Diary of a Bridge Pro #35

I'm numbering this blog #35 to leave room to make #33 into two columns. Naturally as a
frustrated novelist I tend to write long, but for this medium - short is good.

Let me get the bridge hand in early, before I start talking about my Up Against the Wall Advice
Straight Outta Compton.

Here was a hand I featured recently from that very ballroom: AQJT, A, KQxxx, Axx - facing
K98xxxx, Qx, Ax, Jx - Walter and I reached 7 Spades quickly, with an invitational jump shift.
Here's a link to the diagram - I was responder.

​The hand in question is what we used to call a “baby grand slam” - or, for short, a baby grand.

If you want to buy a baby grand piano from Aaron Silverstein’s in-laws, click here.

If you want to look at a deal where the offense (Walter and I in this case) has a gazillion tricks - a baby grand in bridge terms - then check the diagram.

Our respective hands were: K98xxxx, Qx, Ax, Jt facing AQJT, A, KQ9xx, Axx - I look at a pair of hands like this and I think: Seven spade tricks, four diamond tricks (assuming a 4-2 split - five tricks if the suit splits 3-3 - only three tricks if the suit splits 5-1) - then I add the heart trick (gotta count the ace) and then a second heart trick, in the form of a ruff in the AQJT hand, likely the dummy - that’s an eighth spade trick if you prefer to count that way - just don’t count it both as an eighth spade and a second heart - oh yeah, ace of clubs, too - so basically this is a fourteen or fifteen trick deal -

*****

This pair of hands can be handled very easily, the point count is even adequate if both players
use basic evaluation techniques. The opener can reason: This 20-count re-evaluates to 22 or 23
(all those aces, good five card suit, great trumps) - and the responders ten count re-evaluates to
15 on account of the three extra spades (one for the fifth, two for the sixth, two for the seventh) -
so the straight-forward point-count approach gets you to 37 or 38 points - with all the aces, the
long suit, and the singleton, that’s why there are fifteen likely tricks.

Chalk Talk:

After we bid, with the opponents silent, One Diamond - One Spade, Three Hearts by opener is
what is known as an “Idle Sequence”. This is because the “natural” meaning for the bid - a good
hand with primary diamonds and secondary hearts - has no utility. (This is not really true - you
could play the bid to show a hand like x, AKJxx, AQJTxxx, void).

With a normal excellent hand like Kx, AJ9x, AKTxxx, K, we simply bid 1D - 1S - 2H - this is
known as a “‘reverse”, and is generally played as promising extra strength - the thinking being:
Responder will have to go to the 3 level to return to opener’s primary suit (diamonds), so
Opener needs substantial extra strength (17+) to justify his reverse bid.

Many expert partnerships use this 3H bid as a “mini-splinter” - a hand like KJxx, x, AJxxx, AJx
- others use it as a “Non-specific game splinter” - either AQxx, x, AKxxx, KJx or AQxx, KJx,
AKxxx, x - then on the third round they use a relay ask/answer method to pin-point the
singleton.

I prefer a different meaning: I treat this 3H bid (and 3S, after 1D - 1H), as showing: “The
biggest possible game raise; nearly a 2 Club bid in support” - hands like KQxx, Axx, AKxxxx,
void, or AJxx, Ax, AKJxx, Ax - or the actual hand from my regional with Walter, AQJT, A, KQxxx,
Axx)

*****

So here’s a good auction for Standard Bidders using this gadget: 1D - 1S - 3H - 4NT - Answer
showing three keys - 7 Spades.

Here’s another good sequence, the one Walter and I relied upon: 1D - 2S (invitational
jump-shift, shows 9-11 HCP and at least six spades) - RKC - Answer showing two - Seven
Spades.

Despite the apparent ease of reaching the grand slam (we do, after all, have a likely 15 tricks
off the top), reaching 7 was worth over 90% of the matchpoints - even reaching six gets you an
above average score.

I’ll suggest to Walter and perhaps to WCN that we add an Optional Key Card bid to that
sequence, specifically: 1D - 2S - 4C - then responder answers:

4S: Bad hand for slam
4D: Fair hand for slam - what do you think?
4H: Good hand for slam, I’m answering with the first step, showing that number of key-cards
​
*****

Thought for the Day:

90% of life is just showing up. The other half is what you wear when you get there.

​Life: Be in it!

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