[Fluffy]

♠Q108xx
♥x
♦QJxx
♣KQJ

♠A
♥K10xx
♦AKxx
♣Axxx


S -N
1♦-1♠
2♥-3♦ (game forcing, (7)8+)
3NT-4♦
6♦

[Fluffy]

Ok you reached a poor slam, now try to make it on a trump lead.

[whereagles]

Blame for what? You're not even missing 2 aces...

Anyway, seems like I don't have enough entries to combine ruffing hearts with setting up spades, so I'll have to pick one of the options. My feeling is LHO has the heart ace, so I'll try and setup the spades: ♦A, ♠A, ♦up, ♠ruff, ♣up and guess whether to run ♠J or ruff another spade.

[temp3600]

I don't like opener's reverse much, I would have rebid 2NT. It seems to me responder got ambitious because he thought they had a 9-card fit, since the other features of his hand are rather unuseful (bad spade suit, likely club duplication).

About the play, I would take the diamond in dummy and play a heart to the K. If the A is onside, great. If not, there is still a small chance in spades.

[mcphee]

S does not have a hand to reverse even though the values are there. N had every right to expect at least 5D if not 6. I hope it goes down, H toward my K, maybe the gods are with me.

[PetteriLem]

I am not quite sure about the methods, but a strong 1444 is usually hard to bid.
I dont blame S for opening 1♦, reversing 2♥ nor bidding 3NT. I am not sure about norths 3♦. It is reasonable to support diamonds, but 3nt is a choice too. I think 4♦ is a huge overbid. North has a rotten hand without controls. The jump to 6♦ is unnecessary, when partner is unlimited. South probably paniced, when he saw that his partner is control poor, but still bids strongly. My conclusion is that south did a small mistake and north a huge mistake.

[pbleighton]

North. South signed off in 3NT, if you go forward after that it's your fault.

Peter

[pclayton]

I don't like the reverse. While it violates one of Mike's rules (you guarantee 5 cards in the 1st bid suit), I much prefer 2N. The heart suit won't get buried unless pard is a dead minimum and passes 2N. Yet another good reason for Reverse Flannery.

I'm starting to see more and more rebid 3♦ on North's and I like it. Why should 2♠ be automatic, just because we own 5? 3N is also normal and limits South's hand.

I also like 4♦. The KQJ are now working cards, the stiff heart is nice and there's just a little duplication in spades. Opposite a more typical: x, AKxx, AKxxx, Axx, slam is a great spot, and South would bid it the same up to 3N.

I don't like 6♦ at all, but I'm not sure I like ANY call over 4♦. 4N looks wrong, and to cue bid the A♠ is just encouraging. Maybe just a quiet 5♦ is called for.

I like:

1♦ - 1♠
2N - 3♦ (checkback)
3♥ - 3N

[mikeh]

I recently posted in the B/I section that a reverse should always promise more cards in the first suit than the second. Admittedly, this 4441 hand is tough to bid, as are all strong 4441 hands in standard, but I refuse to lie about length when I don't have to and there is zero reason to do so here. 2N is at least as good a description of values and shape as is 2♥: indeed, imho, it is far superior.

The ♠A is as valuable, if N insists on ♠s, as xx, which 2N could easily contain.

Note that N will not make more than 1 try over 2N (if any), and the bad slam would be easily avoided. However, the bad slam should be avoided anyway: S has a decent hand, but he has short trump... so I do not understand 6♦.

I think S made two blunders, while N was right to make a try: opposite x AKxx AKxxx Axx slam is pretty good.

[HeartA]

pbleighton, on Mar 12 2007, 09:31 AM, said:

North. South signed off in 3NT, if you go forward after that it's your fault.

Peter

ditto.

North had no reason to not believe pd's 3NT. After all, he bid 2H there are wastage on majors.

[the hog]

South cops the blame for showing 5D and 4H when that is not what he had.

[HeartA]

I agree that 1D-2H shows 5Ds and 4Hs (90% of the time). But I can accept 2H on this hand. There is no perfect rebid, 2N would show 2♠s 90.001% of the time.

[Codo]

I would not be so harsh to the two players. Like others mentioned: It is allways hard with strong 4441 hands.

There are some opening systems which reserve bids for these hand types, but without them you are often in the wrong contract.

I surely like any bid till 3 Diamond. Okay, 2 NT instead of 2 Heart is a valid option and surely had worked much better here. But with say, K, ATxx, AKxx,Axxx I surely had bid 2 Heart, not 2 NT.

I do not understand the 3 NT bid. If this shows a 1444 or something like that, North must pass. If it is just "meaningless" like: I have clubs stopped and if you have 7 or 8 with just 3 card support, we belong into 3 NT, then I do understand the 4 ♦ bid. Opposite the example above the slam is a little less then Diamonds 3-2.
I dislike the jump to 6 Diamond but after some cuebidding I may had reached the same slam.

[Fluffy]

---

About the hand you can all blame me, because I had forgotten north had passed initially.

To the play:

I tried to ruff ♥s in dummy, when I played singleton from dummy at trick 2, RHO played low. It took me a couple of minuntes to decide what to do, but in the end ♥10 forced the ace and when a trump came back I could ruff 2 ♥ in dummy.

Problem is I got shortened on trumps on the way back to do it, so the line also required either clubs 3-3 or a squeeze in the black suits. So against best defence (wich didn't happen) it requires ♥A onside or short, ♦3-2 and ♣3-3 or a squeeze, around 65%+70%+55% I think


Later I though that then the best line is stablising dummy, win ♦A, ♠A, ♣K, ♠ruff, ♣Q, ♠ruff, ♣J, ♠ruff and ♣A discarding a ♥ from dummy.

It 'only' requires ♠4-3 and ♣3-3, but copes to ♦4-1, even if ♠K is third you might do it easier.

[whereagles]

"Any slam that makes is a good slam." - bob hamman