[Fluffy]

♠AQ
♥AQJ3
♦AKQ2
♣AKQ

Only 31 balanced, in 4th position, MPs, nobody vulnerable.


pass-pass-pass-2♣
pass- 2 ♦ -pass-2NT (forcing)
pass- 3 NT-pass-??


I was hoping to learn about a long suit from partner, or at least 4 hearts, but no luck. What now?, should I settle for 3NT?. I think we are pretty safe in 4NT, even 5NT. But I doubt partner will understand that 3 balanced is better than 1 balanced if I try 5NT.

The only thing I know is that partner has failed to use stayman, this means partner should have some length in the minors. With that in mind 6♦ could make on a heart finesse or a club break, at least it is worth investigating, so I tried 4♦.


pass-pass-pass-2♣
pass- 2 ♦ -pass-2NT (forcing)
pass- 3 NT-pass-4♦
pass- 4 ♠-pass-??

It seems obvious that partner has ♠K and diamond support, both opponents passing makes spade short really unlikelly, and even if he has it, with 9+ cards in the minors we should have easy 12 tricks. Even opposite a ♠K doubleton we have a lot of recovery for a 12th trick with a heart finesse, or a club 3-3 break. So I Settled for 6NT. This was the dummy:


♠J653
♥1084
♦104
♣9843

To make 12 I will probably need ♣3-3, ♠K onside and manage to get an entry with ♥10...
LHO led ♦5, and I tried ♦10 which held. Now I didn't come up with anything better than a spade finesse, which held and made the contract after losing ♥K. Don't think I can draw any conclusion.

[Cyberyeti]

The biggest hand I've seen was a 29 count that my partner held with ♦AKQJxx. He then heard me open a weak 0-10 4+ card 2♦! I had ♦xxxx and a K, 6♦ was on a finesse, we knew this from the auction and sotm dictated we bid it, +1370.

[gnasher]

We're you worried about partner passing 4♦?

[manudude03]

About 18 months ago, I posted a hand I had during a Junior Europeans. Just hearing partner has support was enough to justify bidding grand.

http://www.bridgebas...ing-lucky-punk/

[Fluffy]

I think I've said this many times on the forums, biggest hand was 32, but the game was not bridge but Barbu. The lowest card was ♣9, and it was acompained by ♣AKQJ9, dealer unsurprisingly picked the game of "no tricks", and all the table doubled everyone exceot him who remained silent. I think the hand looked like ♠AK10 ♥AQ ♦AKQ ♣AKQL9. Lead was a spade, and after scoring ♠10, ♣9 and ♥Q his hand was totally solid and claimed the rest.

[wank]

you play barbu? there's online barbu too in case you didn't know. i very rarely play, but that's because i'm bad at it.

[Zelandakh]

Fluffy, on 2016-January-17, 18:05, said:

dealer unsurprisingly picked the game of "no tricks", and all the table doubled everyone exceot him who remained silent.

Noone redoubled?

[Fluffy]

Zelandakh, on 2016-January-18, 03:50, said:

Noone redoubled?

The way we played we just said "double the table", when 2 players doubled it was assumed they redoubled each other.

[Siegmund]

Have we finally found a hand well suited to Gerber?

[oryctolagi]

I think I once had a 27 or 28-pointer on BBO, and to be honest I don't really like having these giant hands. It's difficult extracting anything useful from partner, so you have to do all the bidding and guessing yourself. 23 to 24 points, the minimum for a 2♣ (or 2♦ if playing benji) is the ideal forcing hand. Though you may still fall short in 3NT if partner has a yarborough...

[billw55]

oryctolagi, on 2016-January-29, 02:38, said:

I think I once had a 27 or 28-pointer on BBO, and to be honest I don't really like having these giant hands. It's difficult extracting anything useful from partner,

So true. You can use your forcing opening then jump to 3NT, but partner with a couple queens may still have a hard time knowing what to do.

I remember once having 65 points in a three board round at club, and managing to lay all three down as dummy. We joked I was going to break the table if I got one more.

[Zelandakh]

billw55, on 2016-January-29, 13:47, said:

So true. You can use your forcing opening then jump to 3NT, but partner with a couple queens may still have a hard time knowing what to do.

