Vul vs not, at IMPs, you hold as south: ♠A1086432 ♥A6 ♦- ♣AJ83
W N E S
- P P 1♠
P 2♠ P ?
What do you bid?
Happy St. Patrick Day!! I remembered to wear green when I went golfing this morning. First I have to say: Never consider preempting with three aces and four first round controls! Opening 4♠ is just wrong. Some people see 13 HCPs when they look at this hand. I see slam potential.
Partner’s raise covers a wide range of hands. His being a passed hand does not change matters. However the reality is that even though slam is now more remote, it is still worthwhile to try. A natural 3♣ works fine. Another option is a void showing 4♦. Not only does it help partner evaluate his honours, but also tells him right away you were always bidding game. The former, besides being better, takes up less bidding space which is desirable.
Over both partner bids 4♠. Over 3♣ partner has accepted the game invite, but didn’t make the call you were hoping, 4♣. Now I would have bid slam. But with the actual response, passing is probably advised. The chance of missing slam is outweighed by getting to high. Even for me.
It would be nice to have known how many trumps partner held. That is why I am a strong proponent of playing Bergen. When partner opens a major, a raise denies four or more spades. With four card support partner bids 3♣ with 6-9 HCPs, and 3♦ with 10-12. In this way you can more accurately estimate how many of your losers dummy can ruff, as well as how many trump losers you have. Here you may have none opposite ♠Jxxx.
Sure enough partner held ♠J975 ♥J5 ♦J7652 ♣K10 and you missed a good slam, needing either spades 1-1 or taking a successful club finesse. Notice that only North having a fourth trump makes the slam worthy.
Lessons to Learn
1) Distributional hands with big trump fits have the potential to make slam with much fewer high card points than normal – here only 19! Or in another words, 13 +6 =33!!
2) Consider playing Bergen. Once you start playing there are some variations for each partner to show shortness after the initial bids.
3) Opposite a passed hand playing Drury is highly recommended. The way I like to play is that 2♣ shows four card support, 6-11 HCPs. 2♦ then asks: two of the trump suit shows 5-9 with four trumps and 2♥ shows 10-11 with four spades. An immediate 2♦ shows 10-11 with the three card support, while an immediate simple raise shows a three card support with 5-9.
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