[AL78]

I have heard it mentioned on here that splinter bids are limited in strength and with strong hands and a shortage you should go via another route. Have I got this right and roughly what strength range do people here splinter on?

[DavidKok]

Almost. The dominant range for splinters is split, either minimum GF or strong enough to force to the 5-level over a signoff. I play my splinters slightly lighter than most, for me the range is (good) 9 to (soft) 13 on the lower range and approximately 17+ on the higher range.

Since a splinter takes away almost all of your bidding space, especially if you are splintering in the suit one under the trump suit, it is important that the bid is very descriptive. For that reason it needs to be narrow range, promise 4(+)-card support and also show an approximately three-suited hand (so no 4=1=2=6 shapes, for example). The exact range is up for debate, most people will play 11-14 or so, and then the monster hands as well (but those almost never come up).

[TMorris]

I play my splinters as 8-11ish with anything stronger through J2N

[mw64ahw]

I stopped using splinters some time ago, but tended to use 4+ and 6 modified losers.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

you make the splinter, partner says "No!" by bidding game, you know what to do.
If you dont know, what to do after this, dont use the splinter.

In effect this means, you remove the hands, that have a bit more than an Ace
for the game force.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[LBengtsson]

AL78, on 2023-May-22, 03:49, said:

I have heard it mentioned on here that splinter bids are limited in strength and with strong hands and a shortage you should go via another route. Have I got this right and roughly what strength range do people here splinter on?

I think the other question that needs to be asked is what system are you playing in the first instance? I am all for splinters having a tight range and shape because of the amount of bidding space that is lost. Having a tool in your toolkit is all well and good, but knowing how to use the tool is absolutely essential. We see players bid stiffs immediately when a 2/1 two level response is more better, and players bidding splinters on voids, breaking the 'splinter stiff' rules.

[mikeh]

The way we bid splinters, in both my partnerships, is that they top out at about 13 hcp...10-13 is the usual range.

I used to play David's style....the splinter was either limited or very strong, but we found that the very strong hand could almost always be better bid going slowly. Having to 'over-ride' partner at the 5 level, after partner said that either he has a terrible hand or that the splinter made his hand worse than it was, leads to too many uncomfortable 5 level contracts. I find the notion that having 4 card support, a stiff, and 17 hcp warrants driving towards slam (as opposed to showing a very good hand with slam hopes) is too much. Now, in fairness, we open 1M quite light...we don't pass many 11 counts and open more 10 counts than do most.

while I don't especially like J2N (or 2S over 1H) with a stiff, its usually fine with the big hand (in another thread I set out our 1S 2N structure) because we have a decent structure for it.

And of course with 17 hcp and a five+ side suit I'd often show my suit before raising. Not so much in clubs, since 1M 2C doesn't promise real clubs, but since 2R shows 5+ and gf, I'd usually be happy to bid 2R, allowing partner to upgrade holdings such as Hx and downgrade xxx (since AKQxx is an uncommon holding).

[AL78]

LBengtsson, on 2023-May-22, 09:21, said:

I think the other question that needs to be asked is what system are you playing in the first instance? I am all for splinters having a tight range and shape because of the amount of bidding space that is lost. Having a tool in your toolkit is all well and good, but knowing how to use the tool is absolutely essential. We see players bid stiffs immediately when a 2/1 two level response is more better, and players bidding splinters on voids, breaking the 'splinter stiff' rules.

I'm thinking in the context of the systems I play with my partners, which is either Acol or 5CM but not 2/1 GF.

Your last sentence implies splintering on voids is wrong, should splinters show a singleton only?

If my thinking is correct, with a game going hand and support for partner's major, the options are:

1. Splinter with a singleton, balanced-ish in the unbid suits and 10-13 ish HCP.
2. Fit jump with a long side suit with 2/3 top honors or bid it at the two level followed by a raise to game or slam investigation depending on partner's second bid.
3. Jacoby 2NT with a balanced/semi-balanced hand.

[P_Marlowe]

AL78, on 2023-May-22, 11:31, said:

I'm thinking in the context of the systems I play with my partners, which is either Acol or 5CM but not 2/1 GF.

Your last sentence implies splintering on voids is wrong, should splinters show a singleton only?

If my thinking is correct, with a game going hand and support for partner's major, the options are:

1. Splinter with a singleton, balanced-ish in the unbid suits and 10-13 ish HCP.
2. Fit jump with a long side suit with 2/3 top honors or bid it at the two level followed by a raise to game or slam investigation depending on partner's second bid.
3. Jacoby 2NT with a balanced/semi-balanced hand.

There are void splinter structures, the lowest splinter bid showes an undefined void, next step asks,
and the void gets clarified. Those structures give up a natural 3NT response.

One option: After 1S, 3NT is the void splinter, after 1H, 3S is the void splinter, 3NT is the spade splinter.

But: Given the hands you post, I would not worry to much about this stuff, those agreement sets require
partnerships, that play together regular and discuss a lot.

Another option: The response one step above the splinter asks, if it is a void.

[mikeh]

AL78, on 2023-May-22, 11:31, said:

I'm thinking in the context of the systems I play with my partners, which is either Acol or 5CM but not 2/1 GF.

Your last sentence implies splintering on voids is wrong, should splinters show a singleton only?

If my thinking is correct, with a game going hand and support for partner's major, the options are:

1. Splinter with a singleton, balanced-ish in the unbid suits and 10-13 ish HCP.
2. Fit jump with a long side suit with 2/3 top honors or bid it at the two level followed by a raise to game or slam investigation depending on partner's second bid.
3. Jacoby 2NT with a balanced/semi-balanced hand.

