Aficionados of Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov will be familiar with the title of this blog. The interpretation of the poem of the same name is extraordinarily varied and complex, as would the correct auction be on the hand which occurred at the Woodberry tonight. I think it has to be some sort of asking sequence, as there is so much to find out. Given that the NS winners, David Burn and Dr Frances Loughridge, did not explore the hand fully, I feel sure that discussing your methods here would be beneficial. Without further ado:
Even playing 4-card majors and a strong NT there should be no real problem. After 1H-1S-2NT (showing typically 18-19), South should bid 3D, natural and forcing. I mentioned a while back that 3C could be played after 1X-1Y-2NT as a Wolff sign-off, showing a bad hand, but even without that 3D has to be played as forcing. North might seize control here with such good diamond support. It would be nice to play that 4D is minorwood, but even without that, North will cue 4C. Now South will cue 4H and North can cue 4S. The only worry now for South is that North has something like Kx Axxx Axxx AKTx and just bidding keycard Blackwood will suffice. South finds that all the key cards are present and can bid the grand with confidence.
Not one pair bid the grand in diamonds. And the grand in no-trumps is also excellent, needing one of the following:
a) spades 3-3
b) hearts 3-3
c) the same person guarding hearts and spades
d) a few other squeezes with the same person being in sole guard of clubs and a major (corrected-Ed)
I think the practical choice is to play 6NT, which has 12 cashers, and will beat 6D+1 always. Of course if the field is bidding 7D, you need to bid 7NT!
Not sure about a double squeeze - you need an entry in the pivot suit for one of those. Give East one of West's spades and West one of East's hearts, and you can't make 7NT on any lead.
ReplyDeleteAfter 1H-1S-2N-3D, 3H isn't a cuebid - it just shows five hearts (and 3S shows three spades). North should probably bid 4C, after which South should bid Blackwood even with the void, then make some sort of grand slam try.
Yes, I agree there is no squeeze if the major suit guards are split; it needs one opponent to have sole guard of clubs. And "on any lead" is not quite true. If the opening leader has only one club honour, leading it will be fatal, but I am being pedantic now.
DeleteAnd I should have realised that 3H just shows five as I play four-card majors with at least one partner! But we would open 1D and bid 1D-1S-2NT-3D when we would play 3H as a cue bid.