do you control bid and show shortness in partner's suit?
Slams require sources of tricks. If your cuebid in what partner is hoping to be a source of tricks could either be shortness or a high card control: I hope your partner is a great guesser!
Say I hold a suit of AQxxx, which is not going to be trump. You cue bid your control in that suit. Should I (a) upgrade because we probably have 4 or even. 5 tricks in the suit because you have the King or (b) downgrade because I likely have a lot of work to create even a second trick in the suit when you have a stiff.
Btw, you can have the best of both worlds. If you bypass this suit in your control bidding but cue bid it later, the delayed control is shortness.
Of course, to benefit from this approach it’s helpful to avoid using keycard as your main way of showing slam interest. I know nobody listens, but keycard is to keep you out of a slam when you have established you have the requisite values but are off too many keycards/trump queen or to get you to grand when you can see 13 tricks so long as you’re not missing a keycard/trump queen. So many players use keycard to announce slam interest and, by doing so, fail to establish that their side has both the requisite values and no suit off the first two tricks.
'one of the great markers of the advance of human kindness is the howls you will hear from the Men of God' Johann Hari
#5
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Posted Yesterday, 15:27
I posted this after listening to Gavin Wolpert's 2 hour discussion on high level bidding decisions when the opponents make high level preemptive bids. BTW he emphasized even top players have difficulty making the winning decisions,so definitely make preemptive jumps against your opponents.
It surprised me when, as a side discussion, he mentioned we should control bid shortness in partner's suit. He mentioned teaching this and the push back , strong push back, he gets from his students. He mentioned this has never been an at the table issue for him but granted there probably is some hand out there that might be an issue.
He felt very strongly about this teaching point.
Edit
He Did not mention anything about waiting and delayed control bidding partner's suit later.
It surprised me when, as a side discussion, he mentioned we should control bid shortness in partner's suit. He mentioned teaching this and the push back , strong push back, he gets from his students. He mentioned this has never been an at the table issue for him but granted there probably is some hand out there that might be an issue.
He felt very strongly about this teaching point.
Edit
He Did not mention anything about waiting and delayed control bidding partner's suit later.
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