Sunday, August 19, 2012

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.

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4 comments:

  1. DavidAugust 21, 2012 at 4:40 PM

    On the first hand, have to ask first why you would BW, why not bid 4S, second cue bid in that suit, and let your partner cue bid either 5C or 5D, both of which you want to hear.

    On the actual auction, you need to talk about showing useful voids in a KC auction. A bid of 6H by your partner over 4N should then show 2 KC with a useful void. That lets you know that you are still missing the Q of Hearts, so a little to pushy for 7.

    On the 2nd hand, I might have supported Hearts after 3S, since you have denied good Hearts already and you have Hx in the suit and the good A of Spades. You already bid 2N over 2H to show a balanced hand without primary support.

    On your actual auction, you could try 5H instead of 6H, but that is more guessing. On the actual hand, partner will pass with the bad 2C opener, but on a lot of hands, your action might have worked well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. LakAugust 22, 2012 at 8:42 AM

    Thanks, David. Godo suggestions both: on showing a useful void and cue-bidding the spades again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. PrashanthAugust 23, 2012 at 1:47 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. PrashanthAugust 23, 2012 at 1:54 AM

    Agree with David on showing voids in a keycard situation. I play it as 5NT = even number of keycards with a useful void, 6C = odd number of keycards with a useful void. This way the opener can use the cheapest available bid as a queen ask if necessary.

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