[bd71]

---

Last round in top bracket of flighted Swiss at an ACBL sectional. Your goal is to finish in the overall standings and you figure you need a blitz to get there. Your last-round opponent is near the bottom of the standings.

Questions for this hand:

1. How interested are you in pursuing slam?
2. How would you go about it?

[mich-b]

I would pass - I don't think slam is likely.
I think that my best chance of winning IMPs on this board is hoping that my "near the bottom" opps at the other table bid a poor slam , and my teammates beat it.
And if not , we'll try to win IMPs on the other boards.

[gordontd]

If he had all the cards we need for slam, he might well have bid something other than 4♠

[Mbodell]

Easy pass. for slam to be good he needs at least 3 of the missing 4 keycards. I mean it's possible he has something like xxx AJxx KQ AJxx and we make 6 more or less on picking up the trumps, but are you going to explore and bid it missing 2 KC and hope one is the on side K? Are you going to blast? If your partner is reasonable he's heard your bidding and knows what to do. For all you know he's swinging with something like xxx AJ Kx KJTxxx and you'll be quite happy to play just 4♠.

[benlessard]

WTP pass, not passing here is so wrong. 4S should not only sugget minimum it should suggest wasted values.

[whereagles]

Too many losers and pard not interested = no bid.

[rogerclee]

A good reality check in these kinds of situations is to count your keycards. You have one, so...

[aguahombre]

Whatever the jump to 4S showed opposite a partner who wants to be in game, at least ---I hate it. It is a break, where responder might want room; I don't like being preempted by partner when no "picture" for the jump makes any sense.

[Free]

4♠ is aweful, responder is still unlimited so use the space more wisely!

I'd just pass. It's all trash in the minors, a stiff K may be worth nothing, we are light on HCP, partner probably won't have a ♦ fit and partner probably won't have a 9th ♠.

[Siegmund]

4S was bid for a reason. If partner could cooperate for a slam in spades he would bid 3S; if he could cooperate for a slam in diamonds he would have cuebid already. Partner has just told us that he has wasted values in the round suits and no great surplus of aces; listen to him.

[Phil]

rogerclee, on 2011-December-12, 13:05, said:

A good reality check in these kinds of situations is to count your keycards. You have one, so...

Similarly, partner shouldn't be advertising a minimum with three key cards.

Easy pass.

The OP is a bit LOL to me. You are playing the bottom team, and suddenly you feel like you have to take a huge view just to generate a blitz? Don't you think your opponents just want to get the heck out of there? What makes you think they are playing anything close to their best bridge? Getting a blitz isn't terribly tough - you need about 2 1/2 game swings over 6-7 boards.

Also, how would you feel if one of your teammates starts getting the hero complex?

[wyman]

WaterMan and Free,

Do you also use a system in which 4S DNE after 1S-2N, assuming you play some form of J2N? Just curious.

edit: [or perhaps what I mean is: do you play a system where 4S is not a super-min rebid]

[aguahombre]

wyman, on 2011-December-14, 10:06, said:

WaterMan and Free,

Do you also use a system in which 4S DNE after 1S-2N, assuming you play some form of J2N? Just curious.

edit: [or perhaps what I mean is: do you play a system where 4S is not a super-min rebid]

There are auctions where a jump to game in the agreed major (fast arrival) might be o.k. for a pair's style. In the OP auction, all it does is disrupt whatever further intentions responder might have, without providing any picture for responder to use.

The J2N question is not really similar. The jump to 4M as a rebid following J2N is part of the structure ---denying a good opener and denying other specific agreed features. If the jump to 4M proves inconvenient to responder, then he should have chosen a different first response such as a natural 2/1 bid.

This post has been edited by aguahombre: 2011-December-14, 10:35

[Phil]

aguahombre, on 2011-December-12, 13:22, said:

Whatever the jump to 4S showed opposite a partner who wants to be in game, at least ---I hate it. It is a break, where responder might want room; I don't like being preempted by partner when no "picture" for the jump makes any sense.

I used to think this, but picture jumps come around as often as Haley's Comet. I much prefer the jump to be a truly awful balanced hand with poor controls. Could responder have a 19 where the 'right' POS produces slam, but the wrong POS doesn't? Sure, but you have to convince me that responder can glean the right information along the way in a slower sequence.

[aguahombre]

Phil, on 2011-December-14, 10:33, said:

Could responder have a 19 where the 'right' POS produces slam, but the wrong POS doesn't? Sure, but you have to convince me that responder can glean the right information along the way in a slower sequence.

Yes, I might have to convince you of that some time in the future when discussing OUR system. Right now, I only have to convince my better half that I won't be disrupting her attempts to glean such information or further describe her intentions in accordance with the methods we have discussed over the years.

BTW, none of this really matters on the current thread; except that opener's break made my predisposition to not try for slam easier when he ate up my room to do so.

This post has been edited by aguahombre: 2011-December-14, 12:04

[wyman]

To me, opener sounds like he has 0-1 KC and 3-2 in the pointeds, probably a 14-15 count.

I'm biased, though, since I am opener