[jim420]

Actually I thought this could be so basic that I wonder whether it's tolerated even in this forum

MBC pickup partner. I was North.
we agreed to play 0314 RKC
now this hand comes up

Scoring: IMP

---

The bidding went like this
W N E S
- 2NT P 3♣
P 3♥ P 4NT
P 5♣ P 5♥
P P P

The lead was the singleton ♠6, I played the ♠Q to force out RHO's ♠K and took all 13 tricks.

p asked me why my response was 0-3 (5♣). I said ♥K, ♣A and ♠A makes 3 keys. He asked me why I passed 5♥, and said he was asking for 7NT. I was dumbstruck.

Your opinion here plz...

[FrancesHinden]

jim420, on Jun 4 2007, 02:56 PM, said:

Actually I thought this could be so basic that I wonder whether it's tolerated even in this forum

MBC pickup partner. I was North.
we agreed to play 0314 RKC
now this hand comes up

Scoring: IMP

---

The bidding went like this
W N E S
- 2NT P 3♣
P 3♥ P 4NT
P 5♣ P 5♥
P P P

The lead was the singleton ♠6, I played the ♠Q to force out RHO's ♠K and took all 13 tricks.

p asked me why my response was 0-3 (5♣). I said ♥K, ♣A and ♠A makes 3 keys. He asked me why I passed 5♥, and said he was asking for 7NT. I was dumbstruck.

Your opinion here plz...

Anything (bridge-related) is tolerated in this forum.

I think it is fair to say that the blame is joint.

a) A lot of people would not play 4NT in sequence as Blackwood, but as invitational (probably with 4 spades on the side, hence the 3C bid). However you were both happy it was asking for aces, so that's not a sepcific problem here.

You were North. You were looking at 3 key cards and the queen of trumps. If you had had two key cards and the queen of hearts you would have had to respond 5S to RKCB, which would have committed your side to slam. As it was, you have one keycard more than that. If partner was prepared to play a slam opposite two keycards and the trump Q, he must be prepared to play a slam opposite 3 keycards and the trump Q. So with a bit of imagination you can see that you shouldn't pass 5H.

c) I don't know what the point of the 5H bid was. When in doubt, never make a bid intended as forcing that sounds as if it could be non-forcing. But anyway, if he wants to make a grand slam try then one of 5D (asking for the HQ) or some higher level bid (random grand try) would make more sense. So while I sympathise with your partner that he should not have expected you pass 5H, he was guilty of confusing matters.

I confess, playing with a pickup partner I would respond 6NT to 2NT. It prevents this sort of accident.

[P_Marlowe]

#1 although basic, even lots of (semi-)regular partnerships
have problems with the posted auction, some play
4NT as quantitatie with 5 hearts, some as RKCB,
I would say 4NT quantitative is better, but you need
a way to have a forcing heart raise
A simple convention (Goldman / Goldway (?!)):
use the other mayor as the raise, i.e. 3S would be a
forcing heart raise, over 3S it would be 4H.

#2 Assuming 4NT is RKC for hearts, holding 3 instead of 0,
you should have bid 6H, a fairly common agreement,
sometimes partner does not know, 5H is certainly not a
try for 7NT.
And trying for 7NT is ..., he knows the partnership has at
most 34 / 35, bal. opp. bal., if memory serves well, you
should have 37, he should simply bid 6.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[foo]

♠AJT7♥KQJ5♦KQ♣AJ4
+
♠Q3♥A863♦A643♣KT2


1st off, and most important, this is =at best= a 50% Grand. IOW, you are Resulting if you worry too much about missing this Grand. OTOH, 6H or 6N are reasonable.


2nd, as others have noted 2N-3C;3H-4N should be Quantitative, not Ace Asking.
Worse, S will not learn what they need to know by using 4N Ace Asking here.

Looking at their own hand S "knows" that N rates to have 2 A's + 2-3 K's for their 2N Opening. (Thanks to having the ♠Q, S knows that N can't have more than 10 HCP in Q's + J's and is more likely to have ~6-7 HCP in Q's + J's).
That means We rate to have all the A's + K's or perhaps are off 1 K.
2N-3C;3H-4D gets both S's suits and both S's A's into the auction.

N may not be sure what S has, but they should be very happy that S is claiming to have the Reds under control while N has the Blacks under control.

Play for the ♣Q to be in the opposite hand as the ♠K.

[neilkaz]

South has 13 HCP opposite a 2NT opener that has shown 3 keys !! Why didn't he bid 5♦ to ask for the Q ? Why did he confuse the issue by bidding 5♥ ?

Perhaps N who had opened 2NT passed since he felt S was looking for 4 keys for slam ?

Who knows but with 13 HCP opposite a 2NT opener I am bidding a slam as S when we are pickups to prevent this disaster. (noting that 4NT could be taken as quant)

.. neilkaz ..

[bid_em_up]

foo, on Jun 5 2007, 08:20 AM, said:

2nd, as others have noted 2N-3C;3H-4N should be Quantitative, not Ace Asking.

If it should be quantitative, what is the point of 3C?

[goobers]

As I understand, 3C is stayman, 4N is quantitative, denying the shown major and offering to play slam in the other major or 6N.

To begin a slam try and agreeing with 2N opener's major, I begin by bidding the other major since it is an idle bid.

2N - 3C
3H - 3S

becomes a general slam try for hearts, and

2N - 3C
3S - 4H

becomes a general slam try for spades.

I don't know if this is good, bad, common, or anything, but I'm fairly certain that 2N - 3C - 3M - 4N is still quant.