Mr. Wolff
The hand below came up in a club duplicate (dealt at the Table). It was selected as “hand of the week” for pre-game discussion at next week’s game. Computer analysis confirms NS can make 6 Spades, 6 diamonds and 6 Clubs, double dummy. The range of contracts and results were truly wild. Two pairs got to the 6 Diamonds, and two pairs stopped at five. Three pairs played in 3NT and with a favourable opening lead, dodged the five defensive Heart tricks and made seven! Three pairs ended up in four Spades.
The hand seems to present many possible paths for the auction, and raises some good questions, a few of which are:
Should North (16 HCP) open it 1NT, or is it actually a tad too good? 1 Diamond?
After 1 1NT start, does South really have enough to be seriously thinking about slam?
If the auction starts 1NT > 2C > 2D, what does South do now?
Is playing in Spades a plausible good decision, or a likely fluke?
Could you kindly give some comment on how the auction might go in an expert game, and how and where it would most likely end up.
Thanks

West Dealer
N AJ9, 109, AQ108, AJ65

W 832, QJ864, 92, 832 E 1076, A7532, J5, Q94

S KQ54, K, K7643, K107

Clarksburg –

I am not Our Host, but I agree that that is an interesting hand!

Obviously, all slams pretty much require declarer to find the QC, so they start at about 50%. The spade slam also require spades 3-3, so that makes it poor indeed.

On game contracts, yes it’s tough to find the AH lead from the East holding, but I doubt anyone would recommend that contract! With that said, I can certainly see it being bid.

Five diamonds and four spades are both excellent, but four spades seems best at MPs (declarer can decline to ruff the second heart unless really shooting for a top).

On opening the bidding, my personal choice with the North hand is to open one notrump. While one diamond would be my second choice, it is not even close.

On what to do after 1N – 2C – 2D, I doubt that auction would be very common among expert partnerships, even only among those playing non-artificial systems (the North hand would generally open one club in a strong club system). The reason is that most partnerships I have played with/against use two-way Stayman. Thus, South would respond two diamonds, rather than two clubs.

The difference is significant because this class of hand is one of the reasons why two-way Stayman was created. With two-way Stayman, South can now bid three diamonds to show a hand much like this. North would not bid three notrump w/o a heart stopper. In this layout, I suspect some experts might bid three spades to show three, while most would either bid diamonds or (with some understanding) bid four clubs.

I meant:

“On game contracts, yes it’s tough to find the AH lead from the East holding AT THREE NOTRUMP, ….”

Hi Clarksburg & Jim2,

First thanks Jim2 for your input and leaves me very little, at least specifically on this hand, to add except conceptual thoughts.

Cutting to the chase, IMO 2 way Stayman is not only more effective than Jacoby transfer, but has all kinds of advantages. Of course, JTB should be used over 2NT or the stronger 2NT after a 2C opening since the lead coming up to the much stronger hand is a more distinct advantage and simple 3 club Stayman will be a GF because so little is needed to make it so, although perhaps with 4-4-4-1 or 4-4-5-0 (in those suits and without more than 1 or maybe 2 jacks could conceivably pass partner’s response.

Obviously to preempt you when asking why, I will explain. A Stayman bid (2D) while immediately creating a GF will enable the bidding to proceed slowly with the minor suits coming more into play since both partners know that since game is forced, slam may be in the wind and no one is rushed through with both slam tries and slam denials often bid on the way to either. Finally once responder bids 2 clubs followed by either a jump or just a bid of 3 of a major when partner has not bid that suit is NF but rather invitational. It is easy to remember and play and guaranteed for at least 6 months with money back if not successful except for losing it while gambling.

First the strain needs to be determined and then controls shown if slam is possible with each partner having a hand in the final decision based on the information gleaned. As an extra benefit the bidding by just the bidders: !NT, 2D, 2H, 3H sets hearts, but if the NTer is 3-4-3-3 he might take an effort at 3NT which his partner having a like distribution or close might just pass. However if the 2 diamond bidder than bids again he is making a definite slam try by usually ticking off controls and, of course, with added strength simply because he did not sign off (in this case) at 4 hearts immediately.

Much more specifically it could be said, to explain different possible slam sequences including the use of 5NT both as a grand slam try or merely a way of hoping to play usually a small slam but sometimes a grand in a suit which can produce 5 tricks in the right suit, but only 4 at NT by, of course, being able to ruff a trick in both hands with the 4th card of the suit.

And now for a practical advantage not always known even by talented younger players, but certainly by grizzled veterans. That is when the frequent signoffs at either 2 spades or 2 hearts are made it is a much bigger advantage than considered to make it immediately so that the defensive hands will often have only 1 crack at balancing and thus calibrating strength instead of the two chances JTB always provides.

This above fact is real and allows the 1NT opening side to sometimes steal the hand from their opponents, because of the lack of bidding room afforded their opponents.

Finally, at least IMO, the playing of 2 level contracts from what is often the wrong side is an overrated disadvantage and at the most will average (again IMO) less than 1/6 of a trick per hand to the opponents on the average and even that keeps the unknown distribution of the weak hand from being disclosed as dummy as against the NTer himself who has already announced a balanced hand (usually no singletons) and a specific amount of points.

The sales event above is now over, but it is from the heart (or spade, diamond or club with the two minor suits being at the 3 level).

Many thanks to you both. Your help will feed into the pre-game seminar on this hand. (our Club has no players even close to expert, a few strong Club-game pairs, several pairs clearly interested in on-going learning, and of course many who just come to play). Your comments could definitely influence some to consider two-way Stayman.
I do have one question remaining about hand evaluation. After 1NT by North, does South have enough to be even tentatively thinking, at the outset, about possible slam?

Hi Clarksburg,

Definitely, even if it is a qualified yes. I would rule out 6NT since the HCP’s will not be there but either spades or diamonds may qualify, particularly if the fitting diamond and club queens are held by partner, but keep in mind that if partner (who, of course must have at least 3 aces) has the heart ace providing a club discard from the responder’s hand.

Another hidden advantage for 2 way Stayman would be the ability over a 2D response to bid 3 clubs with a good 5 card suit (as you know, once in a while a very good player, or even not so, will open 1NT with a 6 card minor). Imagine a normal pair playing regular Stayman and JTB bidding 2 clubs and listening to his partner respond 2 diamonds. Yes, on this hand he might venture 3 diamonds, but how is the 1NTer going to show his long and strong clubs except by bidding 3NT which could mean many other holdings with nothing special in clubs among them. With s. Jx, h. Axx, d. Ax, c. AQxxxx, an easy 6 clubs which also because of the jack of spades will make 6NT, but wouldn’t we all like to bid these two hands to 6 clubs, a contract which is close to 90% to make (a 4-0 club break offside is about the only less than wild distribution which would sink it.