[humilities]

Playing 2/1, how would your favorite partnership fare on this hand? What's your auction?

IMPs, game all, auction has proceeded thus far:

---

[manudude03]

7C quite trivially.

....4C (RKC)
4H-5C (0/3 key cards, signoff opposite 0)
5S-7C (3KC+king of spades, can count 6 clubs, 4 spades, 1 diamond, 1 heart and a heart ruff, even if partner only has 5 clubs, then there are surely 2 heart ruffs)

[TWO4BRIDGE]

humilities, on 2014-January-16, 12:39, said:

Playing 2/1, how would your favorite partnership fare on this hand? What's your auction?

IMPs, game all, auction has proceeded thus far:

---

Perhaps:
1C - ( 1H ) - DBL
2C - 3H! = splinter for ♣
3S ( cue ) - 4C ( using Zelandakh replies )
??
.. 4D ( 1st step = no slam interest )
.. 4H ( 0 or 3 )
.. 4S ( 1 or 4 )
.. 4NT ( 2 - ♣ Q )
.. 5C ( 2 + ♣ Q )

After:
4H ( 0 or 3 ) - 4NT ( K -ask ; specific K replies )
5S ( ♠K ; no other side-suit K's )
...... - 7C ( counting 4s, 1h, 1d, 6c, ♥-ruff = 13 )

[Cyberyeti]

For us:

1♣-(1♥)-2♣(4+♣ inverted, not FG, may contain 4M)
2♦(inv+ ask)-2♠(nat)
3♣-4♦(keycard)
4♥(0/3)-4♠(Q♣ or a 6th one ?)
5♠(yes and K♠)-7♣

It's known to be cold unless A♥ is single which seems unlikely with opps not raising hearts.

[kenrexford]

After splinter, spade cue, and Kickback, Responder can easily find the spade King and then count 13 tricks.

[gszes]

1c (1h)

x

2c denies 4 spades also good reason to avoid 1n

2h forcing to 2n

3h heart ace only and at least 6 clubs 2 of top 3 honors no other stops (would bid same way w/o spade K)

3s any spade help? easy way to find out the unlikely chance p has the spade K

3n partial stop our holding tells us it is the stiff K (failure to bid 2s means it cant be a full stop)

4c rkc

4d 0 or 3 (we know it is 3 due to heart A)

at this point we can count 12 tricks on top in nt and 13 in clubs p has shown 14 count

and it is unreasonable for a 6 card suit headed AK to bid only 2c if they had another K. The

only question remaining is does p have 6 or 7 clubs and the easy

5n here asks for extra club length since club quality is already taken care of

6c nope

7c it is good luck p

[MrAce]

1♣--DBL
2♣--3♥ (splinter)
3♠-- 3♠ showing value/keycards and grandslam

[Lord Molyb]

2♣! - (2♥) - 4♥
4♠ - 4NT
5♦ - 5NT
6♠ - 7♣

Playing precision

[Zelandakh]

1♣ - (1♥) - X;
2♣ - 3♥(spl);
4♣(suitable, no !D control) - 4♦(RKCB);
4♠(0/3) - 5♦(K ask);
5♠ - 7♣

You specified 2/1 but not that we could not use denial cue bids and Kickback. Of course it does not make much difference at that stage. After the splinter I would imagine most pairs have the tools to find grand. It is harder if we need either ♠K or the 6th club but can only find out about one of them.

[Jinksy]

Playing Fantunes, same auction as so far, but N having shown more of his playing strength:

1C (1H) X
2C 3H*
3S** 4C***
4H 4S
5N**** 7C

* splinter
** prob a cue
*** showing even # of KCs
**** denying QC, confirming all 5 KCs, denying any further cues, showing an extra C

Of course, saying we 'would' end up in 7C, rather than 3N when someone took something as a stop ask/show is taking the question in the spirit of narcissism in which I assume it was proposed.

[eagles123]

in all honesty i love to think i'd reach 7 but i think 6 would be more realistic

1♣ (1♥rt) X 2♣ 4♣ 4♦ 6♣

[fromageGB]

1♣ . (1♥) . X = 4+spades
2♣(=6 card) . 4♦(ace ask. You want to be in 5♣ at least.)
4♥(1, or 3 without) . 4♠(which?)
5♠(3, with 1 or 2 kings, denying ♥K, has ♠K and perhaps ♦K) . 5NT(♦K?)
6♣(no) . 7♣(pity, I wanted to play in 7NT. The lack of heart bidding leads me to suspect they do not have an 11 card heart fit, so I expect a ruff)

[fromageGB]

Interestingly, those that use RKCB by South without knowing of the heart ace opposite seem to be assuming that North has 3 aces when he replies to show 0 or 3. What would you say as dealer with
K7
KQ4
KT
J98762
?
I open 1♣.

