What should I bid? (February 2014)
The best submission for February came from Albert Braunstein. He wins a voucher of $30 funded by TBIB, toward any purchase made at the Bridge Shop or Paul Lavings Bridge Books.
Sitting as North, IMPS, Both Vulnerable, West the dealer
♠ AK32
♥ AJ986
♦ KQ63
♣ void
| West | North | East | South |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3♣ | Dbl | 4♣ | 4♥ |
| Pass | ? |
What do you bid?
Hi Albert,
If 5♣ is Exclusion Key Card Blackwood, I would do that. If not, then I might just bid 4NT RKCB anyway.
The way I feel about this hand is that I am always going to slam. But whether to bid a grand slam or not depends on how much accuracy I can get from here. If I cuebid with 5♣, we can cuebid all day long but would the partnership be confident about bidding grand? If I bid 4NT RKCB and find out partner has two keycards and the queen of trumps, would I guess that partner most likely does not have the ♣A as one of the keycards, and therefore search for a grand?
If I’m not able to bid 5♣ Exclusion Keycard, then I will probably just bid 4NT RKCB and if I find that partner has 1+Queen, then I will bid 6♥. I am not a big fan of bidding grand slams unless I have about 90%+ certainty, and given that I won’t have that, I will be content with a slam. I don’t want to bash 6♥ in the unlikely event that partner shows up with 1 keycard and no Queen. Actually, if partner has 1 keycard with no Queen, I might bid the slam regardless since if partner doesn’t have the Queen, he rates to hold five or more Hearts anyway. Maybe he has something like Qx KTxxx Jxxx Kx.
Regards,
Andy
