A 4-0 split doesn’t matter as long as the Ace, King, and Queen are in different hands and you have the Ten in the right hand. You play the Ace or King from whichever hand has two of the top three honours, find out the bad news, and then take the marked finesse of the Jack.
Well, to tell you the truth in all the excitement the OP kinda lost track.
Because it was AKx versus Qxxxxx, you need both the 10 and 9 if the J8xx is sitting under the AKx.
Another point that makes the grand even better - opener could have 7 hearts. Then the jack does not matter at all.
If it were AKT there’s no problem if RHO holds Jxxx. Play the Ace, cross to dummy via a side-suit or ruff, play low, then cover in hand and pull the remaining trumps. If LHO has Jxxx you need the Ten in dummy: play the Ace, then King, then the third trump, cover with Ten or Queen as appropriate, then play the Ten or Queen.
Very true.
Operating at this rarified level, it seems to me that a big problem can be entries into the hand with the long suit, so how do you best choose between 7 of a suit (where you can ruff) and 7NT?.
Some possibilities can be calculated. Given that it was not AKT, then we are talking about a very small percentage of cases where there is Jxxx sitting under it and you can pick it up. Jxxx onside is 3.84% but that is only 3.84% of the time that partner does not have the jack. Partner will have the jack approximately 56% of the time. So Jxxx onside is 3.64 x 44% = 1.6% And you also need partner to have the 10 and 9, which I make to be 36% of the time. 1.6% x 36% = 0.58%
So, when deciding whether to bid 7H or 7NT, you are really not going to bid the lower-scoring contract because there is a 0.58% chance 7NT will go down.
And it is worse than that. If you play in 7H you might suffer a ruff at trick one. A 6-0 diamond break is 1.5%, so the hand with 6 will be on lead 0.75% of the time.
This discussion of bidding conventions in slams reminded me of the best hand I’ve ever seen. At a tiny club game, 4 tables, one of my opponents was dealt this:
A
AKQJT9x
AKJT9
One possible loser in a diamond contract just in the hand alone, barring an opening ruff.
Partner doesn’t have the spade ace. Three of the tables didn’t have a way to determine the location of the club queen by bidding, so they guessed… one table went down in 7D and two (including our opponents) bid and made 6D.
The last table didn’t have to guess, but did have to trust partner. The person dealt that made a strong forcing opening and lied to claim clubs was trump, then asked about the queen of trump by convention… and upon the negative response bid 6D. Partner, though quite confused, figured out it had to be natural and to play and passed. That table won the post-mortem.
One of the advantages of Roman Keycard Blackwood. How did the bidding go on that? 2C - 2D - 3C - 3? - 4N - 5D - 5H - 6D - Pass, I guess.
Unless the bid you give as 3? was 4C, there is no agreed upon suit. In that case most partnerships I know would play that 4N is Keycard in the last bid suit (so whatever the ? was in 3?) and not in clubs.
ETA I suppose a jump bid of 4? (not clubs) might be taken as a splinter and agree to clubs as the suit.
I agree that 3? needs to be 4C for 4NT to be RKCB for clubs. I would not even play it as RKCB for ? until that suit is agreed as trumps. Let us say ? = H. After 2C - 2D - 3C - 3H then with AQx Qx AK AKJxxx you would bid 3NT. But what would you bid if you were AKx Kx AK AKQxxx? Now you want to be making a slam try in NT. So I bid 4NT as natural, but stronger than 3NT.
I prefer to play Kickback to ask for key cards. That uses the suit above the trump suit as the ask, leaving 4NT available as natural. The main reason for Kickback, though, is that it avoids the issue of the response taking you past 5 of your suit.
The original hand is very difficult and “agreeing” clubs in order to use key card is a creative solution. One other possibility is that you can use a 6-level cue bid as asking for 3rd round control. I have seen experts use this approach. Hence something like 2C - 2D - 3D - 4D - 4NT - 5C - 6C would ask for 3rd round club control.
