Vil's Latest Q&A

A recent question posed to my mailing list started with what you would bid if partner opened 2C and you held

T8

AK9762

AKJT9

The first thing I would is check to see if we were playing the same board. Then, the next thing you should ask yourself is what can partner have to want to be in game? The way you should play a 2C opening is "either game force or 23-24 balanced". It is obviously not a balanced 23-24.

Why do you need to know? Should you not just make a normal 'positive' response, 3D? Or just bid 2D and take it slowly? I personally would bid 2D and let partner keep forcing to game, expecting a big spade/heart hand. to immediately ask for aces is nothing short of ignorance because you have no idea of your likely end destination. But let's say you play by the book and bid 3D. That might lead you to the optimum contract. Partner will bid 3H. Now bid 4C WHICH IS NOT ASKING FOR ACES!! This is your second suit. Partner now bids 4H (persistent!!). You should still be expecting to be in a slam, but the heart void is clearly a worry. However partner now bids 4H and you should now know that partner has a lot of hearts and probably the AK of spades. Asks with 4NT which, whether you play Key card or not, should be ordinary Blackwood. When partner give you two aces, ask for kings, which will GUARANTEE that all the aces are accounted for and you are now asking for kings, implying that you are looking for a grand slam. Opener has only one king but most advanced players have an understanding that with a seven card running suit, a bid of 7 is in order. As it happened the opener's hand was:

AJ3

AKQ87532

Q4

and with an EIGHT card suit to the AKQ would have been justified in bidding 7H. Fortunately the hearts broke 3-2 and 13+ tricks rolled home. These who
bid 7NT when the hand came up on 17/09/2026 at X-Clubs, proved that Alexander Pope was right when he said "Ignorance is Bliss" (or was that Shakespeare?)