Jeff Lehman

Nicely bid

by Jeff Lehman on May 20th, 2012

Playing 2/1, with a series of follow up treatments that include serious 3NT, and picture bids and other stuff that your partner believes are “expert standard”, you hold this hand at Friday’s club dup:  ♠KQ75  ♥T2  ♦T  ♣AK9842.  Partner opens 1♠ in second chair and third hand passes.

Do you splinter, bid Jacoby 2NT, or respond a game forcing 2♣?

I like partner Len Aberbach’s choice of 2♣.  He next heard me rebid 2♥.

Both 2♠ and 3♠ at this point shows real support (at least three card support).  3♠ shows at least a king more than a minimum.  Which would you choose?

I might have chosen 3♠ at the table, but Len’s choice of 2♠ worked well.

When we have achieved major suit agreement at the two level in a 2/1 auction, opener’s third bid shows his shape.  Hence, my 2NT bid showed 5=4=2=2.

Len now found a descriptive call of 4♦.  Although we have not discussed this particular bid, my past partnership experience leads me to conclude that this bid shows shortness in diamonds.  My hand being ♠AJ982  ♥A986  ♦J5  ♣QT, I control bid 4♥, which is “on the house”, being lower than 4♠.  Next Len bids 4NT (keycard) and I respond 5♥ (two of 5 keycards, no ♠Q).  That’s enough for Len to bid 6♠.

 

West
♠  KQ75 
♥  T2 
♦   T
♣  AK9842 		 East
♠   AJ982
♥   A986
♦   J5
♣   QT

 

 

West North East South
— P 1♠ P
2♣ P  2♥  P 
2♠ P  2NT*  P 
4♦* P 4♥ P
4NT* P 5♥* P
6♠ All pass    

 Nothing splits horribly and we are +980 for 15.5 out of 16 matchpoints.  Nicely bid by partner.  And I am hoping that the agreements I foisted upon him might have contributed a bit.

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1 Comment

StewartMay 31st, 2012 at 7:55 pm

I can see three ways you might miss slam. First, East might look at the quacks and choose not to open. That’s probably at least defensible, but simulation says that hand makes game opposite 50%+ random 12 point hands.

Second, West might simply count points and miss the potential of that hand, but that would be terrible. Again, simulation says slam is 50%+ opposite a random opening bid, even before you take your first bid.

Finally, East might fail to cue-bid the Ace of Hearts, thinking that even below game, it shows extra values to do so.

I would splinter, and any partner I play with will cuebid 4H with the heart ace or king, even with a bare minimum. If he doesn’t, I know we’re off two heart tricks, and we’re done. When he cuebids, I ask for keycards, and bid 6 with 2 and 7 with 3. 7 is 75% opposite any random hand with 3 aces.

The interesting thing is that 6 is odds-on opposite Axxxx of spades, King empty hearts, Ace empty diamonds. Cuebidding the King of hearts is crucial.

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