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      Partner. Our trump suit is..?

Setting Trumps.

The sun is shining today. Partner has made a take-out double of a weak 2 and you have a goodly 18-count including a decent 5 carder in a suit partner is almost certain to hold. What could be better? Slam territory.

There’s just one little issue. It’s our bid. How to investigate slam? How to set hearts as trumps? (OK two little issues!)

 

 

2 is a standard Weak 2 in diamonds. What bid would you make as West? You are playing Teams.

If you bid 3 and partner bids 3, what would you bid now?

There are those who play Lebensohl here and there are those who do not, or who are not using it in their answers. It is all very clear for:

Nigel Kearney “2NT: Depends on agreements. I suggest the cue bid is two places to play, without a stopper if bid immediately and with a stopper if 2NT is bid first. 3 is invitational if bid immediately and forcing if 2NT is bid first. After 2NT, I bid 3 then we've set trumps and are cue bidding.”

Using Lebensohl, you need to be clear on your agreements as playing a grand slam in 3 would not be the best! I have never seen the sense in bidding 3NT after the double of a Weak 2 with no stopper in their suit. Nigel’s approach with forcing and invitational bids works extremely well here.

Others do mainly opt for a forcing 3 though their level of ambition is mixed:

Matt Brown “3: Starting with 3 seems sensible. Obviously transfer-lebensohl would be great here but assuming 3 is just forcing, over partner’s 3 bidding 5 seems about right. Since partner does not have four hearts makes his most likely shape 4324 and I think we really just want to quantitively invite slam. Whether or not partner knows when to accept though...”

Well, Matt, Pam knows..

Pam Livingston “3: then 5 after 3. 

Partner is fairly balanced.” (surely “balanced” in 3 suits?) “They cannot have a "double and bid" hand in spades because I have so many points and so doesn't have 5 spades as they would have overcalled 2. With 55 in the blacks, partner would show a two suiter by agreement or start with 2. 5413 is possible but I think this is still a 2 overcall.

They also don't have 6 clubs and 4 spades because they would have started with 3.  If they were 44 in the majors, they would have bid their hearts first in response to 3. So, I am expecting something like 4324 or 4315.  I can't bid 4 (good spade raise) nor 5 (Exclusion Blackwood).

I would expect partner to bid 6 with a singleton diamond which is likely to be the key to the hand.

Peter Newell “3:  I assume a jump to 3 is not forcing. If it was forcing, I would bid 3 (playing Lebensohl over 2 would allow you to make an invite 3 via 2NT) While 3 covers a lot of hands, I don’t see any real alternative. It’s a start to getting some more info from partner and showing that I have a game forcing hand either with uncertainty about what suit to play in, or a hand too good to simply jump to game.

Over a 3 response, you have a series of ugly choices. I can’t see any sensible action. So, I’m going to take the approach of bidding what I think I can make –  6.  There will be times when 7 is good, and occasionally we will go down in 6 (e.g. on a club ruff) but it’s simple and clear and I think more often than not it will be right.”

I detect a difference in Peter’s Lebensohl approach as compared with Nigel’s above. Peter has a direct jump to 3 as forcing whereas Nigel has to go via 2NT for this hand-type. See what I mean about agreements! Fortunately for both of them, they are not partners!

Michael Cornell “3: of course, in the hope that partner is 4-4 in the majors and bids 3 and now I can seriously investigate the grand. When he bids 3, there is no way to do this but I will try Key Card and follow with 5NT if we own all the key cards. The problem is we will be unable to confirm the Q but I don’t totally give up on grand bidding this way, always intending to bid 6.

So, follow ups of 5, 6 and maybe 7.

I was intrigued how the Panel would handle a 3 response to 3. As you can see, there is no easy way.

 Yet, this is a “good news, sunny day” and partner’s response to 3 was 3.

“Nice answer, partner”

So, without further ado, Roman Key Card…

 

 

Although you are missing both top club honours, it would barely be possible to produce a hand for the take-out double which did not have one of these cards. 5 showed 2 key-cards (you may have a response to show 2 key cards and a void, though this time West will be unimpressed by the likely diamond void..and East might feel just responding 5 is enough on their very minimum take-out double) and the Q. 5NT asked for side-suit kings with 6 showing none. Thus, the safe small-slam was reached.

West might add that they hoped the opponents had tried for grand when the club finesse failed!

So, no problems in bidding the small slam though surprisingly, others failed to get above game. Perhaps, the slam bid against North was just desserts for opening a Weak 2 with a 4-card spade suit on the side though had North passed and East had opened 1 (surely you would?), it should have been pretty plain sailing.

 

Interesting?

 

 

An interesting sequence unfolds. 2 is a Multi. You fear partner has a Weak 2 in spades and therefore bid only 2, to play if that is what they have. However, they own up to 20-22 balanced.

So, you transfer (3) with East doubling (you did notice that, I hope?) and partner passes showing systemically a doubleton heart. So, what next?

Richard Solomon

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