Bidding Slams the expert way

I was watching the Spingold, one of the premier US team events of the year.  It is interesting to watch experts bid to slams.  Most of us can get to the right games most of the time but slams are often more demanding.  Before reading on, some of the ideas in this blog are very challenging.  You may not understand everything but I still think you will find it interesting.

You can follow this deal from both the North and South seats.  Let’s start with North.  You are the great Polish star Balicki and with nobody vulnerable your hand is

S AKQ1098

H 62

D K76

C A7

You are in third chair and there are two passes to you.  At this point you are thinking about the game opposite a passed partner.  You have a pretty nice hand.  You have 16 high card points but more important you have a great suit.  On hands like this I like to count tricks.  If things go well in the spade suit I should have six spades, a club and maybe a diamond.  Let’s say seven and a half tricks.  I don’t need that much from partner for game.  Bid 1S.

Now East, who happens to be Larry Cohen, passes and your partner bids 2C.  This is Drury which shows spade support and about limit raise values.  If you are not familiar with Drury it is the bid of 2C, used by a passed hand to show a limit raise in partner’s major, while keeping the bidding low.  You do this in case partner opened a bit light in third chair.  You can find out more about this convention in 25 Conventions You Should Know by Barbara Seagram and Marc Smith.

So now you know you are going to bid game.  Slam is still a possibility though perhaps not a favorite.  Now West, David Berkowitz bids 3C.  Does this help you or hurt you?

Let’s think about it a moment.  Since David is a passed hand and he came in now at the three level he must have an awful lot of clubs.  He is missing the ace but he likely has the king and queen.  This means that partner’s high card points must be in the red suits and that is quite helpful.  Now you make an expert bid.  You bid 4C.  This shows that you have clubs under control.  You must have slam interest otherwise you would have simply bid 4S.  Now East interjects 5C and this is passed back to you.  Here is the auction so far:

Zmudzinski	Berkowitz	Balicki	Cohen
pass	pass	1S	pass
2C*	3C	4C	5C
pass	pass	?

Now you are sure that partner doesn’t have many clubs.  The opponents have at least nine clubs but I think more likely ten.  After all they don’t have many high card points and are ready to compete to the five level.  Partner could have doubled them if he really didn’t want you to bid again.  His pass suggests that he is willing to hear you bid.  This is an expert concept but the point is that Zmudzinski had three choices pass, double or bid on.  When he passed he suggested he was willing to have partner bid higher.  A double would have told partner that he was happy to defend.

If you find this confusing I am not surprised.  Even top experts have trouble with these auctions from time to time.   Given that information what do you think Balicki should do?  What I like to do in these situations in think of logical hands that partner could have that are the worst possible.  I want to see if there is risk in bidding on.  Let’s try that:

S Jxxx
H KJxx
D QJxxx
C –

This is the worst hand I could come up with where partner still had a limit raise and might be willing to have me bid again.  It is possible that if partner has this hand I might go down.  I am missing two aces and there is a serious risk of a diamond ruff.  Also I might end up losing two heart tricks.  But even on this terrible hand I am still quite likely to make it.  (Also there is some risk that the opponents can make 5C).  So I plan to bid 5S.  But if partner has a good hand slam is still possible.  It is this thinking that distinguishes the great player from the merely good players.  So what do you think he did?  He bid 5D.  These control bids (some people call them cuebids) show the ability to control the suit with at most one loser.  They mean that you have a void, singleton, ace or king.

This told his partner he had diamonds under control and that he still had slam aspirations.  Zmudzinski now bid 5H showing that he had hearts controlled.  Now Balicki didn’t bid the slam.  He just bid 5S.  Why?  He had told his story.  He only wanted partner to go to slam if he had the best hand they could have.  A heart control was not enough.  Let’s look at the deal from the South hand.

S J5432
H A1053
D A54
C 2

The auction to this point was

Zmudzinski	Berkowitz	Balicki	Cohen
pass	pass	1S	pass
2C*	3C	4C	5C
pass	pass	5D	pass
5H	pass	5S	pass
?

Now the pressure is all on you.  When partner bid 5S he wasn’t saying I don’t want to bid the slam.  His 5D control bid was a slam try and you cooperated with 5H.  Your side has a control in every suit.  So why is he discouraged?  He isn’t really.  He just wants to know if you have something more, something you haven’t really shown yet.  And you have, don’t you.  You have two aces including the diamond ace, not to mention the fifth trump and the singleton club.  You have the very best hand you could have for the auction.  So you bid 6S.

Did you notice nobody ever bid Blackwood?

If you are wondering if you could do this then let me suggest you find out more about control bids (or cue bids).  They allow you to suggest that you might want to be in slam so that you can try for slams on deals where you need partner to have the “right hand”.  There is a chapter on control bids in 25 Conventions You Should Know but personally I think you should read the chapter about advanced cue bidding in 25 More Conventions You Should Know by Barbara Seagram and David Bird.  (Yes, there are 50 worthwhile conventions.)

But my point isn’t really about the books.  It is to take you into the mind of an experts.  They don’t rush to bid game or slam.  They make careful bids that allow them to get partner’s cooperation.  They visualize the hands that partner can have that makes sense with the auction, both the best and the worst.

I will never be as good as the gentlemen at this table.  But I know I can still learn from them.