Sunday, May 11, 2008

Slams at the Club

Kenny and I played the last couple of weekends at the bridge club on Sheridan Road. We didn't distinguish ourselves that much, but did manage to bid a good grand slam each time, which at least keeps you coming back (kind of like the one decent golf shot you hit every round). Our auctions were pretty decent, so I figured I'd post em.

AJTx
KQxxx
void
KTxx

xx
Axx
Axx
AQJxx
our auction, starting with Kenny as North, 1H-2C-3D(1)-3H-3S-4C-4D-4NT-5NT(2)-6D(3)-7C
1-splinter raise of clubs; 2-2 keycards with a void; 3-grand slam try/queen ask
As you can see, 7 clubs is a great spot-just horrible splits will beat it (incredibly, it is a much more likely make than even 6 Hearts!). Next question-which suit is trump for Keycard Blackwood? I'm open to opinions on this. Anyone? Actually I thought it was clubs and Kenny thought hearts, but fortunately the answer was the same regardless. Six diamonds is the only forcing bid left and kenny and I both agreed that regardless of which suit was trump for Blackwood, it asked about the quality of his hearts (basically I need to find out if the hearts are a source of tricks). Kenny, the good partner he is, put it all together and bid the club grand.

The second one is from today's effort:
AKJTx
KT9
Axx
Ax

x
AJxxxxx
KQT9
x
this auction was simpler and again started with Kenny, North; 2NT(1)-4D(2)-4H-4NT-5C(3)-7NT
1-20-21; 2-Texas; 3-4 keycards for hearts
As long as you have the normal agreement that Texas followed by 4NT is Blackwood (Jacoby followed by 4NT should be quantitative), this hand is pretty easy to bid. When I found out all the keycards were there I was bidding a grand and if he couldnt pick up hearts, 7H would be down as well, so I went for the higher scoring strain. At IMPS you'd have to stick to hearts because of the possible extra undertricks if hearts don't come in. By the way--hearts were 3-0 but Kenny picked them up!

2 comments:

Kenny Z said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kenny Z said...

only part of this I disagree with is that you'd have to stick with 7H instead of 7NT at imps. True, there's the risk of extra undertricks. However, I think that risk is outweighed by the advantage you have in NT of being able to play off all the other suits to get a count before trying the H.