Tuesday, September 26, 2006 12:01 PM

NT Tools - Suit Asks

PITBULLS:

Bidding tools are designed to get you to great slams but are also needed to keep you out of bad slams. Here is a hand from the Bermuda Bowl . Are your methods good enough to keep you out of a grand slam ? You open 1NT with ♠Axx ♥AKx ♦AJ10x ♣xxx and partner bids 3♦ which is a slam try with 5-5 in the minors. You have a super maximum and a 3♠ bid by you confirms diamonds and asks for the singleton. This is silly as you have the 2-1 covered anyway. So you just take control with 4♦ KCB . Partner has ♠Kx ♥x ♦KQxxx ♣AKxxx and replies 5♣ ( two with the trump queen) .

You now bid 6♣ which can not be a choice of contracts. By bidding 4♦ you have set the suit as diamonds so what is it ? This bid should be interpreted as a suit asking bid in clubs . Partner is worried that she has a 3^rd loser in the suit or could just be inquiring about the club king. The suit asking bids are standard. The death response is the return to the trump suit. The 1^st step shows the queen , the next step the king and bidding 7 shows the KQ when you are asking in a known long suit. You bid 6♠ showing the king but not the queen and partner signs off in 6NT.

They reached 7♦ at the other table and had no where to put their club loser. 17 IMPS for having a superior bidding system. Suit asking bids are interpreted when a suit bid comes out of the blue in a KCB auction. What else can it mean when a choice of contracts can be logically discounted ?

The scheme we use was devised by Kantar , but there is no reason you can not define your own bids. In long suits , we are quite often worried about 3^rd round control so the queen gets elevated in importance.