What should I bid? - Best enquiry for January 2011

The best submission for January came from Vivien Eldridge

 Hand 1:

KQ763  AK  8  A10972

 Hand 2:

-  AQ1087  AK8743  K5

Comments:      

On both these hands I opened 1 of the major and then jumped in the minor and on both occasions my partner had 10-11 points with a fit with my minor and called 3NT which played and made. On both hands we had a slam in the minor and I wanted to bid on but didn't have a method. How to do it?

Kieran's Reply:

Vivien,

On the first hand, I'm an enthusiastic 1 opener, and regard 1 as an error. Essentially, the most important thing to do is identify the level of fit for spades. For the followup, I have a happy 3 rebid over 2 or 2 (showing a good hand). There are lots of variables on the third round - I might have to choose between showing my fifth club or showing either the heart stoppers or secondary heart support. If partner responds 1NT instead, I rebid only 2 (3 would be game-forcing, and I'm not good enough for that) planning to take a third bid after partner's non-strength-showing second bid to show a good hand. For example, 1:1NT,2:2,3. If partner raises clubs, I'd be thinking about a slam...some kind of low ace ask like Minorwood or Kickback would help here...I don't want to have to bid a slam opposite too few keycards (like I would if I bid 4NT and partner bid 5, showing one).

The second hand should open 1. With a good 6/5, always start with the longest suit. Then reverse into hearts, and bid the hearts again to show 5/6 and a good hand. Hearing about some sort of useful hand with a diamond fit might be enough to encourage you to consider slams.

Opening the 5 card major with 5/6, particularly reds, is not inherently dreadful, but it should be reserved as a tactic for minimum hands with good hearts (remove the two minor suit kings, for example).

A method like Blackout might help with the second hand. Essentially, this would be using one bid (perhaps the cheaper of 2NT and the fourth suit, or maybe just always the cheapest bid) after opener's reverse as a way of showing all of your bad responding hands. Opener tends to make the cheapest bid to allow responder to clarify, unless they really have something to say (this hand would bid out the 5/6 shape, for example). The advantage of this is that all of responder's other bids become value-showing - responder can, for example, make a cheap 3 bid to show the fit and force to game, when coarser methods might have responder jumping to 3NT and concealing the fit.

Kieran

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