Bridge: 7 No Trumps baby!

Nice.

So I’ve not been playing much recently, but ventured out this week to a club competition that we managed to win - name up on the board of a bridge club wall, I have arrived :slight_smile:

Couple of hands: IMPs scoring converted to VPs, ten teams where you play 3 boards against each. Second to last table and you can see from the barometer that you are sitting second overall by a point or two - it’s very close. You pick up this monster vuln:

S AKJT6
H A
D AK92
C AQ9

2C 2D (At least an ace or a king)
2S 3S
4C 4S
4N 5C (none, obv)
5D 6C (QS and KC).

Are you bidding the grand for glory? Would 6D carry a meaning of asking for a third round control or am I making stuff up?

Last table all vuln, pard makes a second seat 3C preempt - pass to you holding

S AT642
H A432
D KJ
C J6

How’s 3N look to you here? Automatic, maybe, or wouldn’t occur to me?

I’ll bite:

For the first one, it depends if partner’s 3S shows 4-card support. If so, I think 7S is worth the shot. If he’s only promised 3, I take the money in 6S.

For the second, it depends slightly on whether I’ve just ploughed the slam hand, but assuming that partner’s vulnerable pre-empts are decent quality, I think you have to go to 3NT. If the clubs run, it’s lay-down, and you can’t afford to miss a vulnerable game.
(If your partner is like mine and will cheerfully open 3C vulnerable on a suit to the K9 and a side K, pass)

Congratulations.

Depends on system agreements. Many people (at least in the US) play that the 3S bid is stronger than 4S. Also, what is your cue-bidding style? I play that cue bids show 1st or 2nd round control. Hence partner does not have KH. This is good news - it would be wasted unless part of KQx. Generally, though, I am a wuss about bidding grands. I would only bid it here if I felt we needed a big last match to win the event. But see my next paragraph.

It might well. Certainly 4NT - 5C - 6D asks for 3rd round control. But 4NT - 5C - 5NT - 6C (showing KC, not count of kings) - 6D means either, by partnership agreement, “bid 7 if you have KD”, or “I have KD, bid 7 if you have something extra”.

Either way, 6D must be a grand slam try asking partner for something extra. If you trust partner not to do something crazy, like pass it, it must be worth a shot.

As Merrick indicates, partner’s preempting style is important. I wouldn’t expect a garbage suit, vulnerable, but KQ109875 is not good enough unless there is another entry. With my most regular partner, we have agreed not to preempt at the 3-level holding a running suit. So partner does not have AKQxxxx.

I also agree with Merrick about state of the match. If I bid the grand and it made, I’d be more conservative here. If I bid it and it went down, I’d bid 3NT.

Thks for the replies - 3N did come in for a good score on a 2-2 club split, and pard’s sensible preempt of AK seventh. I think this is a reasonable bid at IMPs as you’re at least making it on the basis of what you know about pard’s style - which is v solid second seat in my case.

I was all fired up to bid the grand if pard showed me the queen, but in reality the bidding sequence didn’t go quite like I indicated, he signed off in 6S despite having it (unfortunately he’s good for one or two of these basic lapses per match). I was annoyed at the table because 7 made on the diamond finesse (pard had JTxx I think with KD onside).
In hindsight, though, I can see that it’s a bit wild - no reason to think he has anything in diamonds absent more information, so if I bid that and he showed up with xxx diamonds it could have been very costly given the state of the match.

No activity on this thread for nearly four weeks! It’s been a slammy week, so I’ll make a couple of posts on them.

Monday was notable for bidding two grand slams. On the first I had A9842 42 K1096 K8. Partner opened 1H, RHO bid 2H, Michaels. I doubled, showing the ability to double at least one of his suits. Partner bid 4D. At this point, 4S from me is probably a cue bid agreeing diamonds, but wanting to keep things clear I bid 6D. She then bid 7D, holding Q AKQ9xx AQxxx A. 7H makes also, but 7D does not need a 3-2 heart break.

