False cue. by Jos van Kan. You hold vulnerable in third seat, playing imps, S AQ763 H 75 D A C A9542 and hear partner open 1D. While the opposition keeps a gloomy silence, you respond 1S and partner raises to 3S. Grade on a scale from A (best) to F the following actions: 1.4NT 2.4S 3.4C 4. 4D 5. 5S 6. 6S Why did you grade as you did? Are there any other reasonable actions? There were no other reasonable actions I could think of, so if you found one, by all means let me know, especially your *reasons* for such an action. With this whale of a hand you clearly belong in slam, so bidding 4S that ends the auction then and there is worst, an F. Could you be off two fast H tricks? It is hard to imagine a hand for partner with 2 quick H losers that would be worth a jump to 3S, so that probably is not the problem. What is the problem then? Clearly you have a play for 7 opposite a variety of hands that bid like this (Kxxx AKx KQJxx x) so the problem is how to investigate the grand. For this reason I think 5S is second worst, you ask partner for trump solidity FOR SIX, so he will pass holding Jxxx AKx KQJxx K, where 6 is still laydown. (E) 6S, that'll get you at least to the small slam, gets a C. How do you investigate the grand? What you'll need is the trump King, HA, either red King (to cover your second H loser) *and* second and third round control in Clubs. One of the benefits of playing a strong NT is that the sequence 1D-1S-3S virtually guarantees 9 cards in the pointed suits and that surely means that OH does not hold more than two clubs, since otherwise we would have heard the opponents bid Hearts. So if you play a strong NT you are on firmer ground in this sequence than playing a weak NT, where pard still could hold a hand like Kxxx Ax KQJx QJT That second round control in Clubs is absolutely essential, even more essential than the trump King. For the grand could survive without the trump King with an onside finesse, but it could not survive without that second round C control. (Unless pard has a solid 5 card Diamonds) So since Blackwood or RKC never could tell you about this feature it is really no better than bidding 6S directly. So 4NT earns also a C. To find out about CK we have to cue bid and there are two schools. Mixed or Italian cuebids, that cuebid both first and second round controls and American or first round control cuebids. Both methods are eminently playable and both have their strong and weak sides. The strong side of mixed cuebids is, that when the cuebidder skips a suit *he has two quick losers in that suit*. So often when slam fails because it is off two quick losers, the bidding can stop at the 4 level. On the other hand it often leads opponents to the best defense. The strong side of first round control cuebidding is that it is always known whether a bid control is first or second round. Especially for grand slam purposes this is important. Using first round control cue bids your natural choice is 4C, which in all probability gets you a 4H response. (If it does not you're off the H A and should sign off in 6S). What now? To put partner in the picture you should bid 5D. If he holds that critical hand: Kxxx AKx KQxxx x he now has the values to bid 5NT asking for two high trump honors. 4C gets an A. Using second round control cue bids your natural choice still is 4C, but this in all probability will get you a 4D response. Now this is not exactly what you are waiting for, since what you really want to know is about AH, KS and second round C control. But you can do something clever. (This is not for children, because it's like playing with fire). Instead of cueing your natural C control, you can bid 4D! This to your partner conveys the message that you lack a first or second round C control. The effect of this will be, that partner will sign off when he *also* lacks first or second round C control. In other words, when he doesn't sign off, but bids (say) 4H, you know that he has both a C AND a H control. After that you can bid your RKC and go to 7 when he shows up with two keycards. 4D gets A+ if you play mixed cuebids and bid 4D for the reason given. If you bid it without having a clue, I don't have a clue how to grade it. :) After 1D-1S-3S-4D (mixed) you get a surprise. Partner bids 5NT. Describe his hand. Partner asks for two tophonors in S for the grand. He therefore should have first round control in C and H and second round control in D (so he knows your D cue was first round control). Couldn't your D cue have been a singleton then? Not really. It is standard practice not to cue bid short controls in a real suit bid by the partnership. He could be 4-3-6-0 or 4-4-5-0. His actual hand: S KJT5 N S H AJ42 1D 1S D KJ875 3S 4D (mixed Q bid) C 5N 7S p S AQ763 H 75 D A C A9542 Partner figured that since you held no C control and still had a slam try you should be well heeled in the red suits. :-) That's why you are playing with fire with that false cue bid. Still, there's nothing wrong with the contract. Yes, I know that there are players who would not have bid 3S, but I don't think that's a very bad bid. Lead is CQ. Plan the play. Outside trumps you have four tricks. Maybe you can set up a fifth diamond or a fifth Club. But even if you do that you still have to make eight trumps separately. Drawing trumps, therefore, is out of the question. It is not so bad an idea to go for a complete cross ruff, that is make all nine trumps separately. In order to do so, you must cash your high cards first, lest they be ruffed in a later stage by the defense. So discard a Heart in dummy while winning CA. Cash AD. Cross to AH. Cash KD throwing a Heart in your hand. Play a small Diamond. E follows. Should you ruff low or high? You have to make 3 small trumps in the cross ruff and you simply cannot afford to ruff high in this stage. If you are overruffed, there is no way to make. Pleasant surprise! DQ drops. Does this change your plans? It sure does. You now can guarantee the contract against everything except a 4-0 trump split. Cross to dummy with a trump. Ruff a H high. Cross with another trump. Now 1) If everyone follows, claim. 2) If W follows claim (H ruff C ruff) 3) If E follows ruff a H with your last trump, and ruff a Club. Unless E overruffs you have your contract. How would your plan have developed if DQ hadn't dropped in trick 5? You first have to make your remaining small trumps in your hand lest oppo's can discard, so 6) C ruff (low) 7) H ruff (low) 8) C ruff 9) H ruff (low) and when you survived so far claim the remainder on a high cross ruff. This plan basically requires W to have 3+ diamonds, 3+ Hearts and 6+ cards in Hearts and Clubs combined. (Otherwise W can pitch a H on the third round of clubs) Not the best of grands to be in, actually, but it could have been worse. Copyright 1997 by Jos van Kan. All rights reserved.