Can you trust partner's signal?

First of all, a lead problem.  The bidding has gone:

W

West

N

Partner

E

East

S

Me

1♣

2♥¹

3♦

3♥

5♦

All Pass

(1) weak

You hold:

S

South

♠

Axx

♥

A10x

♦

xxx

♣

xxxx

What do you lead?

I reasoned that a passive lead was probably unwise, since West's clubs rated to be very good.  Partner having shown 6  hearts, it appears to be reasonably safe to lead the ace of hearts.  Dummy comes down:

S

Me

♠

Axx

♥

A10x

♦

xxx

♣

xxxx

.

Lead: ♥A

W

Dummy

♠

Qxx

♥

x

♦

KJxx

♣

AKQJx

Under the ace, partner plays the 8 of hearts. Your agreements are quite simple: upside down count and attitude.   What is partner trying to say?


In this case, partner's count and attitude are both already known. He has 6 hearts and any heart continuation is going to be ruffed in  dummy.  So, it must be suit preference.  I am a little doubtful though, because we have not quite agreed on suit preference situations.

I decide to trust partner to be signaling suit preference and I plop down my second unsupported ace. The ace of spades.

Under the ace of spades, partner plays the 8 of spades. What is partner trying to say?  What do you do next?

At the table, I decided that partner had probably forgotten about suit preference and was emphatically discouraging both hearts and spades. Ergo, he must be void in clubs. I led a club, hoping for a ruff.

That was not the right move, because declarer now proceeded to make his contract:

.

Vul: E-W

Dlr: West

N

North

♠

KJ108

♥

KQ8xxx

♦

x

♣

xx

.

W

West

♠

Qxx

♥

x

♦

KJxx

♣

AKQJx

E

East

♠

xxx

♥

J9x

♦

AQxxx

♣

xx

.

S

South

♠

Axx

♥

A10x

♦

xxx

♣

xxxx

.

Partner had not forgotten.  The 8 of spades was his lowest spade and he was encouraging as best  he could.

The thing is, once he'd given suit preference for spades, his job was done. I need not have looked at what he played under my Ace of spades. Put another way, with a club void, he'd have played low under the Ace of hearts.  That is, if he and I are agreed to play suit preference when dummy has a singleton in our bid and raised suit.

What are your agreements regarding suit preference? Are they complete enough to avoid a mishap like ours?

Can you trust the opponents?

Playing against two good players, who would go on to win the game yesterday evening, I pick up:

S

South (Me)

♠

AK10x

♥

KQx

♦

Q10xx

♣

Jx

The bidding goes:

W

West

N

North

E

East

S

Me

1♥

Pass

1NT

?

What would you now bid?

We are at favorable vulnerability and the bidding, if one can trust the opponents, seemed to indicate that partner was likely to have length in spades.  I bid 2S, which was passed out.

This did not play very well, to put it mildly, as the hand turned out to be:

.

Vul: E-W

Dlr: West

N

North

♠

9x

♥

A9xxx

♦

xx

♣

Qxxx

.

W

West

♠

xx

♥

J10xxx

♦

AKJx

♣

Ax

Lead: ♣A

E

East

♠

QJxxx

♥

—

♦

xxx

♣

K10xxx

.

S

South

♠

AK10x

♥

KQx

♦

Q10xx

♣

Jx

.

With 5-5 in the black suits and a void in partner's suit, East had bid 1NT!  Unfortunately, the rest of the field was either in 1NT our way (making) or 2NT their way (down 1 or 2).

Bidding slams

Playing online with one of my regular partners, we ran into two slammish hands.

Here is one that we missed:

N

Pard

♠

Q108

♥

KJ9

♦

AQ109654

♣

—

Lead: ♣K

S

Me

♠

AKJ6

♥

A106532

♦

7

♣

95

This was the bidding:

W

West

N

North

E

East

S

Me

—

—

Pass

1♥

Pass

2♦

Pass

2♠

Pass

3♥

Pass

3♠¹

Pass

4♣²

Pass

4NT³

Pass

5♥⁴

All Pass

(1) cue-bid

(2) cue-bid

(3) RKC

(4) 2 keys without trump queen

Partner's told me (I thought) that he had the club Ace, and now we missing either the Ace of diamonds or the king of trumps. And no queen either.  I passed 5H out.

Dummy came down and, with the club lead, I had the tempo to ruff my clubs in dummy and play the king of trumps. When hearts turned out to be 2-2, I made 7.  Obviously, 5H+2 was not a great result.  Where did we go wrong in the bidding?


As if to compensate, we ended up in a no-play slam on this hand:

W

Me

♠

A108

♥

K4

♦

J1073

♣

10965

Lead: ♣K

E

Pard

♠

KQJ2

♥

AQJ872

♦

A

♣

Q7

Here, the bidding went:

W

West

N

North

E

East

S

South

Pass

Pass

2♣

Pass

2♦

Pass

2♥

Pass

2NT

Pass

3♠

Pass

3NT

Pass

4♥¹

Pass

6♥²

All Pass

(1) 6-4

(2) a bit rash?

Once partner showed me a 6-4 hand, I was stuck.  4S would be a preference for spades, not a cue-bid. I like my hand though, because I have two monster cards in partner's two suits. I guess there is no harm in asking for aces, but since I have no keycards in partner's short suits, it's no panacea -- off one keycard, I would still have to bid the slam. So, what's the right approach here?

Slam bidding is, of course, one of the most pleasurable parts of the game, so I need to get better at this stuff.