[FrancesHinden]

It's good practice during the auction to think about what partner's hand looks like.

Sometimes the auction is so revealing that you know what partner is going to put down in dummy before the opening lead. Sometimes you don't know exactly, but can get very close.

Here are three hands from yesterday.

1. You hold

---

Your RHO deals and this auction develops
1♦ P P 2♦
x 2♥ P 4♣
P 4♦ P 5NT
P 6♣ P 7♥
all pass

2♦ = majors
4♣ = splinter
5NT = grand slam force
6♣ = 1 of the top 3 heart honours

You can write down partner's hand pretty much to within one card. What is it?

2.
This time you don't get to see your hand.
Partner deals and the auction starts like this:
1♦ P 1♥ 2♠
P 4♠ x P
4NT P 5NT P
6♦

Your double was high cards/convertible values
4NT showed two places to play, as did 5NT

What shape is partner?
Roughly how many HCP does partner have?

3. And you don't get to see your hand this time either.
Uncontested auction, partner deals and opens.

1♦ 1♥
1♠ 1NT
2♥ 3♥
3NT P

(partner's 1♠ rebid denied a balanced hand in your style)
What shape is partner?
Roughly how many HCP does partner have?
What club holding do you expect?

[helene_t]

I am a little curious about 2. My thoughts:

Spoiler

P has obviously a minimum opener since he made a non-forcing pass over 2♠ and didn't show extras later either.

The two places two play could be 3♥6♦ or 6♦4♣. With 5-5 minors he would have bid 5♣ instead of 4NT, and with 4-card hears he would just have supported hearts.

I am still not quite sure if his second suit is clubs or hearts though. I would guess hearts since after 5NT he must reveal his suits, and 6♣ would now show clubs and 6♦ shows hearts. I can imagine some alternative interpretations, though, like a one-suiter slightly stronger than what a direct 5♦ over the double would have shown, or a hand with slightly stronger diamond preference than 4NT suggested.

He can't have many spades as he didn't convert the double. My guess is 1363 with 11-13 points.

[ArcLight]

Spoiler

1. pard has:
SPades: A K Q x x
Hearts: A Q J x x
Diamonds: x x
Clubs: A

Thats 20 HCP, you have 7, leaving 13 for opener.
Maybe pard has a spade J as well.
Pard wont have the Club King, because opener will have just 10 HCP, maybe 3253 or 2254. With 6 Diamonds he might have opened 2 Dimes.


2.
I assume pard is void in spades, though a stiff or ace is possible.
Hes got diamond support, and great hearts. AKQxx or longer.
0/1 = 5/6 = 3/4 = 3/4

The clubs must be great also AKxx. Or better


Opps have 10 HCP in spades, we have the rest. You opened with 13+ pard has the rest. AKQxx in hearts and AKxx in Clubs.



3. If opener is 4=3=5=1, he might have raised to 2H rather than bid 1 Spade.

With 4=3=6=0 opener would have supported hearts earlier and not been so keen on NT. I think opener has around 15 HCP since responder invited and he accepted.
Responder has <4 spades, 5 hearts, probably 4 clubs, and a couple of dimes.

[hrothgar]

On the first one, I expect that partner has one of the following two hands

♠ AKQJx
♥ AQJxxx
♦ xx
♣ Void

♠ AKQJx
♥ AQJxxx
♦ x
♣ A

[Mbodell]

ArcLight, on Aug 14 2008, 11:48 AM, said:

Spoiler

1. pard has:
SPades: A K Q x x
Hearts: A Q J x x
Diamonds: x x   
Clubs: A

Thats 20 HCP, you have 7, leaving 13 for opener.
Maybe pard has a spade J as well.
Pard wont have the Club King, because opener will have just 10 HCP, maybe 3253 or 2254.  With 6 Diamonds he might have opened 2 Dimes.

Spoiler

for 1 why can't partner be:

AKQJx
AQJxxx
Kx
-

I think splinter the void is more likely than a splinter of the A. The points work out the same. And there is no ambiguity over if the diamond cue is first or second round control, and 7 seems much safer.

[pclayton]

Mbodell, on Aug 14 2008, 12:33 PM, said:

ArcLight, on Aug 14 2008, 11:48 AM, said:

Spoiler

1. pard has:
SPades: A K Q x x
Hearts: A Q J x x
Diamonds: x x   
Clubs: A

Thats 20 HCP, you have 7, leaving 13 for opener.
Maybe pard has a spade J as well.
Pard wont have the Club King, because opener will have just 10 HCP, maybe 3253 or 2254.  With 6 Diamonds he might have opened 2 Dimes.

Spoiler

for 1 why can't partner be:

AKQJx
AQJxxx
Kx
-

I think splinter the void is more likely than a splinter of the A. The points work out the same. And there is no ambiguity over if the diamond cue is first or second round control, and 7 seems much safer.