Here’s another one:
I held S:QJx D:AKQxxxx C:AKx - a void in Hearts - and opened 5D. Partner held SA and HA and doubleton diamond. RHO had the King of Spades, so I made 6. In the post mortem it was suggest that I open 2C and over partner’s positive response use Blackwood as I could cope with all responses. Note this works for both 4NT and 5NT (ordinary, not RKCB).
It’s a tough hand but if you open 2C and partner bids 2H, I don’t see that bidding 4NT helps. Although I would not play that as Blackwood (or RKCB) let’s assume it is. Partner now responds 5D showing one. What do you do? He could be AKx Kxxxxx xx xx and 7D makes, or xxx AKJxx Jx xxx and 5D is the limit.
But if partner gives a positive to 2C, there is no reason to rush to 4NT. You can bid 3D first. And 4D over partner’s next bid. Something like 2C - 2H - 3D - 3H - 4D. Now with the first hand I gave partner should bid 4S, which must be a cue bid. Now you feel good about a slam. If he cannot cooperate over 4D, you probably give up in 5D.
Now my missed grand from today. I held void xx AKQJ9xx KQJx. Game all and RHO opened 1H. I bid an immediate 5D so they could not get their act together and establish a major suit fit. All passed and partner had AKxxx xx T Axxxx. 14 top tricks. Maybe he should have bid 6, given that I should have at least 9 tricks to bid 5D at that vulnerability and he has 3. But if he does he looks silly if they cash the first two heart tricks.
Yes, I was abbreviating the bidding process somewhat.
We had another interesting hand the other day. My partner held Sx HKJx DAKQJTxxx Cx. He opened 1D. I held SQJxx HATx D9 CAQxx and responded 1S. He rebid 3D and I bid 3N, which duly made. My partner doesn’t know about the Gambling 3NT, so I’m thinking he should have opened 2C or 5D here.
If he doesn’t know about the gambling 3NT, he’s hardly likely to open 2C with 14 points, in my view. Such a play could work, but could also get you into trouble if you assume he has way more points than he actually has. I think on balance he was right not to do that. On the other hand, the diamonds are too strong to open 5D (conventional wisdom says - I think). If a slam is available it will probably be missed with that opening bid.
My analysis is that the hand in itself should make 3NT pretty much without any help from partner whatsoever (unless the opposition can run off 5 tricks in the black suits before they get caught). So it’s a gambling 3NT with a smaller element of gambling than usual (I think, though correct me if I’m wrong, that you can open 3NT with AKQJxxx and literally nothing else, on the basis you will make 7 tricks in your suit and partner will find the other 2 somehow). Again, that would make it hard to find the slam. I wonder if the sequence 1D - 1S - 4D would have alerted you to the unassailable strength of his diamond suit? It looks biddable as given your response, he knows you have a few points, goes past 3NT, but doesn’t use up too much bidding space to find that slam (I assume 6D makes on either a finesse or squeeze in hearts, but I’m in way over my head here). I don’t think you even need cue bidding to determine if you have the points in the right places, but really you want him to initiate Blackwood as he’s the one who needs to know where your Aces are - and he has taken your best next bid of 4C. I guess you could try 4H, thinking of a cue bid for your AH, with little risk of him thinking you want to change the suit to H as otherwise you would have responded 1H initially. Although technically it shows 5-4 in S-H, that doesn’t really matter on this deal. He then bids 4NT (Blackwood), you respond 5H, and now he knows that you have 2 out of the other 3 suits covered and can bid 6D (no point in asking for K as the lack of the fourth ace puts paid to the grand).
Critiques of the above please? Am I living in fantasy land?
Interesting hand.
I think it is too good to open 5D. You might miss slam and you have missed 3NT, which could be the best contract (and indeed is). I might open 5D if third in hand at favorable vulnerability to try keep them out of spades.
