Bid These Hands

[Will in New Haven]

Matchpoints, NS Vul South Deals

N. Kx K9xx Kxx K8xx

S: AQxx Ax AQJTx AT

1: Bid the hands
2: What contract would you want to be in?




3: Our Auction:
1D - 1H
2S - 3C
3NT - 6NT where did we go off the rails or is this the contract you
want to be in?

4: Play it to make thirteen tricks and tie for top on the Queen of
Clubs lead. When you start Diamonds, East shows out on the second
round.

--
Will in New Haven

[france...@googlemail.com]

1. Playing some sort of natural methods I would start 1D-1H-2S-3D. 2S is game forcing, so as responder 3D is forcing and shows a diamond fit. Responder is the one who can see the attraction of playing in diamonds - 7D is pretty good even without opener's SQ.

In our methods we would bid 1D-1H-2S (multiway)-2NT(ask)-3NT (4252/4153 game force) - 4D (sets trumps) - 4H (cue)- 4S (cue) - 5C (cue) - 5H (cue) - 5S - (cue) - 5NT (GSF) - 6NT (2 of the top 3) - 7D. A simpler approach would be 4NT RKCB over 4H, but we play that as natural. That gets you to 7D opposite Axxx Ax AQxxx Ax which is a bit delicate but opener should have more (somewhere) in our methods for the 2S bid given how light we respond.

2. 7D.

3. Responder never showed a diamond fit. "off the rails" is a bit strong. If I tie for a top with 6NT+1 then clearly I don't need to be able to bid the hand to 7D.

4. I don't think you can combine all the possible squeezes single dummy.

[Adam Beneschan]

On Wednesday, May 15, 2013 9:03:43 AM UTC-7, Will in New Haven wrote:
> Matchpoints, NS Vul South Deals
>
> N. Kx K9xx Kxx K8xx
>
> S: AQxx Ax AQJTx AT

> 1: Bid the hands

For us, it depends on how South treats his hand. Personally, I'd probably treat it as a big balanced hand despite the flaws, and either open 2D (20-21) or 2C (22+). If I open 2C, partner responds 3D, showing 4 controls in 3 or more suits. This tells South that North has all four kings. But I'm still not sure that South could bid 7D confidently even if he knew partner had support, because it will be hard to find out about the doubleton spade, and the first two bids have taken up lots of space already. If I open 2D, it probably goes 2D-3C-3D-3S-3NT-6NT (Puppet Stayman).

I don't think it's reasonable to get to 7D on these hands without a wild guess, unless one is playing a relay system that would allow South to find out about North's four kings and distribution. Aside from that, 7D is risky at matchpoints (an opponent could be 1=x=3+=x), and it may not gain much if you can make an overtrick in 6NT due to a helpful lead or great declarer play which will give you a top anyway.

> 2: What contract would you want to be in?

> 3: Our Auction:
> 1D - 1H
> 2S - 3C
> 3NT - 6NT where did we go off the rails or is this the contract you
> want to be in?

Why does it have to be one or the other? Sometimes the contract you want to be in is not biddable in practice.

> 4: Play it to make thirteen tricks and tie for top on the Queen of
> Clubs lead. When you start Diamonds, East shows out on the second
> round.

I'll have to think about this some more. How good a player is West? If West is good, I'm going to play him for QJ9 of clubs on the theory that leading that suit with a lesser holding is too likely to blow a trick.

-- Adam

[derek]

On Wednesday, May 15, 2013 1:03:43 PM UTC-3, Will in New Haven wrote:
> Matchpoints, NS Vul South Deals
>
> N. Kx K9xx Kxx K8xx
> S: AQxx Ax AQJTx AT
>
> 1: Bid the hands
> 2: What contract would you want to be in?

2N - 3C! (Puppet)
3D!- 3S* (! one or more 4-card majors, * 4 hearts)
3N - 4N! (Apparently keycard for hearts! My wife won't play quantitative NT and hearts is the last suit shown, though not agreed)
5D!- 6N

Since responder has no Qs, and opener shouldn't have more than 2, I can't quite count 13 tricks.

>
> 3: Our Auction:
> 1D - 1H
> 2S - 3C
> 3NT - 6NT where did we go off the rails or is this the contract you
> want to be in?

> 4: Play it to make thirteen tricks and tie for top on the Queen of
> Clubs lead. When you start Diamonds, East shows out on the second
> round.

Wasn't that just a gift lead? Don't you only make 13 tricks if East has 4 spades and yours are bigger, or you find East with the club QJ and he leads one of them? Or there's a squeeze I can't see.

[Will in New Haven]

The lead doesn't give up anything but information. When RHO showed out
on the second Diamond, I decided that the most _likely_ easily
arranged squeeze is for West to hold the Spade length along with his
known QJ9 of Clubs, so I cashed the Hearts and ran the rest of the
Diamonds and West had four Spades, so had no discard on the last
Diamond.

There are other possible squeezes and choosing which one to try was,
for me, more of a guess than anything. I was pleased that a much
better player than I didn't think that the right squeeze was obvious.
It sure wasn't to me.

I still would rather be in seven Diamonds. And i think a 3D bid by
North on his second turn to bid would get one there. Of course, first
South has to avoid the common tactic of treating the hand as
balanced.

