Hi all
So little time. My new job is like a dream come true, but it leaves little room for writing. I just have to beat the drums the right way and get used to the rythm. Here are two slams from Star:
1
1. unbalanced (4+ )
Hoek wanted to get two messages across with one bid: his slam aspirations and his fit. But the resulting sequence doesn’t look really smooth. Certainly, it’s an excellent contract, even slightly better than 6. But still, there was no designated captain in the bidding, so grand investigation was impossible. If the EW cards are split something like this:
Then 6 is always down, while in 6 you can eliminate all suits and with a loser on loser play achieve a placing. The following ruff and sluff let’s you discard your other loser.
Another slam.
Hoek and I weren’t able to bid this bleeding edge slam on very minimal values. Too bad! But these little diamonds really make my bridgelife shine. If anyone sees a sensible way to reach slam (West will overcall), please, feel free to comment.
The second slam we didn’t reach because I forgot our little convention to play transfers after a spade overcall. If I had remembered, I would have introduced the diamonds as intended and later on bid 3NT. Yes, it’s only a four card suit, but the hand feels more suit oriented. With a maximum of 2 hearts in my hand, and spades not good enough to play for penalties, moving on to 4 diamonds looking for slam makes sense.