In one partnership we play that a jump to 3 of the other major, after 1M, shows a singleton somewhere…an unspecified splinter. Opener asks (cheapest step) and we respond in steps…1st step clubs, etc. opener only asks if he is interested so most of the time he just bids 4M

This has significant advantages. For example, most play that a double of a splinter suggests a save if nv and suggests a lead (often it’s the suit below the splinter)if vul.

In addition, it allows 1S 4x to be a void splinter, and 1H 4m also to be a void.

[DavidKok]

mikeh, on 2023-May-22, 10:54, said:

I find the notion that having 4 card support, a stiff, and 17 hcp warrants driving towards slam (as opposed to showing a very good hand with slam hopes) is too much.

I want to clarify that the strong hand is only supposed to warrant driving to the 5-level, not necessarily to slam. I agree with all your other points.

AL78, on 2023-May-22, 11:31, said:

Your last sentence implies splintering on voids is wrong, should splinters show a singleton only?

Some people play two-way splinters. For example, over a 1♥ opening, they (typically) play 3♠ as an unspecified splinter, while 3NT shows a spade void splinter, 4♣ club void and 4♦ diamond void. Over 3♠ partner can then sign off without disclosing the shortage if there are no slam hopes anyway, while with interest in slam partner can ask with 3NT or make a more narrow asking bid with 4♣ or 4♦.
I am not convinced it is a great gadget. If we are going to use 1♥-3♠ as an artificial raise I prefer something akin to a 5-card mixed raise, i.e. a "good 4♥ jump bid with some defence". The void splinters are nice but don't come up very often, and can frequently be shown later on the auction after showing a singleton-or-void splinter.

As an aside, bunching the singleton splinters instead of the void splinters (as Marlowe suggests) is superior. They are far more frequent and have lower slam potential, so opener can more frequently sign off in game without disclosing the hand.

I haven't seen mikeh's treatment of using 1♠-3♥ for the same scheme before, I thought 1♠-3NT was more common.

[johnu]

DavidKok, on 2023-May-23, 03:32, said:

Some people play two-way splinters. For example, over a 1♥ opening, they (typically) play 3♠ as an unspecified splinter, while 3NT shows a spade void splinter, 4♣ club void and 4♦ diamond void. Over 3♠ partner can then sign off without disclosing the shortage if there are no slam hopes anyway, while with interest in slam partner can ask with 3NT or make a more narrow asking bid with 4♣ or 4♦.
I am not convinced it is a great gadget. If we are going to use 1♥-3♠ as an artificial raise I prefer something akin to a 5-card mixed raise, i.e. a "good 4♥ jump bid with some defence". The void splinters are nice but don't come up very often, and can frequently be shown later on the auction after showing a singleton-or-void splinter.

The first paragraph is what I play (and 1♠ - 3NT shows an unspecified singleton with spades as trump) instead of showing an unspecified void. Singletons happen much more often than voids, and it seems opener is more likely to be interested in slam opposite a void compared to a singleton and opener can sign off in 4M with no slam interest opposite a singleton which will be most of the time and avoid information leakage.

It seems to me that distinguishing between a void and a singleton can be crucial and trying to distinguish later at the 5 level might be too high. As for 1♥-3♠ (or 1♠ - 3NT?) being some type of Bergenesque raise but game forcing I would just bid a Jacoby 2NT and stay a level lower.

[johnu]

I play splinter bids that show 3-3 1/2 cover cards, in HCP that's around 10-12 approximately. That way opener can more or less reasonably estimate what you might have, and whether to try for slam or not. If you have too wide a range, opener has to start guessing at the 4 level or higher depending on the splinter.

With stronger hands, responder can use Jacoby 2NT. With the right set of responses, responder can show their own splinter (and distinguish between singleton or void) or allow opener to further describe their hand.

[Gilithin]

The strength of your splinters depends on the range the hand opposite has shown. If partner opens one of a major, a classical sort of numerical figure for a splinter would be 12-15 TP or 20+ TP. But if you open light, you will need a little more. And if the auction starts 2♣ - 2♦ -- 2♠, your 4♣ splinter needs a lot less! The same principle applies when Opener splinters (1♥ - 1♠ -- 4♣) or when splintering after 1NT (1NT - 2♥ -- 2♠ - 4♣ (if not playing Baze)) and so on. In any case, as one of the main aims of splinters is being able to find low-hcp slams, you do not want to be requiring too many extras to be able to use them. If you can engineer a way to show more than one splinter range though, that can also be useful; but deal with the primary case first and extend the principle only if you have enough space.

[jillybean]

And here's me thinking splinters are to keep you out of low-hcp slams.

[mikeh]

jillybean, on 2023-May-24, 21:38, said:

And here's me thinking splinters are to keep you out of low-hcp slams.

You’ve got it exactly backwards

The whole point is to allow the partnership to distinguish between working values and wasted values

When partner splinters in our Axxx suit, so long as he promises 4+ trump, we can count 4winners in Axxx (if we have enough controls to prevent them playing two rounds of trump) while KJxx…which is ‘4 hcp’, tge same as Axxx, not only may not take a trick but we likely can’t stop the opps playing trump twice.

xxx opposite x is similar…the xxx would normally be very, very bad for slam but opposite x, it’s 2 tricks without expending a single hcp.

[jillybean]

Thanks, that is one of the best explanations of splinters that I have read.

I guess my comment depends on which way you look at it. Without the right hand, opener is signing off in 4M, noone is pushing to the 5 level.