Spoiler

Agree with this. I think pard has the other diamond control.

[ArcLight]

I agree, a void is certainly possible, with extra length in another suit.

[y66]

1) If P had the CA, she might have tried 4N to locate the HK. She has no losers opposite a hand with Kxx of hearts and 1st round control of diamonds, for example: AKQJx AQJxxx Kx ---.

2) P has 5+ diamonds, 5 clubs, no defense against 4S and not enough to rebid 3C over 2S, for example: xx x KQxxx KQxxx or x x KQxxxx KQxxx.

3) P has a hand that might have opened 1N if it were not unbalanced, for example, KJxx Q9x AKTxx Q. If she doesn't have a club honor, she might've bid 4H instead of 3N.

[skjaeran]

1. AKQxxx AQJxxx x v or AKQxx AQJxxx Kx v or similar.

2. 3361 most probably, with a good minimum (12+ - 14- hcp)

3. 3451. Very good 14 to 17 hcp. ♣A or K.

[cranebill]

AKQxx(x) AKJ10x(x) Kx (void or A) approx prob 11 in majors

[fromageGB]

Spoiler

Is there some convention here of which I am not aware? Why do people reply in invisible ink?

[gwnn]

Advanceds and Experts should hide their messages normally, not to "ruin the fun" of Beginners and Intermediates.

[y66]

The original poster may request advanced and expert players to reply invisibly so that B/Is can work out the solution themselves before reading others' solutions.

Of course, B/Is can always just read the original problem and not read further. But sometimes the original poster may comment or clarify something later in the thread.

[fromageGB]

Many thanks for the explanation.
You will note that this reply is not hidden !

[FrancesHinden]

On the first one, partner has

AKQ10xx
AQ109xx
x
void

something like
AKQJx
AQJxxx
x
A

is also possible, although that does (as has been pointed out) give the opening bidder not much of an opening bid.

If you had really felt the urge to cue a second round diamond control over 4C, you would of course have lied when asked about your top heart honours.

On the second, if you think about it, partner must be exactly 1363. With clubs and diamonds partner would have bid 6C over 5NT. With diamonds only, he would have bid 5D over your double. With four hearts he would have just raised hearts.

He has a fairly minimum opening bid, as he passed over 2S with a suitable shape for a take-out double or 3D bid.

Partner's hand was
Q
10xx
AJ1098x
AJx

So, looking at your
xxx
AKJxx
KQ
Kxxx

you confidently passed 6D. The operation is successful (it's roughly straight out on the heart finesse through the non-pre-empter) but the patient dies (one off).

On the third, partner must be exactly
4=3=5=1 with a singleton club honour and a good 16-18 points.

He didn't raise 1H to 2H immediately as that would show a minimum opening, this way he has shown extra values. He didn't pass 3H so he isn't minimum for his actions so far, and he bid 3NT rather than 4H so he must have a club honour.

In fact he had
AQxx
AJx
K10xxx
A

[FrancesHinden]

y66, on Aug 17 2008, 08:36 PM, said:

The original poster may request advanced and expert players to reply invisibly so that B/Is can work out the solution themselves before reading others' solutions.

I generally don't see the point of this.

If you are a genuine advanced/expert player, and it is a genuine beginner/intermediate problem, why are you replying with a 'hidden' solution at all?

If you have something useful to add to the discussion then it should not be put in invisible ink.

[y66]

On the 2nd one, I never thought about 4N as offering a choice between diamonds and hearts. Obvious now. Thanks for the problems.

re: replying invisibly - this intermediate does not care either way.

[NickRW]

FrancesHinden, on Aug 20 2008, 11:35 AM, said:

y66, on Aug 17 2008, 08:36 PM, said:

The original poster may request advanced and expert players to reply invisibly so that  B/Is can work out the solution themselves before reading others' solutions.

I generally don't see the point of this.

If you are a genuine advanced/expert player, and it is a genuine beginner/intermediate problem, why are you replying with a 'hidden' solution at all?

If you have something useful to add to the discussion then it should not be put in invisible ink.

In principle Frances, I think you're right. However, in practice, maybe not since people seem to have different ideas about what is and is not B/I standard - both in reference to categorising themselves/others - and also in terms of what they consider an appropriate post/problem to put in the B/I forum. Certainly many of the problem hands posted here are beyond the average beginner and at the very least quite challenging to the average intermediate in my opinion - your thread here included.

Also there are those of us (me for example) who have done well enough for long enough at local club level that we have to describe ourselves as "advanced" by BBO definition, but who are probably not at the upper end of advanced who find, for example, Trumpace's play problems quite interesting. I like to solve those. Having solved it, I am either insufficently sure so I post anyway, or feel that a long winded explanation may be of benefit to those struggling with it - but I don't want to spoil the thread by making the answer easy to see for those who wish to not have the problem spoilt.

In other words, I don't think B/I versus Adv+ is a black and white thing.

Nick