Which Strain – Bfame Hands -1
First round of Bfame threw up some interesting hands with choice of strains. Here’s the first of those.
Just looking at NS hands, the best contract is 6♦ by south. No lead can hurt it, and so long as ♥ are 3-2 and ♦ 3-1 or 2-2, South can pitch two clubs on hearts and then ruff a club.
However, once South opens 1N – and there doesn’t seem to be an alternative if you play 15-17 NT – 6♦ by north can pretty much be ruled out, since North will always start with a transfer to hearts.
Next best option is 6♦ by South. On a non club lead you have the same situation, and on a club lead you have the choice of playing for club or spade finesse depending on how you read the lead.
6♥ – the next choice – can be beaten on ♦ A ♦ ruff – not easy to find if South hasn’t disclosed ♦ fit and West is on lead. Easy if East is on lead. Even without a ♦ lead you need an extra black suit and need to guess which finesse to take.
In India vs Bangladesh match SS-PS landed in 6♥ by South after South, rightly, chose 3♥ and eventually landed in 6♥ . Luckily the lead was a spade solving all problems.
Does your pdship have methods to solve this conundrum.
If playing a 15 17 NT i can’t see any reason for South to upgrade his hand and open a Diamond. But if South super accepts the Heart transfer then the Diamond suit/match gets buried and NS are in business(in 6H).
1NT 2D 3H 3S
4C 4D 4H 5D………………………..
…………….
yes, and you land in 6H which is not as good as 6D.
For the record, I am not a big fan of supperaccepting with 3 cards or even 4333 4 cards.
is a judgement call by N to figure that his 10 good(but only 10) hcp may (<25% chance) produce a slam iff he can find pd with 4 of a red suit and enough controls (and if in slam) it is likely to be far better if played by S. if the said conditions are not met and pd does turn up with black values he sud not be to adament to be in a red suit as his hearts hardly look like 5.
considering all the above suggest S sud start with a simple stayman and repeat stayman …guess that will propel the pair into the DD par from the right side…..the suggestion at first site seems to be as if devised after seeing both hands but if one tries to figure the target looking at S only the path becomes clearer……:)
also if there is a slam on the hand it is more likely to be in diamond…
Not necessarily that diamond slam will be better – just depends on where the better fit is. Replace a diamond with a heart in south hand and 6 hearts will be cold from south barring bad trumps/diamonds.
To begin with, the focus is on finding the right game – slam comes to picture only later as auction develops. Starting with a Stayman is like knowing south hand and figuring out a way to bid diamond slam through south. What if partner responds 2S to Stayman? Let us say you repeat Stayman and partner shows 5 spades? Now? How do you find 5-3 hearts? Partner could be 5-3-3-2 and one club stopper not enough for 3NT or may not even have a stopper!
1. guess u will find !h fit if pd happens to respond 2!h (infact 50% chance a superfit. on the way catering to right siding !d if he did respond 2!d…
2. b4 i started said a judgement call for N …now adding methods not good for all who have strong objections playing in 3nt ( if pd is mostly black) and prefer being in 5/2 !h even then ….
3. i genrally dont open 1NT with akqxx/kxx/xx/axx or equivalent (just cos it falls in 1NT zone of 15/17) wud rather prefer 1!s-1nt-2!c-and a move on 2!d/!h/!s by pd…more so if it is 2!h/2!s by him. for my valuation 1nt opening days the opener has discounted 5/6 card suits because of the location of honors in short suits (in other words he does not treat his own 5 as 5)…now as a responder it can not be for me to doubt his judgement/valuation with my single !s….
If you play transfer continuations after the first transfer, I guess you have a way to right side this slam, if you do get there. I guess, you will then produce a hand where Kx in the responders hand needs to be protected and these methods don’t work. The fallout is that Invitational hands with 5M need to be bid in a different way and that’s a choice that every partnership needs to make.
What do you open with AQ10xx, K10x, Axx, Qx?
prob. 1NT and 1NT on jxxxx/kx/axx/aqx(akx) too and the same 1NT on qjxxx/qx/ax/aq10(9)x
So how do you find 5-3 heart after Stayman?
simple …1nt-2!c-2!s-3!c(shape?)-3!d=4/5
-3!h=3 (cant have 4 for bidding 2!s)
-3!s=4/5!c…have already said opening 1nt !s’s are not good to treated as 5
On the same hand, if North is the dealer, and opens 1H (throw in a black Jack 😉 or two, if you are finicky), what do you respond? Compromise between Jacoby 2NT, and 2C, with 2D a distant 3rd? Assuming that you want to keep your options open, and you respond 2C. Now over 2D, again, like in the “Which Strain — 2”, you are not ready to fix the trump suit yet. So, it is clear that a way to show support for both the suits is very much needed for the partnership. So, what are the suggestions to show support for both the suits in this situation?
I think natural bidding should get you there. Support 2H. Bids below 3NT should be played descriptive rather than cue bids. So let north describe and south can bid diamonds to show diamond support also. Only tricky position is when partner bids 3H showing 6-4. Here next bid can be played as support for second suit (3S in case of hearts and 3NT in case of spades) and 3NT can be spade cue. DKC can follow.
Let us get some things straight.
In bridge, number of hands runs into 12 digits, while the number of sequences available till even 6H is about 2000000
or a little more.
It does not seem advisable to reach the best contract on every deal.
I feel one should play down the middle, and try to get most of the situations right.