[Winstonm]

mikeh, on 2021-November-06, 17:58, said:

Since we’d splinter without the heart King, and consider we had a very good hand for that call, how can it be right to hide the extraordinarily strong spade support?

Btw, I don’t understand your proposed 3D. Surely that’s a splinter as well, and thus doubly misleading?
Maybe you meant a fake reverse into 2D. I’ve bid more than a few fake reverses, but never enroute to hiding primary trump support. No good player, sitting opposite, will ever imagine AKxx, let alone AKJx, in spades after the fake reverse.

The hand is far too strong for 4S. 4N is a complete guess that could easily lead to going down in 5S and otherwise means tossing a coin after any useful response.

The splinter is not ideal but it’s by far and away the call most likely to clue partner into the basic nature of our hand.

Consider how much we are telling him.

If, as most do, you have to bid 4H here (you may have seen that I can bid 3H as invitational plus)…

Now partner knows you have a gf raise opposite a passed hand 1S response. He also knows your probable shape within one card: you are either 4=1=3=5 or 4=1=2=6. I suppose you might be 4=0=4=5 or 4=0=3=6 but voids are far less common than singletons…again, note that I promise precisely one heart card…I think it very important, for slam bidding, to distinguish a void from a stiff if possible.

With Qxxxxx AJxx Qx x, it’s clear to move towards slam. Since partner could have AKJx x xx AKQxxx (unless you have the gadget with no name where 4C shows about this hand…which I do, lol), we would be violating an important metarule if we keycarded. But I can’t construct a hand on which 5S isn’t pretty safe so I might do it anyway. My main concern wouldn’t be being off the diamond AK but missing slam when he shows 3 keycards…what if he had AKxx x Kxx AKxxx? How can I tell that from AKxx x Jx AKQxxx? I can’t

So over 4H, I think we bid 5C, breaking another metarule by making our first cue in partner’s main suit. We need to hear 5D over which we bid 5H and leave the decision to partner…the fact that he will think we have something like Qxxxx Axx xxx Kx doesn’t worry me too much.

Note how much easier (although far from easy) it is if one can bid 3H over 1S. I guess you can tell that I play primarily imps, since with both regular partners we’ve spent a lot of time, in system design, in optimizing slam bidding😀

I agree in principle and that is why we expanded the meaning of the 4-level minor rebid to encompass this type hand.

PS: was thinking spades and confused 3D as a jump shift. Duh!

[Gilithin]

Cyberyeti, on 2021-November-06, 16:55, said:

Well a 4-2 club break is pretty much all you need, that's pretty cold, stiff K will also do, if trumps are 2-1 you may not even need that.

What is your line precisely? If you are ruffing 3 red cards in Dummy you cannot pick up 3-0 trumps and also have difficulty getting back to hand for the final ♥ ruff as only club ruffs are available for transportation. If you are establishing ♣ then East can potentially overruff due to the poor ♠ spots.

[Cyberyeti]

Gilithin, on 2021-November-06, 18:26, said:

What is your line precisely? If you are ruffing 3 red cards in Dummy you cannot pick up 3-0 trumps and also have difficulty getting back to hand for the final ♥ ruff as only club ruffs are available for transportation. If you are establishing ♣ then East can potentially overruff due to the poor ♠ spots.

Depends on the lead. Assume it knocks out one of the red entries or is a trump.

Ace of spades if lead wasn't a trump, if trumps are not 3-0, ace of clubs and a club ruff high (if they're 3-0 under you you can take this ruff low), spade back to dummy, club ruff, Ace of hearts ditching the diamond (if the ♥K was knocked out on the lead, otherwise you use the heart entry now and take the pitch a club ruff later) and now you have sufficient high spades as ruffing entries to ruff out the clubs and cash them.

If trumps are 3-0 over you take the first club ruff low and the second one high and can't cope with stiff K♣ with the 3 trumps but are still fine if they're 4-2.

[Gilithin]

So basically a dummy reversal? ♠A, ♣A, ♣ruff, ♠K, ♣ ruffed high, ♥K, ♠J, ♣ ruff, ♥A, ♥ ruff, ♦A, ♣, ♣. This works although I daresay only a low proportion of real intermediate players would find it due to the timing. Certainly from the comments I saw in this thread it sounded like many wanted to play for 3 ruffs, which has some issues. I still hesitate to call this cold in I/A. Honestly if an opponent played this against me on BBO, I would mark them as being in the top 10% of players I typically see. For Mike's opponents, it is probably routine. When this is routine in your circle, perhaps you should acknowledge that the level of play in Norfolk is not so bad as you sometimes suggest!

[mw64ahw]

Not enough for me to open 1♠ as North, but I do open an Ekren style 2♥ (64) if the long suit is weak. This leads to
2♥ - 2NT
4♦ 6♠4♥ w. ♠ honour - 4NT 2/4 keycards SI sets ♠ as trumps
6♣ ♣ control all key cards+Q♠ - 6♥ ♥ control, my real world choice which probably ends in 6♠
6♣ ♣ control all key cards+Q♠ - 7♠ on a combined modified loosing trick count which is <=12 (the simulator choice)

[chasetb]

Starting with a 3rd seat opener, I think my DD bidding would go:
1♣ - 2♥ [Reverse Flannery, 5+ Spades, 4+ Hearts, <10 HCP]
2NT [Ask] - 3♠ [6-4]
4♣ - 4♥
4NT - 5♦
6♣ [2nd round ctrl?] - 7♠

6♣ can't be 'to play' because Opener would have bid 3♦ or 4♣ rather than 2NT, so partner has interest in a Major.

[Cyberyeti]

Gilithin, on 2021-November-07, 13:22, said:

So basically a dummy reversal? ♠A, ♣A, ♣ruff, ♠K, ♣ ruffed high, ♥K, ♠J, ♣ ruff, ♥A, ♥ ruff, ♦A, ♣, ♣. This works although I daresay only a low proportion of real intermediate players would find it due to the timing. Certainly from the comments I saw in this thread it sounded like many wanted to play for 3 ruffs, which has some issues. I still hesitate to call this cold in I/A. Honestly if an opponent played this against me on BBO, I would mark them as being in the top 10% of players I typically see. For Mike's opponents, it is probably routine. When this is routine in your circle, perhaps you should acknowledge that the level of play in Norfolk is not so bad as you sometimes suggest!

I don't think it's really a dummy reversal or that omplicated, it's simply establishing dummy's long suit by ruffing.

[fromageGB]

No.