Hand of the week 21st December

Friday 19^th December Board 1

There may have been other boards which deserved to be Hand of the Week but I selected this one because everybody should have been in at least a small slam if not a grand slam, but only half the room bid a small slam and nobody bid the grand slam.

So I will go through some of the bidding options to the desired goal. Dealer is N pass

First option is using “precision” with an opening bid of 1C showing 16+hcp any shape and partner holding 18hcp now knows that a slam is possible. I am not very familiar with this system as it is rarely used in our club so I don’t know what responders bid is,  but it can be Googled, if anybody is interested.

Second option is if pair is using a strong NT (15 - 17hcp) E would bid 1NT, again partner knows they are in slam territory and it only a matter going through their ace asking process.

Third option is playing 4 card majors E will bid 1H, S pass, W with a 5 card suit should bid 2D showing 10+hcp. E will bid 2NT showing balanced hand and 15-16hcp. I am not a fan of this bid as it is too easy for partner to bid 3NT and leave it there. My preference is if my partner shows 10+hcp and I have 15-16hcp I will bid 3NT, showing total hcp of 25-26. W now has 8hcp points which E is not aware of so they can go ace asking using Gerber, CRO, Blackwood or Roman Keycard whichever is your preference.

Fourth option is playing 5 card majors, E bids 1C showing no 5 card major. W can put in a holding bid of 1D which is a five card suit, E will now bid 1NT showing balanced hand. W can immediately proceed to ace asking.

I hope this helps those players who have difficulties getting to slam.

One more point after W goes through slam bidding process, they find they have 4 aces and 3 kings a total of 23hcp, leaving a minimum of undisclosed 8+hcp. E showed 2 Aces and 1 King a total of 11 hcp but leaving 4 or 5hcp undisclosed, they Qs and Js, possibly 2 Qs and maybe a J.

W also has a 5 card D suit KQJ53, they now know that partner has AD, if partner is short on Ds then this will be a good on which to discard losers. This is a lot of information and Qs are important for NT Slams.

Most people go to the default slam position of 6, how many times do you bid a small slam and make 13 tricks, with the information you have why not bid 7NT. Be BOLD.

COLIN

This is last Hand of the Week until about 3^rd week in January, so I want to wish everybody A Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.