Is slam biddable on these cards?

[Tom]

All vul, North dealer, Monday morning duplicate, playing 2/1, good
club game and strong opposition:

AKxx
AQx
AKJ10x
Q

Qxxx
Kxxx
xx
Kxx

W N E S
- 1D P 1H
P 2S P ?

If the auction starts this way, how should it proceed?

Would you open 2C instead? If so, how does the auction go?

(First board of the morning with a new partner)

[Douglas Newlands]

On 18/06/13 2:24 PM, Tom wrote:
> All vul, North dealer, Monday morning duplicate, playing 2/1, good
> club game and strong opposition:
>
> AKxx
> AQx
> AKJ10x
> Q
>
> Qxxx
> Kxxx
> xx
> Kxx
>
> W N E S
> - 1D P 1H
> P 2S P ?
>
> If the auction starts this way, how should it proceed?
>
> Would you open 2C instead? If so, how does the auction go?

Since 2S is FG, 3S seems auto.
With a regular partner, serious/frivolous 3N might make an appearance
here but with a new partner 4C and 4H seem next then into RKC
and then 6S. There might be an issue with the 3rd round of
diamonds from North's pov but you are playing to have fun aren't you?

doug

[John Hall]

In article <51bfe114$0$58041$c3e8da3$3863...@news.astraweb.com>,

Tom <toma...@notmye-mailaddress.com> writes:
>All vul, North dealer, Monday morning duplicate, playing 2/1, good
>club game and strong opposition:
>
>AKxx
>AQx
>AKJ10x
>Q
>
>Qxxx
>Kxxx
>xx
>Kxx
>
>W N E S
>- 1D P 1H
>P 2S P ?
>
>If the auction starts this way, how should it proceed?

South bids 3S (assuming that 2S was forcing to game). From North's point
of view, even if South has a minimum hand slam is now a reasonable
proposition. So North uses Blackwood in case South has the Ace of
spades, anfd getting a 5C response bids 6S.

>
>Would you open 2C instead?

Probably, though it's marginal. North has 5 Quick Tricks, and game could
well be on when South has a hand that would pass 1D. North doesn't quite
have game in his own hand, but is very close to that.

> If so, how does the auction go?

It's not so straightforward, so I'm coming round to the idea that
opening 1D was right.

>
>(First board of the morning with a new partner)
>

That was unfortunate.
--
John Hall
"Sir, I have found you an argument;
but I am not obliged to find you an understanding."
Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

[derek]

On Tuesday, June 18, 2013 1:24:51 AM UTC-3, Tom wrote:
> All vul, North dealer, Monday morning duplicate, playing 2/1, good
> club game and strong opposition:
>
> AKxx
> AQx
> AKJ10x
> Q
>
> Qxxx
> Kxxx
> xx
> Kxx
>
> W N E S
> - 1D P 1H
> P 2S P ?
>
> If the auction starts this way, how should it proceed?
>
> Would you open 2C instead? If so, how does the auction go?

I'm always opening a 23 HCP hand with 2C, even if 2 of those points are a stiff queen. Now, partner with his 8HCP knows slam is a possibility, and should be investigating.

In a perfect world (where opps don't intervene with 3C):
2C - 2D
3D!- 3H

3D is ugly, and the only reason to avoid opening 2C, imo, but now you know he has a singleton or void, because he'd bid NT to avoid raising diamonds, otherwise

3S - 4N (sure, South's short of controls, but we can stop in 5S)
5m!- 6S (! - whichever shows 4 key-cards)

I can't do probabilities in my head, but surely better than 50%.

If you haven't discussed keycard, or opener forgets, or doesn't think you've actually agreed on a suit, he bids 5S over 4N. Now, you know it's three aces, and since you're only missing 5 HCP outside of that Ace, the odds are pretty good that you have all the Kings.

