IMPOSSIBLE KINGS

Round 2 Akarana Teams Championships

Board 16 Dealer W EW vulnerable

                        Spade-small AQT4

                        Heart-small AQ9

                        Diamond-small T

                        Club-small QT965

Spade-small 32                                      Spade-small J98765

Heart-small KT763                                Heart-small 82

Diamond-small J854                                  Diamond-small Q96

Club-small J2                                       Club-small 74

                        Spade-small K

                        Heart-small J54

                        Diamond-small AK732

                        Club-small AK83

 

This was a board where 10 out of 14 pairs managed to bid a small slam but none managed to find the cold 7Club-small Grand Slam (5Club-small,3Spade-small,2Heart-small,1Diamond-small and 2Heart-small ruffs).

To bid confidently it needs accurate knowledge of partner’s shape and high card holdings. Playing a loser based system, such as Imperspicuity, when using CROSS non contributing singleton K and doubleton Q are not normally shown except when it is unambiguous that they show an ‘impossible’ K or Q. This board gives a good example of bidding an ‘impossible’ K, which proves crucial to bidding the grand slam.

Imperspicuity bidding would be:

N        E        S       W

                               -

1Club-small     -         2Diamond-small   -

2Heart-small     -         2Spade-small   -

2N      -         3Club-small    -

3Diamond-small    -         4Club-small    -

4Diamond-small    -         4Spade-small    -

4N     -          5Heart-small    -

5Spade-small    -         6Club-small    -

7Club-small    -          -        -

where:

1Club-small -  <= 6 loser (L) 0 - 37 HCP

1Diamond-small - <= 8 loser 5+Diamond-small If only 5Diamond-small then 4Club-small. No 4M

2Heart-small - Shape asking relay

2Spade-small - 3M

2N   - Shape asking relay

3Club-small - 5Diamond-small4Club-small3Spade-small1Heart-small 10 total losers

3Diamond-small - Loser asking relay

4Club-small - 5 loser hand

4Diamond-small - CROSS

4Spade-small - 0 or 3 key cards

4N - Contributing K ask 

5Heart-small - 2 K same colour. Showing ‘impossible’ K

5Spade-small - contributing Q ask

6Club-small - 0 or 3 Q

7Club-small - to play

 

After a positive response Shape asking relays are used to determine responder’s hand shape and total losers. Then a loser asking relay is used to determine responder’s losers to determine high cards held. CROSS is then used to identify key cards and contributing K and Q. Singleton K and Doubleton Q are not usually shown unless it is unambiguous they are an  ‘impossible’ K or Q (i.e where if they were possible responder after considering total losers they would have less losers than they have shown).

In this example as South has 10 total losers they can only have 4 - 5 contributing cards higher than a J. After showing 3 key cards, using modified losers they can’t have 2 K without having 4 losers instead of 5. So South can show their  ‘impossible’ K .

North then checks for contributing Q, as South could have 4.5 modified losers rounded up to 5 losers, before making a decision to bid 7Club-small or 7NT as they can already count 13 tricks with 2Heart-small ruffs in 7Club-small

 

         

 

 

 

 

 

Started by SEAN LYNCH on 13 Apr 2019 at 10:50AM

Post a Comment

You need to be logged in to reply to threads.
Click here to log in.

Latest Posts on this Thread

    You need to be logged in to reply to threads.
    Click here to log in.
    Our Sponsors
    • Tauranga City Council
    • tourismbop.jpeg
    • TECT.jpg
    • NZB Foundation