[Nick France]

Auction

1D 1H
2S 2NT
3NT 6NT

I would like to be in 7D

As for the play in 6NT, I'd run the top hearts, diamonds and clubs
ending in dummy with

Kx
9
--
8

and AQxx in my hand. Maybe I got lucky and there is a squeeze.

Nick France

[Will in New Haven]

I think that handles all the squeeze possiblities except squeezing LHO
in Hearts and Clubs and that requires LHO to have five Hearts.
You make seven.

[ttw...@att.net]

On May 15, 11:03 am, Will in New Haven <willreich...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Matchpoints, NS Vul South Deals
>
> N. Kx K9xx Kxx K8xx
>
> S: AQxx Ax AQJTx AT
>
> 1: Bid the hands
> 2: What contract would you want to be in?
>

2NT-6NT

Seems as good as any.

[Travis Crump]

No, the main alternative is to use hearts as the pivot suit which only
requires LHO to guard clubs and RHO to guard spades[for instance give
LHO xx Qxx xxxx QJ9x]. The heart layout would be immaterial. At the
very least I can afford to cash the diamonds, the other top club, and
the HA before making any decision.

[Dave Flower]

On Wednesday, 15 May 2013 17:34:03 UTC+1, france...@googlemail.com wrote:
> On Wednesday, May 15, 2013 5:03:43 PM UTC+1, Will in New Haven wrote: > Matchpoints, NS Vul South Deals N. Kx K9xx Kxx K8xx S: AQxx Ax AQJTx AT 1: Bid the hands 2: What contract would you want to be in? 3: Our Auction: 1D - 1H 2S - 3C 3NT - 6NT where did we go off the rails or is this the contract you want to be in? 4: Play it to make thirteen tricks and tie for top on the Queen of Clubs lead. When you start Diamonds, East shows out on the second round. 1. Playing some sort of natural methods I would start 1D-1H-2S-3D. 2S is game forcing, so as responder 3D is forcing and shows a diamond fit. Responder is the one who can see the attraction of playing in diamonds - 7D is pretty good even without opener's SQ. In our methods we would bid 1D-1H-2S (multiway)-2NT(ask)-3NT (4252/4153 game force) - 4D (sets trumps) - 4H (cue)- 4S (cue) - 5C (cue) - 5H (cue) - 5S - (cue) - 5NT (GSF) - 6NT (2 of the top 3) - 7D. A simpler approach would be 4NT RKCB over 4H, but we play that as natural. That gets you to 7D opposite Axxx Ax AQxxx Ax which is a bit delicate but opener should have more (somewhere) in our methods for the 2S bid given how light we respond. 2. 7D. 3. Responder never showed a diamond fit. "off the rails" is a bit strong. If I tie for a top with 6NT+1 then clearly I don't need to be able to bid the hand to 7D.

Surely a clear top is better than a tie for top. Why doesn't responder bid 3D over 2S ?

4. I don't think you can combine all the possible squeezes single dummy.

Dave Flower

[Will in New Haven]

Yes, the double squeeze is the main alternative. However, a simple
Heart/Club squeeze against LHO requires that she hold five Hearts.

[Steve Willner]

On 2013-05-15 12:03 PM, Will in New Haven wrote:
> Matchpoints, NS Vul South Deals
> N. Kx K9xx Kxx K8xx
> S: AQxx Ax AQJTx AT
>
> 1: Bid the hands

Before seeing any other posts or finishing this one, I was going to
start 1D-1H-2S-2NT-3NT-4D-, but I don't know how to finish. I suppose
there would be a lot of control bids, but whether we stop in 6NT or 7D I
have no idea.

Frances' auction where responder bids 3D on the second round might be
better, but I'd worry that it shows better diamond support than North has.

The problem with this deal is that North knows he has lots more values
than he can realistically show (not least the spade ruffing value), but
he doesn't know South's diamonds are anywhere near as good as they are.
Aside from that, South has a bit extra for the jump shift. (A relay
system would make this easy, but that's no help for most people.)

> 2: What contract would you want to be in?

Obviously 7D in a good field, but 6NT might be better in a typical club
game. Still, it takes pretty bad luck to beat 7D, so I think I'd want
to be there unless the field is remarkably weak. 7NT I think is less
than 50%, but maybe I'm missing something.

> 3: Our Auction:
> 1D - 1H
> 2S - 3C
> 3NT - 6NT where did we go off the rails or is this the contract you
> want to be in?

As others have written, North needs to show the diamond support at some
stage. I don't understand the point of 3C; the suit doesn't seem nearly
good enough.

> 4: Play it to make thirteen tricks and tie for top on the Queen of
> Clubs lead.

Looks to me as though it's right to play off all five diamond winners,
discarding a heart and a club from dummy. Then you have to guess the
distribution from the discards. If you think West guards spades, you
have a simple squeeze in the black suits. If East guards them, it's a
double squeeze with hearts the B suit. Maybe there's something
cleverer, but I don't see it.

> When you start Diamonds, East shows out on the second round.

Probably holds me to six. After the diamonds show up with West, who
probably also has at least some club length, I'd figure East for the
spades. Maybe the further discards would clue me in, but it doesn't
look easy.

--
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