By and large bidding 7 NT is not a good idea missing a King, unless you have a long running suit as a source of tricks. You don’t, and your partner opening 2 NT shouldn’t either. So 7NT could easily be on a finesse if you don’t find out about As and Ks.
I don’t have methods for this. I would transfer to 3S then bid 5NT “pick a slam”. I don’t know how to find out about a grand slam with any confidence. We would need spades to be coming in, so I could bid 4H, transfer to 4S, then bid 4NT, which would be RKCB in that sequence in my methods (2NT - 3H; 3S - 4NT would be natural and quantitative. 2NT - 3H; 3S - 4C would be natural). But I still do not see how we can know that we have no minor suit losers, so would not go past 6.
A hand from today. Not difficult, but somewhat unusual in that I only made one bid: 7NT.
Kx AJx AK AKQJ9x. In 4th seat, I started to think about my second bid after partner responded to my 2C opening, but this was stopped by LHO opening 2H. I decided I would start with a double but before I got a chance, partner started thinking. Surely he cannot have a bid, I thought, but he emerged from the tank with 3H. It is only the second time we have played together and have never agreed what this sequence means. I decided I did not care, and bid 7NT. This has 15 top tricks. Partner was AQTxx xxx QJxxx void. 3H was Michaels.
5 out of 13 pairs bid 7NT, 3 bid 6NT, 2 went down in 7S and 3 played in 3NT.
Would you really play 5NT there as pick-a-slam after you transferred to spades and not the Grand Slam Force asking partner to bid 7 spades with two of top three honors? And if you did play it as pick a slam, what do you do if partner suggests diamonds or hearts, and are quite possibly only 4 card suits. He might well be 2-4-4-3. He certainly doesn’t have a 6 card suit after opening 2NT. DO you want to play 6D in a 5-3 fit? I’d think the bidding would go
2N 2H (transfer) 2S 3C. Partner will know you’re at least 5-4 in black suits. If he doesn’t like either, he’ll likely bid 3NT. You could then try 6N. If he supports either suit bid 6 of that one.
Thks for the replies - we played in 6N for a flat board.
We’re missing the KH which is off side, but both 7N and 7S [pard had KQ tight] make due to very even breaks in all suits.
7N sounds like a guess, but maybe 7S is percentage with 36 pts, and pard showing all key cards and the Q? Just unclear whether pard has 2 or 3 spades.
Yes. GSF has been made virtually obsolete by the invention of RKCB. I can find out about the top spade honors with RKCB, so no need to have another bid for the same thing.
I put it back to 6NT if I have no fit for another suit he suggests. However, as I have already shown 5 spades, he should not be looking for me to have another 4 card suit and I would expect 5D/H to show 5. Actually, 5S and 4H is one of the hardest hands to show after a 2NT opening. (2N 3H 3S 4H should show 5-5 else you have a problem when opener is 2-3).
Wanna bet? KJ AQ AQTxxx KJx. I open 2NT with that.
Yes. Ruffing hearts in the short hand and/or ruffing spades good. If partner has 5 diamonds we have a better shot at 7D than 7S.
It would be fantastic if you can do that, but 2H is insufficient. The difficulty on this hand is the lack of room after the 2NT opening to explore whether you really have a spade fit (or a club fit), which is why one of my suggestions was that 2N 3H 3S 4C shows a club suit and is not Gerber. That then works as you suggest, but a level higher. If partner bids 4S, you can use RKCB and head for a spade slam. As long as you can play this sequence as not Gerber, I prefer it to my original suggestion of 5NT as you can find out about a spade fit.
I had some interesting bidding problems the other day (most of which I completely flunked). First up was this one.
Playing Acol, I opened 1D first in hand on:
S JTx
H QJTx
D AKJ9xx
C -
Partner responded 2C (shows 9+) and RHO weighed in with 2H. Now what?
Between pass and 3D for me. Do you recall the vulnerability? A pass at fav is worth considering because there’s a potential misfit brewing up and a re-opening X from pard is nailed on. 2HX [or even 3HX if LHO feels like they’re being obstructive] could be a profitable spot sitting over declarer with 2 natural trump winners, balance of the points, plus maybe a diamond ruff for pard.
3D is prob the normal bid and gives pard options. They will pass this with a minimum club hand, they have a Western cue bid available when they have extras [which must be a spade stop from the bidding] which will get you to 3N when it is right. If they’re very shapely with 2 or 3 small diamonds they can also look for 5D.
I had a bit of a disaster last week. My partner opened 3NT and I passed holding a balanced 10 HCP (no aces). I thought he had a long solid minor; he had 25 points. Of course, the bidding should have gone 2C - 2NT - 3NT - 6NT (which made at every table).
Quartz - Ouch. Sympathy. But don’t worry, I’ve got a bigger one.
Same session as the above, fourth in hand I pick up:
S ATxxx
H x
D x
C AKxxxx
and am wondering the best bid over a red-suit opening when LHO opens 1D and partner overcalls 2C(!)
I force with 2D and partner responds 2H. Then, thinking we were in a game-forcing situation (pickup partner, very much undiscussed situation) and not wanting to conceal my trump holding any longer, I bid 3C.
Partner did not agree about the game-forcing and passed with:
S K
H Axxx
D Axx
C QTxxx
Playing a lay-down grand slam in a part score was not the high point of my session.
Still don’t know how it should have been bid. (1D)-2C-2D-2H-2S-3C-?
Busy Scissors Vulnerability was all-vul. Pass would probably have turned out better, but it still feels like the hand has too much strength to go quietly. And if partner has a one-suited hand, he may go to 3C instead of doubling…
Anyhow, that’s the intro to the big question. Over 3D partner forces with 3H, and whether you punt 3NT or retreat to 5D, the next you hear from him is 6C! Now, do you leave him in it or run to 6D?
