IMPOSSIBLE KINGS

Round 2 Akarana Teams Championships

Board 16 Dealer W EW vulnerable

                         AQT4

                         AQ9

                         T

                         QT965

 32                                       J98765

 KT763                                 82

 J854                                   Q96

 J2                                        74

                         K

                         J54

                         AK732

                         AK83

 

This was a board where 10 out of 14 pairs managed to bid a small slam but none managed to find the cold 7 Grand Slam (5,3,2,1 and 2 ruffs).

To bid confidently it needs accurate knowledge of partner’s shape and high card holdings. Playing a loser based system, such as Imperspicuity, when using CROSS non contributing singleton K and doubleton Q are not normally shown except when it is unambiguous that they show an ‘impossible’ K or Q. This board gives a good example of bidding an ‘impossible’ K, which proves crucial to bidding the grand slam.

Imperspicuity bidding would be:

N        E        S       W

                               -

1     -         2   -

2     -         2   -

2N      -         3    -

3    -         4    -

4    -         4    -

4N     -          5    -

5    -         6    -

7    -          -        -

where:

1 -  <= 6 loser (L) 0 - 37 HCP

1 - <= 8 loser 5+ If only 5 then 4. No 4M

2 - Shape asking relay

2 - 3M

2N   - Shape asking relay

3 - 5431 10 total losers

3 - Loser asking relay

4 - 5 loser hand

4 - CROSS

4 - 0 or 3 key cards

4N - Contributing K ask 

5 - 2 K same colour. Showing ‘impossible’ K

5 - contributing Q ask

6 - 0 or 3 Q

7 - to play

 

After a positive response Shape asking relays are used to determine responder’s hand shape and total losers. Then a loser asking relay is used to determine responder’s losers to determine high cards held. CROSS is then used to identify key cards and contributing K and Q. Singleton K and Doubleton Q are not usually shown unless it is unambiguous they are an  ‘impossible’ K or Q (i.e where if they were possible responder after considering total losers they would have less losers than they have shown).

In this example as South has 10 total losers they can only have 4 - 5 contributing cards higher than a J. After showing 3 key cards, using modified losers they can’t have 2 K without having 4 losers instead of 5. So South can show their  ‘impossible’ K .

North then checks for contributing Q, as South could have 4.5 modified losers rounded up to 5 losers, before making a decision to bid 7 or 7NT as they can already count 13 tricks with 2 ruffs in 7

 

         

 

 

 

 

 

Started by SEAN LYNCH on 13 Apr 2019 at 10:50AM