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A Grand Journey.

Recently, in an A Point Tournament, among 24 pairs who sat North/South, only two pairs reached any slam and only one reached grand-slam. 13 tricks were easy to make. I thought it would be instructive if the Panel gave some guidelines on the approach to take in the bidding.

This was the problem I gave to the Panel:

 

North has a good-looking 15 count, with club support. The main danger to a making slam must be the diamond suit as even with a total of 30-32 hcp, there could still be two top diamond losers.

Although most of the Panel came up with the same bid, there are differing meanings for that bid:

Bruce Anderson “4: Minorwood: over the most likely response of 4-(3 key cards: AK and A (partner has a hand in the 16/18 point range with a good suit) I will bid 5, a specific king ask. If partner has 1 king, I will bid 7.”

Andy Braithwaite “4: either minorwood or suit setting inviting cues depending on your methods. A 4 cue would be followed by key card and a 3 key card response to key card would be followed by king ask.”

Minorwood is a useful convention, perhaps less so when you are missing AK of a suit. Michael is no lover of this convention:

Michael Cornell “4: ( not silly Minorwood!) literally demanding a diamond cue, which I will follow with 4NT Roman Key Card.

I want be in 7 opposite AKxxxxx and the A – that is 12 tricks on top and partner can have more. Opposite a heart doubleton, there are 4 heart tricks nearly 55% of the time and any high spade honour  increases my squeeze chances. Easy hand!”

 

It is interesting that Michael quotes an 11-count for the jump to 3. Normally, the jump will show more than that though a good 15-count as South held is surely enough for the 3 jump.

What is important, and so sensible, is that 4 is game-forcing, never invitational.

 

Stephen Blackstock “4: In any sensible system, this is forcing. We do not structure our methods to allow stopping on a tiny target like four of a minor. Being able to set trumps with clarity is a valuable asset. 

 I understand 3. This works well if South then bids 3NT, since a 4 bid shows the nature of our 3. However, if South bids 4, there is no convenient way to proceed.  I would probably then resort to Blackwood, which gets us to 7 opposite three keys, but not 7NT. In a weak field, any making grand will do, but in a strong one, we will need to reach a sound 7NT if available.

 

More of looking for 7NT later. In the meantime, we do have a vote for 3:

Anthony Ker “3: I anticipate a 3NT response when I’ll continue with 4 showing support and slam interest. If partner instead supports hearts, I’ll raise to 5 pinpointing the diamond problem. And if partner rebids 4, I will simply raise to 5. I am not expecting partner to have four spades on this auction so bidding a 3-carder should be safe enough.”

Using Key Card is:

Nigel Kearney “ 4NT: A simple approach looks best here. It's highly unlikely partner lacks a diamond control so I can use Blackwood and bid 7 if we have three key cards and 6NT otherwise. In a very strong field, 7NT would be worth considering, but we might need to set up the fifth heart by ruffing and any making grand is usually a good score.”

 

However, an immediate 4 seems the popular choice…and it is not ace-asking:

Wayne Burrows “4: easy! I cannot really imagine a second choice without some specialised agreement.
4 should be a quite serious slam interest (or lack of interest in 3NT) otherwise I choose 3, 3 or 3NT instead.
Partner will cue and I imagine I am bidding Blackwood (RKCB) next and choosing between clubs and no trumps depending on how many key-cards partner has and how partner responds to a grand try if we have all the key-cards.”

Peter Newell “4: Forcing - time to show my excellent club support. Hopefully, South will cue bid diamonds and I will use Key Card. If South does not cue diamonds, it is either because South launches into Key Card themselves or has no diamond control in which case we will settle for 5.”

and with a South hand close to the actual:

Leon Meier “ 4: a slam try in clubs. Probably we have no major losers and we can sort clubs and diamonds for 1 or fewer losers. Give partner  

xx

xx

AKx

AKxxxx

   which is pretty marginal for a 3 bid and we are nearly cold for grand.”

 

   Let’s see all four hands:

 

 

The Panel are recommending 4 as suit-setting to be followed by a 4 cue-bid. 5 shows 0 or 3 key cards. In avoiding 5 (responder’s suit, to save confusion),5 would ask for the trump queen and 5NT side-suit kings, either number or specific, by choice. With South showing one (or K), 13 tricks in 7 would seem just about assured.

7NT seems dubious and is here a bid too far. However, the only pair to bid grand, Liz and Blair Fisher, had that covered too.

Blair upgraded his 15-count South hand by a point (just as South can do by bidding 3 in a natural auction) and then relayed to find his partner’s shape and controls. He even got to ask if she held the J and with the answer, “no”, settled for 7.

One’s natural system may not be able to do that but with the clear agreement that 4 is a slam try (maybe even “minorwood”), the route to 7 should be reasonably straightforward.

Only in one’s worst nightmare, and certainly not at the bridge table, could West hold 7 diamonds and only one club, allowing East to ruff the second round of diamonds. Declarer will here win K lead, play 2 rounds of trumps and claim.

Next time, perhaps, for the other 23 North-Souths!

Richard Solomon

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