Monday 25 March

Playing N/S with Adrianne came above average with a Butler score of 17.
Not a lot interesting play but one hand presents a bidding problem that nobody surmounted.

Anatomy of a slam hand.

We reached 6H via

1C – 1H – 2C – 2S – 4H – 4N – 5H – 6H

2S is just a one round force so 4H is stronger than 3H. The final contract could have been 6C at Butler scoring but we are all so programmed to bid majors as we play Match Points most of the time.  However the clubs are probably 6 so maybe the extra discards might be better. Anyway Adrianne chose 6H and made the easy 12 tricks on the diamond lead, AH, ruff a diamond cash two more top trumps and running clubs until eventually the JH was taken.

7C and actually 7NT are stiff.  Most people bid 6C, unluckily Ian McClure and Steve Bailey bid 7H.

So how do you get to the best contract of 7C?

North always opens 1C, South bids 1H (nobody would bid 2H nowadays unless they had a 6^th). North surely always rebids 2C.

At this points South ‘knows’ they are going to play in 6C, if they embark on RKC they get 5S (2 with) and what do they know? Three hearts, likely a fourth, 5 clubs (partner could be xx xx AQxx AQxxx) a diamond and two spades, slam seems certain. A six card club suit is a bit more likely, in that case a grand slam is more or less certain but thirteen is rare, you would need to be looking for a score to bid that. What if partner only had a singleton heart, what if only five clubs? No, 6C looks right.

However, let’s go back to Adrianne’s bidding of her 2S reverse with her three card suit (safe to do so, I've denied four spades) and my jump to 4H. What does she know? Well I’m not just a minimum 1C – 2C, I have three hearts, could I be 4-5 in the minors or is she certain I have six clubs? Well the latter actually because with 1-3-4-5 I would have rebid 2H (this requires good partnership understanding).  So I must be 2-3-2-6 or 1-3 in spades and diamonds.  What can South work out now? If there are normal breaks you have 6 clubs, 5 hearts and two Aces and a King, 14 tricks.  If I did have five clubs, you can still expect thirteen tricks. However we are not playing MPs so you should bid 7C because the six card club suit is very likely and you know that if the hearts don’t run you can ruff one to make the four tricks you need. So 7C is an excellent grand to bid.
So brilliant bid that 2S reverse, you should always look to make forcing bids like that to find out more about Partner's hand.  However, the main point is always count your tricks in suit slams.  People tend to concentrate on RKC and controls.  That just tells you what top tricks you might lose, doesn't tell you how many tricks you make.  In fact I would never teach Blackwood to beginners, teach trick counting when it comes to suit slams (yes I know you can have 12 tricks and three top losers -- I'm assuming some common sense comes into it). Just use point counting when it comes to NT -- 33 points, can't be missing two Aces, bid slam.