[thomas c]

https://tinyurl.com/wlgh4hj

this from a team match. first time with this partner. he is very good though. my thinking was to bid 3c and is i got a club raise i could keycard for clubs and bid either 6 or 7.
when he continued with hs i decided to bid 7 anyhow if we had all key cards. not a good grand bur partner played the only way i think he could make it and did.

luck

[manudude03]

As the cards lie, the spade finesse isn't needed (West can be squeezed in the black suits). I can hardly be critical of the line though. As for the bidding, there's no reason not to check for the club king if you have the means to do so.

[Cyberyeti]

It might have been a terrible grand, the ♥J is important here, not sure if the finesse or the squeeze is better play. Would however be thoroughly embarrassing to find the spade finesse losing when the ♣K was single.

[FelicityR]

It's a lot easier to avoid the grand slam if partner opens 1♥ if you are using a 15-17 1NT opening. (The South hand doesn't look good to upgrade. Kaplan & Rubens put it at 13.05 for the record.)

[pescetom]

FelicityR, on 2020-March-09, 10:19, said:

It's a lot easier to avoid the grand slam if partner opens 1♥ if you are using a 15-17 1NT opening. (The South hand doesn't look good to upgrade. Kaplan & Rubens put it at 13.05 for the record.)

I agree the hand is nowhere near an upgrade but I don't see that the proper 1♥ opening would have worked better as it happens. After 1NT all North has to do to avoid the grand slam is bid 5NT, or ask about Kings if he knows partner's upgrades by now. Whereas after 1♥ I suspect it would be a tricky auction for some intermediate pairs, maybe leading to 6♣ or even sputtering out in 3NT.

[dsLawsd]

Fun hand. Well analyzed. These are the hands that the robots seem to get me on in the Tournaments mostly because of the field going for the max and then getting the right distribution. With no excellent fit it seems like 6 NT is best. At least the play of the Club A followed by the spade finesse gives us about 52% chance of a top score?!

[Cyberyeti]

pescetom, on 2020-March-09, 11:44, said:

I agree the hand is nowhere near an upgrade but I don't see that the proper 1♥ opening would have worked better as it happens. After 1NT all North has to do to avoid the grand slam is bid 5NT, or ask about Kings if he knows partner's upgrades by now. Whereas after 1♥ I suspect it would be a tricky auction for some intermediate pairs, maybe leading to 6♣ or even sputtering out in 3NT.

It's never sputtering out in 3N with 20 opposite an opening bid.

[pescetom]

Cyberyeti, on 2020-March-10, 14:18, said:

It's never sputtering out in 3N with 20 opposite an opening bid.

You were never hapless even when you were intermediate, decades ago.
I've seen them get in a knot with more HCP than this after 1M-2m with no major fit.

[Cyberyeti]

pescetom, on 2020-March-10, 15:32, said:

You were never hapless even when you were intermediate, decades ago.
I've seen them get in a knot with more HCP than this after 1M-2m with no major fit.

I may have been hapless, but I bid like a maniac, more likely to bid 7 if I had the 20