My card with Paul Huggins is a fairly simple 2/1 with Three
Weak Twos, and, like many an irregular partnership, and no doubt some regular
partnerships, we have 2NT = ASK shown over weak twos. We also went to the
trouble to say that 3M was minimum, and others were natural. But “ASK” can be
interpreted in more ways than one. Does it ask for a feature, or ask primarily whether
you have the usual trash multi or something worth showing? I remember a quiz asking
for ten song titles with ASK in the title, and with Brian McGuire present we soon
spat out this list. I will leave you to add the group.
Ask Me Why
Don’t Ask Me Why
Please Don’t Ask
Ask Yourself Why
Don’t Ask Me Why (again)
If You Have to Ask
Ask Any Girl
All I Ask of You
Ask Me No Questions
Ask Me How I Feel
We scored much better in the quiz than on the above hand where my partner thought that I had the AK of hearts and king of diamonds. He thought that I had the former as he asked about them, and he thought that I had the latter as he asked for a feature and I bid diamonds. But a feature and natural are not the same, and he could have used 5NT, please cue kings. I would have said I did not have any kings, and we would have rested in 6H. But at the end of the day, 7NT was on a finesse and, in these days of self-kibitzing, I was kind of glad that it was offside. And arseblog, South, was very happy with the top, as he had only just got over celebrating Arsenal’s win in the F A Cup final.
The moral of the tale is to make sure that the question you are asking is getting the answer you want!
Two points to make:
ReplyDelete1) I would not open 2H with AKxxxx and an outside king. I think that would be enough for 1 heart.
2) Those who use Ogust should have no problem with this board. The sequence 2H-2NT-3D shows two top heart honours, but fewer than 8 high card points. East knows that partner holds AKxxxx with no outside honours, so it is obvious that 6H is the par contract.
I think the first point is very clear. A weak two should never have 4 controls. After all you only need 5 controls for an acol 2C, and you can bid 2C on xxx AKxxx Axxx J and announce it just as "strong" and get away with it under the odd "Blue Balls" regulations.
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