Merrick - partner might bid 2NT instead of 3C. Either way, getting to 7 is difficult. It depends upon what ace-asking options you have. Ideally, after finding out you have all the aces, you want to show partner you have the club king by asking for kings. Partner might bid 7 then with the KQ of spades. But 5NT asking for kings might get you over 6C, not having the king of spades.
Bidding 3C seems like simple suit preference. Partner is showing 5+ clubs, you have 6, including AK so there are no trump losers. You have two aces so can bid 4NT (straight Blackwood or 0314 RKCB) and cope with any response partner makes. Partner shows 2 aces so you bid 7C. Note that you can’t do this if you play 1430 RKCB as you can’t cope with the 5D response.
Yeah 2S all day there on that one Merrick, don’t think 3C is right. From the sequence you suggest it then looks like you’ve got a solid cue-bidding train that will take you to 6. 7 isn’t on the cards for a pickup partnership and I’m not sure any natural methods get you there, as don’t you need to diagnose the KS being stiff as the critical card for grand?
Second one I wouldn’t dream of taking that out - when partner stands on their chair and takes 3N out into 6C you’ve just got to let them get on with it unless it’s incontrovertibly clear to take action. Here it’s nowhere near that as you’ve bid your hand fine and certainly don’t have a 6D bid.
Doing that in a real partnership can end them, as you’re basically saying you don’t trust partner’s judgement. Otherside of the coin is that removing making 3N contracts into a fatuous 6C slam isn’t great for partnership harmony, either. So did it make? At least you’ll know if you should play with this person again!
On the grand slam hand, it’s hard to see what you did wrong. As a novice myself, even without any prior agreement I hope I would recognise your bid of opponent’s suit as being forcing for at least one round. So as your partner I would have bid 2H (to show my second suit), as per the actual situation. Clearly it’s then up to you to describe your hand, which you do by naming your longest (and strongest, as it happens) suit. Back to me, I can see I have an opening hand, you have forced so clearly you have some strength or shape, and you have just agreed my longest suit as trumps. So I don’t need to know whether your intention was to force to game or not - quite clearly we have an excellent fit in clubs so I should be pushing for game anyway. Had you bid 2S instead, I think that would have created more confusion. It seems to me (1D)-2C-2D-2H-3C is a fine sequence. My next bid is a little trickier, it would be nice if we could start cue bidding with 3D (first-round control in diamonds), followed by 3S from you (first-round control in spades but not hearts). But even if this works, my problem is I don’t get to find out about your very useful singletons under my aces. At this point I probably bid 3NT. Given your shape and the fit (you can assume I have 5 clubs due to the earlier bidding), I think you can then ask for aces, and on hearing I have 2, go on to kings. However, when I tell you I have one king, you don’t know what colour it is, and you still don’t know about my spade singleton. Does that mean you have to leave 6C to play? I’m really struggling to see how we could get to 7C or 7NT, but hopefully an expert will be along shortly.
On your other hand (where we don’t know partner’s holding yet), it looks like a horrible misfit (perhaps explaining Busy Scissors’s preference for defending on it). It looks to me like 3NT is a better bid than 5D, you’re probably losing 2 heart tricks but have the suit stopped after that, and although partner might assume you have a spade stopper, you’d be unlucky if oppos can reel off 5 spade tricks. If partner does bid 6C over your 3NT, I think you can assume he is very long in clubs and I wouldn’t try to change to diamonds, he could easily be void in diamonds.
ETA: I see the better players have responded while I was typing.
I’ve got a question about claiming. I know that when declarer makes a claim, she’s not allowed to finesse unless she says so when she’s claiming. But does that also apply to other declarer techniques like squeeze plays and throw-ins? I remember a hand many years ago where the declarer claimed his contract and I could see that the claim was incorrect but challenging the claim would have told him where the problem lay and and allowed him to make the contract. Catch-22.
My understanding (and it’s from 20 years ago, so take it with a grain of salt) is that on an underspecified claim you can basically lay the cards down and assume the claimant took the worst plausible decision at each option. What ‘plausible’ means may somewhat depend on the field, but missing a squeeze or managing to screw up transportation are likely to be plausible misplays.
Challenging the claim would involve you looking for a plausible way for him to fail to make the contract, not the reverse of letting him see the cards and getting to retroactively assert the ideal line.
No you don’t get to assume the worst possible play. For example in running a suit, you assume play is from the top so with AKx2 in your hand and one card outstanding, you assume A is lead first not 2. One "worst "assumption you do make is you may not first pull trump after an unspecified claim so if there’s an outstanding trump it often takes a trip by roughing one of your winners even if it could have been extracted.
You can no doubt claim on a squeeze in the expert game (I believe Zia does this, pour le panache), but good luck doing that down the club. Would be pretty funny to try - Claiming 6, squeezing east in the pointed suits, followed by a 10 min explanation to Doris and Agnes.
I have had a similar situation to what you describe, with an opp claiming on a marked finesse, my pard (being more perceptive than me) refusing it because there were transportation issues with the dummy, thus alerting declarer to the problem, so he makes the contract. I don’t know what the answer is - One for the secretary birds on the bridge forums [who will unequivocally answer any ruling issue IME].
Don’t worry about alerting the declarer to lines of play or possible holdings because when declarer claims play is suspended. There will be no more playing, just analysis as to the correctness of the claim.
I had one today where I claimed with a marked finesse against RHO for a queen. LHO had already shown out twice and I had already finessed against the queen once. I claimed without stating I would take the finesse again. When they acted unsure, I said “taking the marked finesse”. They called the director anyway, who ruled the claim as valid because it was inconceivable that I would not finesse again. So you are not forced to take an obviously silly line.