Do you go all the way?
Late in the final match vs Woolridge, Grainber, Korbel, and Lebi, it felt we were down at our table, when I picked up J A10xx K9 108xxxx.
Keith opened the bidding 1 spade, and I responded 1 forcing NT. Keith now jumped to 3 clubs, which is 100% game forcing of course. I now had to decide if I should play the role of “ captain or crew”. (I think it was Eddie Manfield who wrote on that topic many years ago in the Bridge World)
A crew member would raise to 4 clubs, and let the big hand control and dictate the flow of the auction. A captain would effectively pirate the auction by asking for key cards and driving to slam.
I chose to take over – I jumped to 4 diamonds, which we play is KCB for clubs. Keith responded 4 spades, showing 1 or 4 key cards, clearly 4 in this case.
Now I bid 5D, suggesting a grand slam and asking for specific kings in the event he could not simply bid a grand at that point.
Keith bid 5NT. This meant he had no outside kings, but he felt he had extra values, otherwise he would sign off in 6 clubs.
So having chosen to captain the auction, the final decision was mine. I knew he had the spade Ace with length; the diamond Ace, and at least AKxx of clubs. Clearly more, since he had jump shifted to 4 clubs, but not the spade king, nor any red kings.
What should I do? I now feel I should have bid 7 clubs. Although no one likes to bid a grand going down, as I said, it felt we were down at our table (we were) and this was a chance to recoup.
Possibly 7 clubs would have a poor or no play, but other times it could be golden – for example if Keith has 6 spades.
I in fact bid 6 clubs, very much in tempo, just in case Keith wanted to rethink his own hand evaluation, and to avoid ethically barring him. He passed anyway.
The layout was as follows:
| Dealer: North
Vul: None |
Keith Balcombe | ||||
| ♠ | AQ1097 | ||||
| ♥ | x | ||||
| ♦ | Axx | ||||
| ♣ | AKQx | ||||
| Robert Lebi |  |
Daniel Korbel | |||
| ♠ | xxxx | ♠ | Kxx | ||
| ♥ | Jxx | ♥ | KQxxx | ||
| ♦ | QJ10xxx | ♦ | xx | ||
| ♣ | void | ♣ | Jxx | ||
| Ross Taylor | |||||
| ♠ | J | ||||
| ♥ | A10xx | ||||
| ♦ | Kx | ||||
| ♣ | 108xxxx | ||||
6 clubs making 7 was a push. The grand salami was there for the taking – a reasonable contract for a team down in imps near the end of a tough match.
After the match I discussed the hand with Daniel, who felt a 4 club raise by my hand might lead to a more effective auction. Keith was ok with my taking control, but felt that his 5NT bid was enough to allow me to jump to 7 clubs.
To each his own of course. But the principle of captaincy comes up an awful lot in slam bidding – and it does not always have to be the big hand who takes control of an auction. Frequent bidding practise with your favorite partner will sharpen your skills in this regard.
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Let’s see. Would partner suggest the values for a grand without a king outside the club suit with a hand like AQ10XX XX AX AKQX ? I don’t think so.
That is, it should be the singelton heart that would cause him to propose a reasonable grand, but what do I know!!::)
I prefer a 4C raise.
I think both approaches can work – there was enough info at hand for me to bid the grand.
Kickback Blackwood practitioners should be using NT as a bid in the Kickback suit. Over 5D, your methods don’t allow you to show the dKing before you get to your safe 6c contract, unless 5NT shows the dKing. If diamonds is the kickback suit, a jump to 4NT is a d splinter; in a cuebidding sequence, 4NT is a d cuebid. We often use 5NT to show extras, but only when it is clear there are no other Kings (4NT[0314]-5c-5d[Q ask]-6s[Q+no Kings+min.] or 5NT[Q+no Kings+extras])
Are there any bidding weseitbs like Ebay that dont use paypal?Paypal are trying to pay back a conman by refund even though i have told them the proof of this and other sellers he has ripped off, so i don’t trust paypal anymore and never want to use it in the future.Are there any weseitbs that i can use similar to ebay or bidding weseitbs that offer simple debit card payments instead of paypal.i have agoraphobia so this is the only way i can buy things.
Hey, that’s powerful. Thanks for the news.
Coffee tables: CBAED (Would modify A to take the wheels off and I wouldn’t be able to figure out how to clean D… haha)Chairs: DEABC (really don’t like C AT ALL!)Vases: AEBCD (This was a close one for me… Like them all!)Lamps: CADBE (Pretty much only like C and A)
These sandwiches both look so good. I saw a show about the hot brown on T.V. once, probably The Food Network. I have never heard of the Devonshire one, though.
L’intensité vient essentiellement du fait que tu dois te surpasser et tout donner sur ta série, en allant à échec musculaire, sans faire beaucoup de séries.Le program est adaptable , au lieu de descendre et remonter de 2 kilos en 2 kilos, on peut faire en 1 kilos, pour favoriser encore plus l’adaptation.
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Bah l’article sur les hommes… c’est comme je dis, ce qui est écrit s’applique aux deux. Un gars saoul fait aussi honte àune fille qu’une fille saoule peut l’être pour un gars. C’est un comportement àproscrire tout court.
Hallo jottlieb,vielen Dank für deinen Kommentar und deine weiteren Infos zu den Post Formats. Ich hab den offiziellen Namen »(Artikel)-Formatvorlagen« für die deutschsprachige Version auch noch im Artikel mit angegeben.Jetzt kann ja das 3.1 Release kommen, ich freue mich wirklich schon sehr auf das Update :-)Viele Grüße,Ellen
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