How others might've

bidandmade

it

• Question 1
  
  Your partner at South opens one Heart. What should you now bid in reply? (Just look at those wonderful diamonds !)
  
  

• Question 1
  
  Your partner at South opens one Heart. What should you now bid in reply? (Just look at those wonderful diamonds !)
  
  Answer
  
  After South opens 1H, North knows the partnership has a Major suit fit and sufficient points for game (26 are guaranteed). Sounds like 4 heart game bid, many might say.
  
  But might it be enough for a Slam? Ideally a pair needs 30-31 points to be in the 'slam zone' and trigger investigating the possibility of bidding six of a suit.
  
  North has 'only' 14 HCP points (so the partnership may have as few as 26 points), but his hand is much stronger than that - for two reasons.
  
  (1): The singleton spade means declarer (will be South) may be able to any ruff any weak losing spades in dummy AND (2): the wonderful diamond side suit is another way South may be able to get rid of losers, as well as make some winners from the length.
  
  So North could bid 4NT (Blackwood) over the 1H opening bid, asking partner how many aces he has. When South replies 5S, promising three aces, North can confidently bid 6H - since we've got all the Aces up our sleeve...
   

• Question 2
  
  How might more advanced players at North-South bid to reach 6H?
  
  

• Question 2
  
  How might more advanced players at North-South bid to reach 6H?
  
  Answer
  
  After South opens 1H, North should realise (with a trump fit and only five losing tricks) that a Slam is likely to be on.
  
  Some players will bid 4NT, and if you play the Roman Key Card version of Blackwood (you should!) partner will respond 5C (promising zero or three of the FIVE key cards - four Aces and the King of trumps). North, having two of the keycards should smile at this point, knowing that not even one keycard is missing. (Surely it can't be 3 Aces missing, given the bidding!) He raises it to 6H.
  
  If a partnership has Splinters (an invaluable Slam bidding tool) in their bidding armoury, the auction will be different. After the opening 1H, North has the ideal hand for a Splinter bid (promising 4+card support for Partner's Major suit, game values and a singleton or void in the Splinter suit), so bids 3S (the unnecessary jump in the suit signifies it's a Splinter bid). South has the perfect holding in spades to take advantage so bids 4NT to check for Aces / keycards. North responds 5H, promising two key cards but no Queen of Trumps. With all five key cards, South can happily bid 6H - and in fact should make all 13 tricks.
   

• Question 3
  
  For the North-South pair, are there any alternative ways of bidding to 6 Hearts?
  
  

• Question 3
  
  For the North-South pair, are there any alternative ways of bidding to 6 Hearts?
  
  Answer
  
  Yes. On hearing about the Spade Splinter from North (mentioned in question 2), South could cue bid 4 clubs to announce control of the club suit. North then cues 4 diamonds (having control of the diamond suit).
  
  At this point South now knows that all 4 suits are controlled (i.e. no more than one loser per suit), and could then switch to Blackwood, 4NT, to check for first round controls with the 5 keycards, since a dangerous 2 keycards are missing from his hand. North, who uses RKCB (Roman KeyCard Blackwood), will reply that he has two keycards but lacks the Queen of trumps, by bidding 5 Hearts.
  
  South will smile to himself; all is safe for a Small Slam bid of 6 Hearts.
  
  Grand Slam? ...wonders South to himself. But with the Queen known to be among the enemy's 4 trumps, possibly along with the Jack too, he won't risk a Grand Slam since it would require the good fortune of the trumps splitting 2-2. (And that's quite apart from North having to have the King of diamonds, which he hasn't yet enquired about).
   

• Question 4
  
  After the cue bidding of question 3 gets to the RKCB response of 5 Hearts from North, how could South safely enquire about the missing red King, if South did want to pin his hopes on good fortune and risk a Grand Slam?
  
  

• Question 4
  
  After the cue bidding of question 3 gets to the RKCB response of 5 Hearts from North, how could South safely enquire about the missing red King, if South did want to pin his hopes on good fortune - and risk a Grand Slam?
  
  Answer
  
  Bidding 5NT to ask about Kings. And the answer that comes back is 5 diamonds.
   

• Question 5
  
  Does that 5 diamond bid from North mean either that he has exactly one King, or that he has the King of diamonds at the least?
  
  

• Question 5
  
  Does that 5 diamond bid from North mean either that he has exactly one King, or that he has the King of diamonds at the least?
  
  Answer
  
  It could be either! Either way, we don't care, because the only King we care about is the King of diamonds, since we've already worked out the position with the other suits.
  
  (But don't forget to agree with your partner which system you are using when asking about Kings with a 5NT bid. We prefer the "which is your lowest ranking King" version, because we often need to be suit-specific at that stage of the bidding for a suit Slam).
  
  ...Now the only question for South, who can only be confident of a lowly total of 28 HCP (15 + 11), becomes whether to risk all those lovely bonus points from a successful vulnerable Small Slam (750 + 500 + 6x30 = 1430), in order to get the North-South hands on even more points, 750 more, for a vulnerable Grand Slam (1500 + 500 + 7x30 = 2210). And he's only sure of 26 HCP in total....
   

• .
  

• . . . .
  
   

• Some subjects to follow up on

  Majors Splinters
  Roman Keycard Blackwood
  Cue bidding for controls
  Selection of opening suit
  Extra slam techniques