Then I held 742 QJ106 AKJ A86. Partner opened 1S, 4D from RHO. I should maybe have doubled, which would have been negative, but vulnerable against not I did not want partner to pass and have us collect 500 against a vulnerable game. I bid 4S, 4NT from partner, 5H from me and now partner bid 6C. What’s that? The standard meaning is to be an ask for third round control, but I doubted partner knew that. She’s a very good player - has won a national championship - but likes to keep things simple and has mental blocks about the finer points of RKCB. I bid 6NT (we are playing matchpoints and I’m not ruffing anything), partner bid 7S, passed around to LHO who doubled instantly. Against these opponents, I was pretty sure that signified a spade stack rather than be a Lightner double, so I thought if spades are not coming in, 7NT has no chance either, so I stood it. My RHO led a diamond and LHO ruffed it. The double was not Lightner - she had Q109x of spades. However, 7NT can make. Partner had AKJ8xx AKxx x KJ. Finessing in spades (which is marked after LHO shows out on a top one), diamonds and clubs brings home the grand in NT. 6NT would have scored over 90%

What was 6C? Asking for queen of trumps, even though I had already denied it.

100% on the first board, 0% on the second. Average score on our slams. Hey ho.

And today - five slams bid and made in 24 boards.

Second board of the day. I held A J4 KQ62 AK9742. I opened 1C, 1H from partner. I reversed into 2D. 2S from partner, 3C from me. 6NT from partner. She held KJ84 AQ872 109 Q6. Pretty horrrible slam. AD lead and things look better. Clubs break. Cash a couple of spades on the way to set up squeeze opportunities (menaces against QS, long diamond, KH) but QS falls doubleton, 12 tricks (KH was onside also).

Very next board: AK6 void KQJ94 KQ1062. I open 1D, 1H from partner (of course), 2C from me. That’s conservative, but I don’t like to bid 3C, game forcing, with a void in partner’s suit when I have minors and it’s a long way to five of a minor. Partner bid 3D. Nice! Continuing the agricultural approach of the first board I bid 6D. Partner had Jx KQ10xx Axxxx x, so slam was easy.

Then AQ98 void Q9874 K864. I open 1D, 1H from partner (of course), 1S from RHO, 2C from me (which denies three hearts as we play support doubles), 2S from LHO and 6D from partner (more scientific bidding). RHO doubled. Well, if I go down it’s a bottom and if I make it’s a top, so I redoubled just for fun - I suspected RHO might be doubling based on AH and a trump trick. They led a spade and partner tabled void KQ8742 KJ53 A93. The best line wasn’t obvious to me, but based on the theory that RHO had both red aces, I played a diamond to the king and ace and she tried to cash AH, after which it was easy.

The very next board, not vulnerable versus vulnerable, in second seat partner opens 4S and you hold 8 AK87 A AKQ8432. I bid 4NT and partner showed one key card with 5C. I bid 5D to ask for the queen and she bid 6S. I was worried about a diamond lead as then if partner lost a trump trick, they can cash diamonds. But I hoped that even if they did lead a diamond (they did), partner could discard diamonds on my top winners (she did - she was void in hearts), so with KQJ10xxxx in spades, slam came home.

And finally, 5 AK8532 AK9 K85. I open 1H and partner splintered with 4D. 4NT from me, 5S from partner. I bid 5NT and she bid 7H. She held AKQJ Q1097 4 AQ76. We should really have been in 7NT. She broke system by bidding 4D as we don’t splinter with hands that strong, but bidding any making grand in a club game will be good.

So, sorry to brag, but I’ve posted plenty of disasters in this thread. I cannot remember bidding so many making slams in one session before.

Very nice. And don’t apologise - we should be allowed to post our successes as well as our disasters!

Yes, 4S confirming diamonds and interest in slam. This would be followed by RKB and a confident grand slam. In your auction, partner’s conversion to 7D was kinda weird considering that the opening lead could well be the ace of spades.

I have jumped to slam missing 3 aces and the queen of trumps. She decided I was unlikely to have done that missing all 4 aces, so I was heavy favorite to hold AS.