Most people play that a gambling 3NT denies a stop in any outside suit. I have seen some people play that it can have one stop, although that seems unplayable to me. Take away the AQ clubs from partner’s hand and is s/he going to hope opener has a club stop and stand for 3NT?
You can open 1D and rebid 3NT over partner’s 1S. This shows a long, usually solid, diamond suit. Of course, you are then gambling that partner has a club stop or the opponents do not lead them.
I believe that Quartz plays Acol. What type? Playing standard Acol I would be happy to open 2D. Playing Benji I could open 2C.
I am not too keen on opening 2C, especially playing standard Acol where 2C tends to be even stronger than in 2/1 or Standard American. My own personal guideline for opening 2C rather than one of the suit is: is game good opposite three trumps and a well-placed king? In this case, no. Even opposite an ace, 5D is not good. Hence the hand is most unlikely to get passed out when game is on. I would have more sympathy with opening 2C if the solid suit were hearts or spades. Then all I need from partner is the Q to fill in the KJx to make game pretty solid.
Off the wall option: open 1D and rebid 3C. Now when you bid 3NT you will probably have warded off the club lead. If partner raises clubs, keep bidding diamonds over him.
I agree, as per my other post.
You can, although you hope partner will stop all the other three suits.
It is common, at least in the US, to play this as showing 4-card trump support for partner and a very good diamond suit, e.g. KXXX X AQJTxx AK
Interesting play hand. I would look to play a spade so that thereafter only one opponent can guard spades. Play AC and ruff a club to see if the KC comes down. Then run lots of diamonds leaving KJX in hand and Q, AT, -, Q in dummy. I will have to throw one of those queens on the last diamond, probably QS. Now if the remaining queen is not good, attempt to cash three rounds of hearts. This makes when:
[ul]
[li]KC was doubleton[/li][li]QH was doubleton[/li][li]KC and QH were in the same hand[/li][li]LHO has both AK spades and QH[/li][li]Opponents lead a heart[/li][li]Opponents discard incorrectly[/li][/ul]
That is better than 50%, so my statement in my previous post about 3NT being the best contract was wrong.
Assuming you are not playing the 4D bid to mean what I described earlier, then I agree that 4H is a cue bid, not a suit. 4D should say “diamonds are trumps” and is basically inviting partner to cue bid with values.
I don’t think it shows any particular length in hearts, just that you have a heart control.
I agree.
That’s some excellent analysis, thank you. My Bridge partner may be a world-class Scrabble player, but he’s pretty new to Bridge. We play basic Acol, BTW.
I play standard Acol and I had completely forgotten about strong 2 bids, which I do like but most people seem to prefer weak 2s. I think you’re right that this is a good hand to bid a strong 2D.
I don’t quite follow what you’re saying here - do you mean 5D is not a good contract on this hand if partner can’t offer any outside support (which it turns out they can, in this particular example)? Of course, if you open 2C with 14 points it’s much more likely client can support than if you do so with 24 points!
I suspect options like this lead to more heavy losses than great victories - certainly at my level, perhaps not at yours! By which I mean bids trying to stop the opponents making a certain lead can often confuse partner more than the opponents and potentially lead to horrific contracts.
Interesting to know, thanks. Like so many things, it’s handy if you have partnership agreement beforehand!
I agree if using H as a cue bid, but at my level cue bids are not always understood. I think I have told this story before, but I once recall bidding the opponent’s suit to ‘force’ my partner to bid again - guess what…
Quartz, did anyone bid and make 6D, or was 3NT (presumably +1 or 2) a decent score for you? I should point out that I doubt I could make 6D myself with this hand, I think my knowledge of how to bid far exceeds my knowledge of card play, and the former isn’t that great to begin with!
3NT made +1 for a top (430); everyone else was in 5D making 6 (420).
BTW last night I played with someone whose only convention was ‘One NT is strong’, though I did introduce him to the take-out double, and we came top.