TALES OF AKARANA
West. East
- AT5
AKQ54. 963
AJT876. KQ9
A6. K843
Two examples were given this week of how Grand Slam could have been bid.
This board also provide a good opportunity to provide an example of the use of non promissory relay stayman in comparison:
N. E. S. W
1N. - 2
- 2 - 2
- 2 - 2N
- 3 - 3
- 3 - 3
- 3N. - 4
- 4N - 5
- 5 - 5
- 5 - 5N
- 6 - 7/7/7N
- - -
where:
1N. - 7 - 8 losers (L) 12 - 19 HCP May have 5M
2 - 5M non promissory relay stayman
2 - No 4 or 5M
2 - <= 7 L shape asking relay (SAR) continuation
2 - No 5 m
2N - SAR
3 - 4333 12 total losers
3 - Loser asking relay
3 - 8 L
3 - CRO A ask
3N - 1 or 4 A
4 - CRO K ask
4N - 2 K same rank
5 - CRO Q ask
5 - 1 or 4 Q
5 - Suit of A ask
5 - A
5N -Suit of Q ask
6 - Q
7/7/7N to play
The above is a more lengthy auction but at the end West has complete knowledge of East’s hand to pick the Grand Slam they prefer. Whether or not you prefer this level of detail from your bidding depends on whether one is in the “too much information” camp or not. From the rule of 18 a possible slam is indicated after the 1NT opening. From Law of total losers West knows East has 4-5 cards higher than J and these are revealed using CRO. With favourable responses West pushes on to Grand Slam.
In the first bidding example, East can’t be completely sure if bidding 7 or 7 is correct and in the second example, while West finds the 7 contract easily enough they don’t have knowledge of East’s A or of the additional fit to consider bidding an alternative 7 or 7NT Grand Slam. However, while there are gaps in partnership knowledge using these bidding approaches this may prove advantageous if it makes it more difficult for the opposition to plan their defence.
Latest Posts on this Thread
- SEAN LYNCH19 Apr 2019 at 10:45AM
We have adapted 5M Non- Promissory Stayman to be used in our loser based system but it was originally created for a weak no trump (12 - 14 HCP) that may contain a 5 card major. There is also a 4M Non-Promissory Relay version. Details of which we obtained online from a Stayman article on Wikipedia. If used for this board the intermediate loser asking relay could be omitted and 3
used to initiate CRO instead; which would provide more bidding space.The key points are that using 5MNPR or 4MNPR allows the shape of the opening 1 NT hand to be determined whilst concealing information about their partner’s hand and can also be used as Garbage Stayman and for invitational hands. Once hand shape is determined it is then possible to use what ever A asking or cue bid conventions preferred by partnership.
We use CRO as it often allows for the partner to the 1NT opener to have a void, as the case for this board, as it can often be initiated at a lower bidding level than some other conventions.
- Brad Johnston10 May 2019 at 03:20PM
Does West need the rule of 18?
Can't they simply think "by golly - my partner has 12-14 hcp. If they have the kq of D and the kc as 8 of their hcp then grand is pretty much laydown. 8 is less than 12, so they can have this hand. I should figure out if they have this hand.
Here's one simple auction:
1N 2N (Ds)
3D 3S (likes Ds, S shortage)
4C 4D (cue, waiting)
4s 4N (cue, keycard)
5S 7?
Or maybe
1N 2D
2H 3D
3H 3S (gf H fit, S cue)
4C 4D (C cue, D cue)
4s 5c (S cue, C cue)
5d 5N (D cue, anything else?)
7?
Or more rustic:
1N 2N (Ds)
3D 4S (likes Ds, excl)
5D 5H (1+q, ask)
5S 5N (A S, waiting)
6C 7? (kc)
Any time west shows the reds, east knows that filler red cards are great, slow black cards are bad. They can use their judgement to naturally bid this laydown grand without wasting 10 minutes doodling relays on a bidding pad.
You need to be logged in to reply to threads.
Click here to log in.
Click here to log in.
