[inquiry]

This hand was, obviously, played at matchpoints. It would not hardly be fair to make this assess the blame, as poor east just opened his long suit, raised his partner, responded to blackwood. West, however, was affected by matchpointitis.... placing this contract in the higher scoring major, rather than the minor. Obviously, 7♦, despite being a minor, would have been a better result (amazingly 100% top). Lots of 6♠ were bid, some 6NT, and a 7NT as well.

Seeing all hands, 7♦ is obviously easy. How would you bid as west? How forgiving are you as east, as west explains matchpoint bonus for playing in the major to you after he fails by one trick?

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[nige1]

inquiry writes "This hand was, obviously, played at matchpoints. It would not hardly be fair to make this assess the blame, as poor east just opened his long suit, raised his partner, responded to blackwood. West, however, was affected by matchpointitis.... placing this contract in the higher scoring major, rather than the minor. Obviously, 7♦, despite being a minor, would have been a better result (amazingly 100% top). Lots of 6♠ were bid, some 6NT, and a 7NT as well.
Seeing all hands, 7♦ is obviously easy. How would you bid as west? How forgiving are you as east, as west explains matchpoint bonus for playing in the major to you after he fails by one trick?"


IMO, East must accept most of the blame for failing to hold another ♣, so that 7♠ romps home on a dummy reversal

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[Mbodell]

inquiry, on 2012-May-06, 20:22, said:

Seeing all hands, 7♦ is obviously easy. How would you bid as west? How forgiving are you as east, as west explains matchpoint bonus for playing in the major to you after he fails by one trick?

West can bid 1♠, 4nt, 5nt, 7♦? with the idea being if E shows either round K you have 7nt, if not you likely have 7♦. Not sure if I'd bid 7♠ or 6nt or 7♦ or pass.

[Zelandakh]

How about: East opens 1NT (weak); West transfers to spades, then to diamonds; East shows a double fit (3 spades, 4-5 diamonds); West uses 6KCB finding ♥A, ♣A, ♠Q, ♦Q and can count 13 tricks on 2 club ruffs. That does not solve the problem on Nige's second hand - I'll pay off to any pairs who can discover the difference, no biggie. This is not the Expert forum so 7♦ is going to score well enough methinks.

[rmnka447]

West bears the brunt of criticism on this hand. When you bid a grand slam, you have to be able to count 13 tricks or posit that 13 tricks require only a finesse at worst. If you can't do that, then the grand should not be bid.

After the RKCB 5 ♠ bid, West knows that East has the ♠ Q, ♥ A, and ♣ A. West also knows East doesn't have 5 ♠s (East didn't open 1 ♠). But what West doesn't know is East's exact distribution. So West can't know if East can get enough ♥ pitches to be able to ruff West's ♥ loser.

What West does know is that 12 tricks look pretty solid (requiring maybe a ♦ finesse at worst), so West next needs to find out if there is any other source for a 13th trick. That can be done by using RKCB to ask about the remaining Kings. When East shows no Ks, West should settle for small slam.

West has to consider that maybe partner has a minimum hand and has opened with just ♠ Q, ♦ Q, ♥ A, ♣ A, OR EVEN ♠ QJ, ♥ A, ♣ A.

7 ♦ makes because East just happens to have 5 ♦s and 3 ♠s to the queen. Give East something like 4=4=3=2, 3=4=4=2, 4=3=4=2, 4=3=5-1, or 3=4=5=1, then 7 ♦ has no play when East has no K.

If West wanted to play some "Matchpointitis", then the right bid to make is 6 NT.