Q&A 07: Splinters and Cue Bids

You are SOUTH, and dealer. All vulnerable, match points.

The Bidding has been:

South	West	North	East
1	Pass	2	Pass
?

Your hand is:

AT9643

AQ9

9

K73

What would you bid?

Firstly, something for the Juniors: you should know by now that if you open 1S and partner bids 2H,
partner is GUARANTEEING at least 10 High Card Points (HCP) and FIVE or more hearts. That is how we
have played it for a long time. With only four hearts, if there is no suitable alternative, you can
bid 2C with only a three card suit. It is easy to see from the above hand why bidding can be much
easier knowing that. For most players the only bids are therefore 3H or 4H. If you play a bid or 3H as
a minimum, is this hand a minimum? I suggest not, 13 HCP and a singleton diamond surely make this a
maximum and hence a 4H raise. But for the more advanced players there is another bid they can make:
a jump to 4D, which is a SPLINTER bid and shows specifically a singleton diamond and good heart
support. The singleton should not be an ace or king but a smaller card.Given that information, what
would NORTH now do, given this hand:

This deal was sent in by Peter (thank you Peter). North had, at the time:

2

K8763

KJ63

AQJ

The argument was that a slam was missed by most pairs but would have been bid if NS had been using
splinter bids. As the cards lay, spades breaking 3-3 and hearts 3-2 the slam would have rolled home.
But would you have been excited with the South hand knowing that dummy would have a small
singleton diamond and a five card spade suit and say at least 14 HCP? More discussion on splinters and
cue bids is necessary for the more advanced partnerships, and we will take another look at that later.