Loading ...what would you bid?
On not nearly enough sleep, Shannon and I sat down on Sunday morning to play seven hands against Jeff Meckstroth & Joe Grue, Curtis Cheek & Dennis Dawson. I picked to play Curtis and Dennis, hoping to stay in the boat for all seven hands and make some headway against an unpracticed partnership. I was a little nervous, but with Ron Smith and Justin Lall at the other table (against Meck and Joe) it wasn’t so scary.
Here’s my favorite hand of that match:
vul, imps –
AKTx
xx
Q9x
QJxx
Partner opened 1 diamond and I bid a spade. Shannon rebid 2NT, showing 18-19 balanced. Your call ….
April 17th, 2007 at 8:11 am
If only I knew. How about 3NT? Or is that promising more than I can honestly give?
April 17th, 2007 at 11:21 am
That’s what Meckstroth & Grue bid at their table, so it must be a very reasonable action…
April 18th, 2007 at 7:49 am
Stacy,
While this hand might make 6C, 6D or 6N, it is balanced with only 12 hcp, no particular source of tricks. I would consider nothing other than 3N.
If I were desperate for a pickup and decided this was the hand to swing, then I would bid 3D natural and forcing, unless we were playing something else such as 3C as a transfer bid to diamonds.
April 18th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
3N does indeed seem like the automatic call. But what’s partner’s hand? What collection of high cards could she have that don’t give a slam good chances?
I decided to invite partner to the party with 3C, new minor, thinking I’d bid 3N over any major by her and show a balanced slam try that way. With no 3 spades and no 4 hearts, don’t our 6D/6N chances improve?
April 18th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Give pard a control rich minimum like xx akx akjx kxxx and slam in a minor is pretty good. Agreed that pass would probably be the consensus call, but any minor upgrade (promote the 9 to T or T to J or x spade to 9) and the balance tips in favor of bidding.
Another factor to weigh is how fond partner is of upgrading (would she upgrade most 2-3-5-3 19 counts to 2NT?) If she upgrades frequently, that would again suggest settling for 3N.
April 18th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Oops. Agreed that 3N would be the consensus call.”
April 18th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Certainly, partner could have a hand that makes 6 and is 50% or so. But if partner had Jx, KQx, AKJxx, Axx then slam is very poor or partner might have Qx, QJx, AKJxx, Axx which some would think too good to open 1N and you can take only 10 sure tricks. So you probably are at 50% or less down to 0% in my opinion. BUT if you need a swing this is just the sort of hand to try and get one.
In the ideal world partner holds xx, AKx, AKJx, K10xx but one of your rules (No. 11 under General Principles) is “partner never has the right hand.”