A hand I kibitzed yesterday, in a team match:
This hand has excellent play for 7 Spades. Both 5-0 spade splits can be picked up, and 13 tricks can be had if clubs are 4-2 or better, OR if the king of diamonds is with East.
The harder part is bidding the grand. If you're a slave to point counts, the 31 points will probably suggest to you that you would do well to make a small slam.
In the teams match, at one table, south bid 4NT, and finding all the key cards present, bid 6 spades. At the other table, north bid 4NT, and finding all key cards present, jumped to 7 spades. Win 11.
The key, I think, is north has a huge source of extra tricks in clubs. While I'm not sure that I would have found the right bid at the table, this hand is a clear lesson, I think, in looking beyond point count.
3 comments:
While I know it's unpopular, this hand is one of the reasons a guy on BBO I took lessons with thought a 1M-2NT raise should only promise 3 cards.
It frees up the 1M-2X-2Y-3M auction to show a strong source of tricks in responders first suit.
1S - 2C*<--5+, 2/3 top honors
2H - 3S
etc etc etc
The upside, you both know about the source of tricks. The downside is that you lose a way to guarantee the 4th trump which, as I think TylerE noted in the forums recently, can be the difference b/t 30% and 70% slams elsewhere.
Interesting stuff.
If north bids keycard and finds all the keycards + SQ present, he can count 13 tricks (5 spades, 6 clubs, two bullets)
If south bids keycard, finds, all the keycards present, and bids 5NT (guaranteeing all the keycards), north is in the same position as above.
I came to say basically the same thing-- when South finds out all the keycards are there, he should bid 5NT, to allow his partner with a source of tricks to jump to the grand. Here North couldn't move over 6S because from his perspective, they could still be off the ace of trumps!
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