Slam Menagerie #1 by Owen Roth oroth@att.net Solid bidders have several advantages over the amateur bidder. They have specialized tools in their slam arsenal, and they also know when to put aside the chisel for the sledge, and just blast to slam. We had many main types of slam come up on Tuesday (5/2/06). First was the technical: North ----- J 9 8 6 4 4 K Q T 5 3 T 3 West East ---- ---- K 7 T 3 2 Q T 9 6 3 2 J 8 7 2 9 8 7 Q J 7 2 K 9 5 4 Results South Bidding: - ----- 2C -P-2H!-P 6NTE 1440 A Q 5 2NT-P-3H!-P 6SE 1430 A K 5 3S -P-4D -P 6DW 1370 A J 6 4 4H -P-4S -P 3NTE 690 A 8 6 5C -P-6D 3NTE 690 3NTE 690 4SE 680 3NTW 600 3NTE 600 - Even on bad breaks, there was nothing to the play in 6D. But look at all those pairs languishing in 3NT! It's understandable to avoid 5D, especially if you don't have the tools to explore for a diamond slam, yet stop in 4NT. What I don't understand is why so many pairs don't seem to have any interest is adding the tool that they need! Here's the explanation of how we bid it: 2H was artificial and game forcing; 3H was a transfer, 4D was natural; 4H was REDWOOOD which asks for key cards in diamonds; 4S showed one or four controls; 5C asked for the Q of diamonds; 6D showed the Q of diamonds and no other K. The main tool we used was REDWOOD, which uses the suit above the minor agreed to ask for keycards. In our auction, we had the ability to sign off in 4NT over 4D, which is why the Q ask was 5C. If partner showed the K of spades on the way I was bidding 7. Redwood is critical to reaching minor suit slams, but a word of caution; If you do not have a discussion going over when it applies you WILL have some spectacular bidding disasters. Many painful lessons later (3-1 fit, anyone?), I now play "on when obvious" -- e.g. 4H in this auction cannot be a suit bid, so it must be REDWOOD -- and I've since been very happy with the method. Looking at the traveller, 6D turned out not a top, so partner asked "why we aren't we in the higher scoring strain?!" Ok, Let's take a look at that matchpoint decision: 6NT is a dark joke -- two cold slams and they bid one that on a different lead goes down 3. But what about 6S? It certainly scored more, should I have bid it? I don't think so -- bad breaks or diamond ruffs and it goes down for a bottom -- so I evaluate it as a 65% position; 6D was a 75% position, and is cold on all but the most heinous of distributions. Possible hands partner could have had don't include the J of spades, or the fifth diamond, which would downgrade a spade slam to 0-40%, while still being a 50%-70% position for diamonds. We had to use judgement to choose the strain, but having Redwood in our arsenal was key to bagging this beast. The next one didn't require such finesse...