Couple of Slam Decisions

Got a couple of interesting slam hands from the last 2 weekends for everyone to consider.

The first, Playing IMPS with no one vul, you open 1S in first seat with KQ9764 853 AQ4 6, and partner bids 2H over this. You raise to 3H, and then bid 4D over partners 4C call. Partner now bids 4N (RKC), you bid 5C showing 1, and partner now bids 5D, asking about the Q. Without it, you bid 5H, partner bids 5S, you show your second round Club control with 6C, and partner bids 6D. So now what. Here is the full auction.

You Partner
1S 2H
3H 4C
4D 4N
5C 5D
5H 5S
6C 6D
?

First, what does partner have? He has to have all the KC’s and the Q of Trump to be interested in going past 6H, which he obviously is. So what is a possible hand, something like Ax AKQxx xxx Axx, assuming partner does not have 3 Spades. Is that enough for this auction, or does he need 1 more card. And finally, opposite that, is it a good grand? If partner has a 6th Heart, then the grand is better, but opposite that hand, you need a couple of Club ruffs, and hope you have no Heart loser. And even opposite that hand, if Spades and Hearts do not behave, there is no late entry to the Spades on a supposed Diamond lead.

With needing both suits splitting, that hand will not produce a grand that fits into the correct odds. If you need a board or a good swing, then it is probably worth bidding, but I am not sure I would want to be there without something else. Almost wish you had bid 2S instead of 3H over the 2H bid. Assuming you bid 6H, partner will subside.

Partners hand was AT AKQ64 83 AKJ7, and with Hearts splitting 3-2 and no Club overruffs coming, the hand made 7.



The next hand is again at IMPS, and happened during our final playdowns for the CNTC within our unit. Vul vs Not, you pick up KQ9 AQ865 AJ3 Q7. Partner deals and opens 1C, and then bids 2C over your 1H bid. You want to create a force, and find out about Heart Support, so bid 2D, and partner raises that to 3D. So now what?

Specific bids here are 4D is RKC, and 4N is quantitative.

At the table, this hand bid 4N quantitative, and partner bid 5D over that. This hand now bid 6N, ending the auction. The 2 hands are:

J2 4 KQ95 AJT986

KQ9 AQ865 AJ3 Q7

6N went down 1 when Clubs were 4-1 onside, so the K could not be picked up. The interesting part of the hand is that 6C can make on the trump coupe, assuming you ruff a Heart early. This is a matter of good technique, so hopefully would have been done, but we will never know. During the discussion afterwards, we made the point that if this hand was going to go to a slam over 5D, then 6C is the better bid, since the balanced part of the hand was already shown. This would have led to the makeable slam, and tested my declarer play.