do you know what you play?
My bridge day started with an entertaining but ultimately disappointing Speedball during which I misclicked to go down in a cooler and misplayed a vulnerable 3NT to sink poor Judi with something like -20 imps, but it picked up when Shannon and I found some more button-pushing opponents. My favorite hand of the day:
:S: AKQJT843
:H: 2
:D: A8
:C: A7
Equal white, in third seat I opened 2 :C: and Shannon bid a game-forcing 2 :D: (showing a King or better); I jumped to 3 :S: and Shannon bid 3 NT. How do you play that? What do you do next?
February 25th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
i feel like 3nt should deny an ace but since responder has already shown 1 king, the 3 no bid should show at least 2 of them. now opener can cue-bid 4 clubs and responder can cue-bid a king…seems like opener should be pretty well-placed to figure out the info needed from there on.
February 25th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Okay, so I cuebid 4 :C: and Shannon bid 4 :S: . Now what?
February 25th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
When you say a king or better do u mean an actual King or could it be for example 2 or 3 queens?
If an actual King (or ace) then I am guessing this means she has the king of clubs, short spades, something in diamonds and hearts like x, qxx, Jxxxx, Kxx. If she does not have to have an acutal king then a similar hand with the Q of of clubs. I pass 4S. She cannot possibly have a hand to make slam.
February 25th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
hmm…after 4 spades i don’t feel on very firm ground anymore. i do feel pretty strongly that partner should have 2 kings for the 3nt bid. the 3 spades bid is pretty specific–sets trump and asks for cues, so 3nt should have a specific meaning since there is no way we’ll ever play that contract on this auction (at least the way i play the 3 spade jump). the example hand for responder with the stiff spade looks like a 4 spade bid to me. that said, it also seems like 4c should get a return cue-bid of one of the kings. so what is 4 spades? at any rate, we’re safe at the 5 level, so i’ll try 5 spades now, whatever it may mean just to keep things alive and give partner one more chance.
February 25th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
I disagree about being safe at the 5 level. I cannot imagine what hand Shannon would have with a King unless she guaranteed one and it is clubs. She would have bid the K of D or H over 4C. And even with the K of clubs 6S is a bad contract because it means she has no other kings and with KQ of clubs she would have bid 5C over 4C.
If pass is not right to 4S then either (a) I am not as good as I think I am or (b) Shannon has misbid (not at all likely) or (c) there is something about this system beyond that which I know.
If you do bid 5S what does it mean? Please look in your hand for a king you previously forgot to bid? Check for a singleton you cannot have?
It would certainly say either I can guarantee 11 tricks opposite no king OR I can guarantee 11 tricks with the King you promised if that is indeed promised which I don’t think it is.
But since your tricks include no help cards to set up anything in partner’s hand other thank a king why bid?
February 26th, 2008 at 6:55 am
I thought we were safe at the 5 level when partner showed “K or better” (some interesting conversations about what partner can and can’t have for her 2 :D: call), so I tried one more time.
My problem was that I expected cuebidding after 3 :S: , so what hand could she have for this bidding? We cuebid aces, kings, voids and singletons, and she chose 3NT. I started to think that she might actually have cuebidding options, because she could’ve bid 4x to show 1st or 2nd round control.
So I bid 4NT followed by 5 :S: (because of course she has none). It was kind of dumb, but there we were. Her hand was:
:S: xx
:H: JTxx
:D: QTxx
:C: Kxx
February 27th, 2008 at 6:27 am
Hey Stacy,
This auction is special and not like most cuebidding sequences. When you jump to 3S after opening 3C you are demanding partner cuebid a FIRST round control. If they do not have a first round control but have a king (which it sounds like they must in your system), they bid 3N. So once you bid 4C and partner bids 4S they’re showing the CK (no 4D/4H bid).
All that being said, it’s unclear what you are supposed to bid over 4S. I suppose bids here at the 5 level should really mean something like asking for third round control since you already know all about your partners A and K situation. I don’t know of anyone who actually has that agreement though. My guess is if shannon had KQ of clubs then over 4C she would bid 5C (2 tricks must be great for you on this auction), so I would just pass 4S.