Slam Bidding

Years pass by with us still trying to get the hang of slam bidding. Each person has his own idea/ style of bidding, which doesn't make any sense to the partner at the other end.

I was playing on bbo today when I came across an interesting deal. As dealer, P opened 2C (strong). The bidding went as below:

2C-2D-2H-2S-3H-4C-4D... Let me stop here for a moment and review the auction.

2C is strong; 2D is GF waiting bid; 2H is puppet to 2S; 3H is showing 6 H.

Question 1: What is 4C here?

I think it has to be cue. Assuming 4C is cue, 4D should be cue by p. I held xx xx KJTxxx Kxx. I felt the need to show p that I had nice D values which could be useful to make a slam. Hence, I made a call of 5D. His 5H bid became the contract.

I was totally shocked to see that his hand was Ax AKQxxx AQ Axx. Clearly P didn't get what I wanted to convey with my 5D bid. Otherwise, he wouldn't have missed a grand.

I was about to discuss this with Guthi to know what would have happened if I was playing with him; in the process, I realised there were some more basic misunderstandings between us.

Question 2: Would you show the D suit after 2C opening (in our system by bidding 3C )?

In my opinion is that it affects p's bidding space, hence should bid 2D unless u have a good suit of your own and would like to set it as trump. (KQT 6 carder will do)

Question 3: After 4C cue, should opener bid 4H with minimum hand for 2C opening even with controls both in S and D?

(Guthi, could you explain your point on this?)

Question 4: Could someone throw light on voidwood? Is 5D in the sequence I gave played as voidwood?

My understanding is voidwood is a jump bid after trump has been set. In the above case, 5D bid after 3H would be voidwood.

The Right Spot

Jubilee Hills Tournament '09 had quite many interesting deals to learn from. Let me start with a small bidding deficiency that came up when KRV-D.Vijay pair played against Kachchu and Co. in the Pairs Finals.

Kachchu held Ax; T9xxx; xx; KJxx opposite a NT opening by partner. A transfer and 2NT invite landed the pair in 3NT as partner accepted the invite. Result was 3NT-1. Partner's hand was J9x; KQx; AKQx; Qxx. On a S lead, there are 3 spades, a H and a C loser. While, 4H has a good chance even on S lead. Either J H on side or D 4-3, contract is home. KRV with a smile commented "Kachchu! If only you had shown your unbalanced hand with 4 card club, you would have been in the right spot". Though he did not suggest any system for that. It's not difficult to frame one.

This is what I suggest: After a transfer and 2NT invite, when NT bidder has maximum, he can use 3C enquiry for finding the right spot.

1NT - 2D

2H - 2NT

3C - ? 3D - one 4 card minor suit

- 3H is relay over which 3S is 4 card C, 3NT is 4 card D

3H - 3=5=3=2

3S - 3=5=2=3

3NT - 2=5=3=3

This system also helps when the NT opener has a 5 card minor, 5 of a minor might be the right spot while 3NT has a suit open.

Just 3 Losers!

This was the first board of Ubayakar Trophy, 2009. No doubt, I was waiting to see the first "theamatic" deal. 

Sitting East I heard North opening 1S as dealer. My hand was QJ932; A; 86; JT987. Vulnerability being none vul, I should have made a Michael's cue. But I refrained from doing it. South raised to 4H; 2 passes to me. With a sense of regret I took a chance bidding 4S hoping to find p with honor doubleton or 3 carder S. North balanced with 5H ending the auction there. Result was 1 down, while 4S looked promising. (Atleast better result than 4H making for N). 

The four hands are shown below.

              North
       T75

        KQ986

        A42

       K6

West             East

AK86          QJ932

732             A

KQ75            86

32            JT987

       South

       4

       JT54

        JT93

       AQ53

At first glance, it looks as though, at 4S, E have only 3 losers in the minors ( 2 C and 1 D losers). 

Well! Take a moment and plan the play. See if you can make it.

The following is the line of play adopted by one of the decent players at TNSC.

East took the Natural H lead with A. He played low D to Q at trick2. North took the Ace and backed a H. ruffed in hand, cashed QS. East now played JC from hand. North took the K and backed a H, ruffed in hand and played an other club. South took with A and played a club. Time to count! 

If clubs are 3-3, East could ruff this club and pull trumps to enjoy the good clubs. But if clubs are 4-2?? Dummy ruffed the club with A S and North discarded a H. 

East deciding to learn more about the defenders' distribution, cashed KD and a D ruff in hand.

Now North's distribution is..  2 or 3 Ss, 5 Hs, 3 or 4 Ds, 2 Cs. If Spades are 2-2, a club can be ruffed high to pull the last trump and take home the contract. If spades are 3-1 (only 3 with North is possible), a club should be ruffed high in dummy, and T S with North should be finesed to claim 10 tricks. Declarer with not much hesitation, ruffed club high and finesed the T to book a top on a very tricky board. "It's Ubayakar! How else will you play" was his explanation for the line. 

Considering, I would not have got line right, 5H-1 by N was the best result at our table.

Dethrone the King

This happened on bbo tonite in a TM. 

LHO opened precision 2C (God I hate precision!), P overcalled 2S, I boldly bid 3NT, hoping it's the right spot. 

Lead was a low club, South took the K; backed a club, Q-A-x; North continued with T of clubs for which South followed. 

I counted 8 tricks. 1 Club, 1 Spade, 1 Diamond and 5 Hearts. For the 2C bid, North's got to have the remaining Kings (S and D king). whenever he gets in, he's going to cash the winning clubs for down 1.

But wait... He's got the remaining Kings!! That's it.. that's all is needed to make the contract. After winning the club return, enter dummy with K H, cash A S discarding a D and run the Hs. At the end of Trick 9, the four card ending will be:

North

J

-

QTx

-

South

-

-

Axx

7

Now what does North keep at this position? (Notice that North's shape is clear at trick 4 when he discards on the first H trick: 4045). He has to keep 2 Ds, otherwise A and Q of Ds give the 8th and 9th trick for the declarer. Hence he only has space for 2 clubs or 1 club and K S.  Now a club exit will end play North for the 9th trick. 

Best way to beat the contract is to discard KS on AS played from dummy at trick 5. Now, North could keep, Kx of D, 1 C and 1 S. Club exit will do no good as South will get 2  more Spade tricks to beat the contract. (Also, the defence can prevail if South played 8C at trick 1.)

THE GREAT 88 - Problems 1:

Thus starts the GREAT 88 series! The deals in this series come from the book "Double Dummy Bridge", written by George Coffin. All 88 are available here. I am selecting a few which I found interesting!


South to play. It is a NO-TRUMP contract. What is the maximum number of tricks South can win? And how?

Cheers!