This hand came up recently. I thought there were some interesting bidding options and inferences that could be taken. Since it was a first-time partnership, with the only discussion being 2/1 and fake the rest. Even in this hand, the opponents were kind enough to let us discuss during the auction how we were treating Drury, partner removed the need for additional discussion with his next bid. I do believe the choices each of us made, took into consideration that there had been no discussion, trying to avoid bids that might be ambiguous.
I rotated the hands for convenience and there was no opposition bidding.
West
KQJ
875
A85
J852
East
A976543
AK
Q
AK7
West East
Pass 1
2
(Rev Drury) 4
(Splinter)
4
4 NT
5
(2 keys + Q) 5 NT
6
(no K's) Pass
The partnership was first-time, and the only discussion was 2/1 and fake the rest. The opponents allowed us to clarify that Drury was reverse one-way Drury, but the splinter would have eliminated the need for that information. However, I thought the hand had some interesting possibilities and inferences that neither my partner nor I were willing to "fake."
I am certain that we could have bid more confidently had we had a different version of Drury in place. However, even without discussion, there were things that should have been reasonable to deduce even with our limited discussion.
First, and this escaped me at the table, but makes complete sense to me in retrospect, is that I should have treated 4NT as exclusion blackwood. Why? If partner is going to splinter, and then ignore my attempt to signoff, he should be showing a void in diamonds. I think I was so excited about not having to worry about the difference between 1430 and 3014 responses, I did not stop to think (and went on automatic) - a potentially dangerous thing to do, Nonetheless, partner had an easy time interpreting my response correctly, since the only way I could have two keycards was to also have the
A.
Second, I think partner misbid by splintering. After Drury, he probably should want to be in slam opposite virtually any holding I have that includes a keycard. By splintering, if I respond under the exclusion premise, I will potentially have a lot more room under my limit raise that might be useful. In other words, in the actual auction, he could place 9 of my 10/11 HCPs, but if I respond excluding the
A, now he can only place 3 HCPs immediately, and then 2 more with the queen-ask, and now there would be no room for any other questions.
Third, my response over 4
should have been 4
. I did think about this response and decided it might confuse partner. That should not have stopped me. The reason for possible confusion is that it could be interpreted as showing a control in hearts, but the standard expert-meaning is that is a Last-Train bid. Last-Train bids come up when there is limited space to make a slam try. In this case, the splinter was the slam try, and so 4
would simply say, given that I am a passed hand showing a limit raise, I could not have a much more perfect holding for you to proceed toward slam. I think that KQJ of trump and a side ace fits that description. Now if partner bids 4NT, I should be less certain that partner is showing a diamond void.
Fourth, partner asked about kings, which should be a wasted effort. I simply do not have enough room as a passed hand to have any kings. More useful would be the
Q, xx in clubs, or the
Qxx to pitch the small club. The way to do that would be bid 6
, which under the circumstances asks useful holdings in clubs, and if I have something like
Qxx, but not what is needed in clubs, I can try 6
to say I have something useful in the heart suit. This is another inferential bid. Partner has the ability to ask about aces and kings, but by bypassing the king ask to bid a new suit, has to be looking for something more in the suit bid - third round control seems about right.
There are probably more, but I will leave room for others to bring to the table.
The full hand can be found by following this link:
https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|yleexotee,jcreech,North,East|md|2ST82HQT92DKT3CT64,SKQJH875DA85CJ852,SHJ643DJ97642CQ93,SA976543HAKDQCAK7|sv|b|rh||ah|Board%2036|mb|P|mb|P|mb|1S|mb|P|mb|2C|an|rev%20drury|mb|P|mb|4D|an|Splinter,%20I%20hope|mb|P|mb|4S|mb|P|mb|4N!|an|RKC|mb|P|mb|5S|an|2%20with|mb|P|mb|5N|an|Specific%20kings,%20I%20suppose?|mb|P|mb|6S|an|no%20outside%20kings|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|S8|pc|SK|pc|D6|pc|S3|mc|12|