Acol at BBO
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Acol at BBO
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jolly hand came up when I was playing with a pick-up partner. I felt the hand was too good for a pre-emptive 4 Spades and settled for an opening 1 Spade, the opponents remaining quiet throughout. Partner responded 2 Hearts, and I forced with 3 Spades. Partner now bid 4 Spades, and if he had the ace, slam looked worth a shot – so I tried 5 Diamonds, hoping this would be seen as a cue bid showing first round control in that suit. Partner’s response of 6 Diamonds suggested that my bid hadn’t been seen in that way, so I now had to go for the 6 Spade slam. The Ace of Diamonds was led (a trump lead would have been fatal), trumped in hand; then a small Club ruffed in dummy; King of Diamonds and a club discard from hand. A small heart from dummy brought the Ace, again trumped in hand – then another club ruff; last club discarded on the King of Hearts; and ruffing a third Heart left only the Ace of trumps to lose. So the King and Queen of clubs played no real part in the hand, and the slam was there due to the extraordinary distribution in both hands and a good helping of luck. Once 4 Spades has been reached, cue bidding is always likely to suggest the slam (I think), whether partner bids a negatively intended (but positively interpreted) 5 Spades or bids his void with 6 Clubs. Blackwood will not be useful with such a distributional hand – showing 2 Aces, for example would give a grand slam if they were in Clubs and Spades, whereas the red aces could have the slam going off if partner has one or more clubs. But if I’d known we didn’t have any aces at all between us I’d have been happy to stop in 4! Sometimes ignorance is indeed bliss. All but one of the other pairs stopped in game or below, the bidding for the exception going 4 Spades - 6 Spades. |