How Not to Bid a Slam ...
... or ... how to bid the wrong slam. Or, we might call this “The Continuing No Trump Syndrome”. We have been there before, haven’t we? The obsession with No Trumps and the ignoring of a minor suit fit when bidding slams, or maybe even not bidding a slam when the combined point count warrants it, just because the only possible trump fit is a 4-4 in a minor.
Board 1 From Friday 26/7/24.
Dlr North Nil Vul
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9
AK972
KT97
AJ4I gave the South hand as a bidding exercise to a group of club players, and am pleased to report that the results were much better than in the clubroom, where every pair but one bid to 6NT down one and only one pair bid 6D, making exactly, for 100% of the match points. Across all of X-Clubs, 6D making 6 scored 86%. Of course there were the usual aberrations like one 7NT making but let’s just talk about what should be within the bounds of reality.
North opens 1H and South responds 1S. North bids 2D and the moment North bids 2D, South should be thinking ‘slam’. I would hope that all Norths would know enough about bridge bidding not to rebid 1NT or 2H. South could take the crude approach and just bid 6D but asking for aces is wise missing two, so even a 4C ace ask would get a pair to 6D. Usually just bidding a small slam in your best suit will be enough for a good score, as evidenced by the 86%.
There is more to this deal than just bidding 6D though. Let’s go through how the bidding by an expert pair might go, and see what we can learn from it. After North’s rebid of 2D, South wants to a) continue investigating in a forcing situation and b) create a game forcing situation where that can be done most effectively. That is where we need ‘fourth suit forcing’ and South bids 3C. North bids 3NT which gives South a good picture of North’s hand, almost certainly three clubs with one or two honours and almost certainly a singleton spade. A 4-4 fit only produces four tricks in No Trumps, but can produce at least one extra trick in a trump contract. As well as ‘4SF’ we also need a new gadget that has been invented specifically for such situations, “Minorwood”: 4D now agrees the suit and is a Key Card ask in diamonds. Or, without that, South can just bid 4NT which by implication is a key card ask in diamonds. Later, the real experts will locate the king of hearts and bid a confident (?) 7D. Every slam needs to be played carefully, and declarer, without taking risks will make 6D without the overtrick, but in the grand slam, how would YOU play it?