[MrAce]

fromageGB, on 2014-January-18, 09:41, said:

Interestingly, those that use RKCB by South without knowing of the heart ace opposite seem to be assuming that North has 3 aces when he replies to show 0 or 3. What would you say as dealer with
K7
KQ4
KT
J98762
?
I open 1♣.

I give you credit for the effort to construct this hand...however.... even my dog would not do anything to encourage a slam invitation, let alone bidding something encouraging over a splinter bid with KQx in the splinter suit. As soon as he heard the splinter suit or any slamish bid from pd, he would scream just like he does when he accidentally squeezes his tail in the doorway sometimes, and would drop his ears!

How about you ? Ok, i got it, you open 1♣ and not weak NT. Maybe you do not play weak NT, if so then you could have bid (imo you should have) 1 NT in your second turn. Which you did not, and lets agree for the sake of argument that these are all borderline decisions (which are not to me), and now you will do something even more encouraging when pd says he is short in hearts ?

Here are the people who used RKCB by S

TWO4BRIDGE, on 2014-January-16, 12:58, said:

Perhaps:
1C - ( 1H ) - DBL
2C - 3H! = splinter for ♣
3S ( cue ) - 4C ( using Zelandakh replies )
??

MrAce, on 2014-January-16, 19:09, said:

1♣--DBL
2♣--3♥ (splinter)
3♠-- 3♠ showing value/keycards and grandslam

Lord Molyb, on 2014-January-16, 22:39, said:

2♣! - (2♥) - 4♥
4♠ - 4NT
5♦ - 5NT
6♠ - 7♣

Playing precision

Zelandakh, on 2014-January-17, 07:51, said:

1♣ - (1♥) - X;
2♣ - 3♥(spl);
4♣(suitable, no !D control) - 4♦(RKCB);
4♠(0/3) - 5♦(K ask);
5♠ - 7♣

Jinksy, on 2014-January-17, 11:54, said:

1C (1H) X
2C 3H
3S* 4C**
4H 4S
5N*** 7C

I am assuming Jinsky and Lord Molyb also intended splinter, i will stand corrected if their 3-4♥ meant something else.

[kenrexford]

MrAce, some people might find things interesting that we find trivial. LOL

[fromageGB]

Mr Ace, good post and I agree with you, though a 2♣ rebid is systemic with 6 cards (1NT denies 6). My point is that RKCB has hidden dangers lurking, and you need to make a suggestion and receive cooperation before using it. With a clean ace method, on this hand I can ask immediately, because I am going to play in 5 regardless. Some other hands do not give you the room to seek cooperation first.

[Jinksy]

MrAce, on 2014-January-19, 04:56, said:

Here are the people who used RKCB by S

I am assuming Jinsky and Lord Molyb also intended splinter, i will stand corrected if their 3-4♥ meant something else.

I didn't use RKCB (for the minors I use minorTurbo where possible - hence the 4C bid here)

3H was a splinter. I'll edit the post to clarify.

Playing Fantunes I couldn't have the hand fromageGB gives - it would be a 1N or 2C opening.

[P_Marlowe]

1C - (1H) - X
pass - 2C - (Pass) - 3H (1)
pass 3S (2) - (Pass) - ... (3)


(1) splinter
(2) Cue, Ace or King
(3) ???

Responder likes his hand, but he is min for his bidding so far,
opener did not promise a 6 card suit, and he also did not show
more than a min, i.e. at one point in time someone has to make
the decision that slam will have enough play, or sign off.
If either side signs off, the other side will respect the ign off.

So all in all I will end up either in 5C or in 6C, did not try to
figure out, if I can count to 13, after the KC sequences.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[P_Marlowe]

manudude03, on 2014-January-16, 12:48, said:

7C quite trivially.

....4C (RKC)
4H-5C (0/3 key cards, signoff opposite 0)
5S-7C (3KC+king of spades, can count 6 clubs, 4 spades, 1 diamond, 1 heart and a heart ruff, even if partner only has 5 clubs, then there are surely 2 heart ruffs)

Unless he happens to have a weak NT with doubleton heart, which means there is no 2nd heart ruff.

[manudude03]

P_Marlowe, on 2014-January-21, 09:15, said:

Unless he happens to have a weak NT with doubleton heart, which means there is no 2nd heart ruff.

If partner was 3235, he would have rebid 1NT. No other shape is possible (just for completeness sake if you wanted to rebid 1NT with a 2236 hand, then you have 13 tricks after 1 ruff)