Serious slam density there Amarone, well played.

Thread is quiet, guess everyone is out enjoying the summer evenings away from the green baize. I am too by and large, but did venture out last night for a game with a partner I only play with once in a while - I basically forgot how to play bridge first six boards and put us in the cellar, only to stage a remarkable recovery and post a respectable 60% game, so felt good to get out. Pushed this grand:

S AQJ9
H KQJ9
D A
C AQT7

And pard surprises you by opening 1D first seat. 3C weak jump overcall to your right, negative double from you, 3H from partner. Basic bidding agreements so a pedestrian 4N - 5D - 5N - 6D (1 king) puts you to the decision.

Felt like we weren’t going to get rich in 6 with that obvious level of power, all keycards, 2 kings plus the third is marked onside. Too many uncertainties to push 7 in a serious game with that 4414 shape IMHO, plus opps are distributional, but let’s bid it here for the practice.
Made on a spade lead with pard showing S xxx H Axxx D KQJxxx C void, and a misdefence by West.

LHO had the boss spade after trick one but also had TD to fifth, and this was the more important holding - they threw a diamond away and buried the defence. Seems silly in hindsight but I’ve done a lot worse myself - transfixed on the KS, no reason to indicate declarer is running six diamonds, lapse in concentration.

Wow - no action in this thread for over 3 months.

IMPs, nobody vul, 1D - P - 1NT to you and you hold AQJxxx K109xxx 10 -.

What’s your call?

Bonus question: guess what contract I ended up declaring.

2S

Ummm… a diamond cue-bid?

Is 2D Michaels in your bidding? I’m pretty sure I don’t want to defend holding those cards. If partner holds KS, AH or QH, I’d be willing to gamble on a game in his longer major.

Only two responses - where has everyone gone? k364 and OldGuy both on the right lines. I bid 2D, Michaels, and played there. At least they led a club so I made my singleton trump, but went one down. The best we can make is 3S. Partner was 2056, and should bid 2S.

And separately, along the lines of part of Simon Cocheme’s article in this month’s ACBL bulletin, yesterday I managed to win the first round of a suit with the 4. After the auction 1C - P - 1NT - all pass, the hand on lead somehow decided that it was a good idea to lead a club from Q1062. The first round went 2, 3, heart, 4.

Well, the Michaels treatment needs an explicit agreement, however your partner holding 2056 was kind of dense (sorry) not to figure it out.

I like Michaels there because LHO couldn’t open a 5 card major and RHO couldn’t respond with a 4 card major, so there is a lot of room for Michaels hands.

Curious about the other hands. If you bid 2S, what follows? I’m sure I couldn’t resist bidding hearts twice if allowed.

Was 1D a natural opener? Pard may have taken 2D as natural over a precision opening or something like that, I’ve had that mixup before.

Good thread bump Amarone - I’m just lashing the bots on BBO at the moment, not playing much IRL. Took a break from our local league this year for legit time reasons, but also my partnership feels like it has run its course.

Partner knew perfectly well that it was Michaels, but decided to bale out early holding KQ9xx of diamonds. She is a good player - has won a National Championship - but I think got this wrong.

I think 2S would buy it. The hands were hand-dealt and there are no hand records, but they have no fit and 21 points between them, so probably don’t compete any higher. The strange thing is that LHO had a heart in her diamonds, otherwise would open 1H (5-card majors), which changes the auction completely. Partner now probably bids 2NT over a 1H opening and I would bid 3S and there it would stop. That’s what happened at the other table.

Have you tried FunBridge? I now play that much more than BBO. If you play with and against robots, the FB one (Argine) is much better than BBO’s GIB. And you can play EBU tournaments on FB.

Not tried Funbridge, should check it out. I sort of know Gibs flaws (of which there are many) so can cater to them, although I don’t go out of my way to exploit them like some players do.
Is best hand the default on FB for Argine? I don’t mind it but it does essentially make BBO declarer practice as far as real bridge goes.