[richlp]

On Monday, June 17, 2013 9:24:51 PM UTC-7, Tom wrote:
> All vul, North dealer, Monday morning duplicate, playing 2/1, good club game and strong opposition: AKxx AQx AKJ10x Q Qxxx Kxxx xx Kxx W N E S - 1D P 1H P 2S P ? If the auction starts this way, how should it proceed? Would you open 2C instead? If so, how does the auction go? (First board of the morning with a new partner)

Having gotten past opening 1D (with which I agree FWLIW) I think a reasonable auction would be

1D 1H
2S 3S
4C 4H
4N 5C(1)
5D(2) 6C(3)
6S

(1) or whatever to show 0 controls
(2) spade queen ask
(3) spade queen plus club king

Would I try this with a first time partner? Depends on how much I know about partner and how much partner knows about me but I think the Queen ask is a standard enough part of RKCB that I'm willing to risk it in the "good club game." Perhaps not so much on Tuesday.

[Fred.]

First of all, I agree with your 1D opening because it gives
you an opportunity to show the basically 2-suited hand and
your hand really isn't strong enough to force game facing a
partner who would pass a 1 diamond opening, particularly at
match-points where you don't want to games under 50%.

The key to opener's game-forcing jump shift is that responder's
raise, rebid, or introduction of a suit promises a top honor in
This leaves NT as a semi-natural bid with a bad hand.
Responder, holding 4 spades to the queen should raise.

At match points I think opener should go into Blackwood rather
than giving the opponents added information about the distribution
and diamond fit. A direct 6 spades wouldn't be terrible since a
solid grand slam is unlikely and the call is more likely to talk the
opponents out of a club lead than it is to talk an unfamiliar
responder into bidding 7S off an ace.

Fred.

[Martin Carpenter]

Is slam actually good here? It looks like you need 3-2 trumps along with
something extra to deal with the D losers without mishap.

If those spades x's are genuinely the 7 through 2 then I think it'd even
be somewhat anti percentage? Stuff like the ST or 9 in south would help
a bit.
--
MartinCarpenter

[Fred.]

My feel, like yours, is that the slam is slightly anti-
percentage. However, give partner the jack of spades
or the queen of diamonds in place of the king of clubs
and it becomes a slam I want to be in at match points.
I don't know how to distinguish this in the bidding.

At IMP scoring I'll take a familiar partner's temperature
with 4H. I'm not sure what I'd do with an unfamiliar
partner.

Fred.

[Martin Carpenter]

On 23/06/13 13:21, Fred. wrote:

> My feel, like yours, is that the slam is slightly anti-
> percentage. However, give partner the jack of spades
> or the queen of diamonds in place of the king of clubs
> and it becomes a slam I want to be in at match points.
> I don't know how to distinguish this in the bidding.

It isn't easy - it never is with this sort of close slam :)

Well most strong club pairs will almost automatically reach slam here as
responder just qualifies for a positive and then opener will know that
slam is very unlikely to be worse than it actually is and could be much
better.

So you end up committed. Slightly unhappily single dummy this time round
but such is life!

On a natural sequence you'll get to after 1D - 1H - 2S - 3S - etc. Then
it'll probably just depend on how aggressive everyone is feeling and
what the minimum range for 1H is.

Easy to see it either stalling in game or going on past it. A serious
3NT might help clarify the ranges involved a bit, although you'd still
need to have calibrate it in advance to be sure quite what everything means.
(This time round having 3NT as a balanced slam try and 4C as shortage
might, in fact, help even more.).
--
MartinCarpenter

[Eric Leong]

After North opens 1d and the bidding proceeds as noted, South should make some sort of encouraging noise but not make decisive action. After all, North has shown a five loser hand or better. South can cover at least three losers with the spade queen, a diamond ruff, and one of the kings. North should probably reject a slam invitation as can see he needs a 3-2 split in spades and something good happening in the diamond suit so slam is makeable but very marginal.

Eric Leong