Playing Benji you have all of 2NT, 2♣ - 2♦ - 2NT, 2♣ - 2♦ - 3NT, 2♦ - 2♥ - 2NT and 2♦ - 2♥ - 3NT available for various balanced hands if you so wish, although many use one or more for two-suiters. If you play Reverse Benji with Kokish you also gain 2♣ - 2♦ - 2♥ - 2♠ - 2NT and 2♣ - 2♦ - 2♥ - 2♠ - 3NT, so more than enough for almost any division of strong balanced hands you care to use.

[Phil]

Ive had 29 on BBO.

My favorite story about a big hand was in a GNT match in Atlanta. Its near the end of a long day and we need a big win to make it to the next round.

Pass - Pass - and my RHO opens a short club in 3rd seat. I look at 3442 and 26 real. So I x.

Partner bid 1♦, so I cue.

He rebids 2♦, so I cue...again.

He fesses up to his club stop and bids 3N, so I try 4♦. And he.....passes

His hand? a SIX count! Makes 6 easily against 3N at the other table.

I told Clee later that passing this was worse than passing a 2♣ opening. He called it the worse pass he's ever seen, but I think he might have been just being supportive.

[neilkaz]

I had 30 on BBO yesterday!! I was playing with a foreign pickup self rated intermediate. I had no idea when looking at AKx,AKx,AKQx,AKx if I could get the info I needed so I just opened 6NT and claimed 7 when dummy came down with 7 HCP and 13 tricks were cold.. Playing with a regular PD I'd start with 2♣ of course.

[mikestar13]

Thirty some odd years ago I had a 33 count including ♠AKQx. I dealt at favorable, and while I was trying to figure out whether or not to blast 6NT, my partner opened 3♠ out of turn on ♠J seventh and out--barring me from bidding the best hand I held in several lifetimes. So it was 3♠ making 7 when we had nineteen tricks in notrump. For some reason, the opponents were inordinately pleased (this was a money game, maybe this had something to do with it?).

[wank]

mikestar13, on 2016-January-29, 23:07, said:

Thirty some odd years ago I had a 33 count including ♠AKQx. I dealt at favorable, and while I was trying to figure out whether or not to blast 6NT, my partner opened 3♠ out of turn on ♠J seventh and out--barring me from bidding the best hand I held in several lifetimes. So it was 3♠ making 7 when we had nineteen tricks in notrump. For some reason, the opponents were inordinately pleased (this was a money game, maybe this had something to do with it?).

i hope you apologised to partner for distracting him with your slow bidding.

[broze]

wank, on 2016-January-31, 04:53, said:

i hope you apologised to partner for distracting him with your slow bidding.

Well I found it to be an entertaining story. I can't quite tell if you're serious - if so I don't understand the point of having a go about something that has got nothing to do with the anecdote. He didn't even suggest he took that long.

[oryctolagi]

Oh the pleasures of (very) informal rubber bridge! This would have been nearly 50 years ago. I was dealer and my partner was uttering all sorts of agitated "ooo-err"s as he sorted his hand. At length both our opponents pocketed their hands and clustered round my partner to see what he was on about. I - not yet having bid - sat stony-faced and tried to ignore all the kerfuffle. I had a minimum opening so I went 1♣. Partner looked dubious, he thought I was fooling about - but he just went 4NT - [I showed my ace] - 7NT. Both opponents had zero-pointers and we didn't bother to play out the deal....

I would not recommend this sort of activity at any organised bridge! Probably alcohol played a part in the evening.

[mikestar13]

wank, on 2016-January-31, 04:53, said:

i hope you apologised to partner for distracting him with your slow bidding.

I did indeed apologize, I had taken five whole seconds to decide; unfortunately partner has already bid, forgetting that I, not he had dealt.. Partner played mostly duplicate, though not very sensitively to tempo or his own skill(?). He liked to preempt like a maniac white vs. red, and somehow thought that was also a good style in money bridge. I can't blame him, it's so much easier to look at the markings on a duplicate board than to remember whether or not you had just dealt a pack of cards.