Remember that notrump bids almost always give a point range. If you hand's strength can't be accurately described by notrump, you need to bid something else. What would you bid here?
Thanks, as someone with the strong instinct to just donk 3NT in that spot, that was a great video. Would E have overcalled 2D to show two 5 card majors? EW going 2 light in 4HX seems good for them.
You're welcome! Great call on East's bid. I definitely would have bid with that hand. I agree with your choice of 2d, but even if I weren't playing Michaels, I would at least bid 1s. 4hx is a great sacrifice and even if you don't get the contract, it's much harder to bid slam with interference.
At 5:10 you say "this partnership plays Specific ..." (in response to the 5NT ask for kings) and that 6D says "no kings". I am not familiar with "Specific" - can you explain it? I would have thought 6D showed DK and no CK since that suit was skipped.
There are (at least) two ways to answer kings in 1430 Keycard Blackwood. Some people do number, which goes back to regular blackwood: 6c = 0, 6d = 1, 6h = 2, and 6s = 3. Some people play specific: With specific, we bid the cheapest king we have. If we do not have a king, we bid the trump suit. So here, the rebid of 6d says that South does not have any kings (because diamonds are the trump suit). Your assumption is correct (bidding a higher king denies a lower). For example, bidding 6h here would show the king of hearts and deny the king of clubs. But there has to be some way to deny having any kings and that is by bidding the trump suit. We don't need to show the king of diamonds because it is a keycard. When we ask for kings, we should have all of the keycards, so the king of diamonds has already been discussed, which frees that bid up to say: "I don't have any kings".
My confusion arose from thinking partner assumes his 3S bid set Spades as trump, so he/she reads your 4D bid as a cue bid showing the DA, not as setting Diamonds as trump. As South you know Diamonds is a better fit, but how does North know?
@@armantookmanian1938 I agree. I think the auction is difficult and confusing. 3s could well be setting trump as the most common reason we use 4th suit forcing is having 5-cards in the major. In which case, 4d would be a cue bid. It is important for North to remember that the second reason we use 4th suit forcing is we are too strong to bid notrump. Will they be able to determine 4d is setting trump instead of a cue bid? Probably only if the partnership has had detailed conversations about this situation.
There is a good case for a jump force response of 2S on your first turn and then support Diamonds next time. So it starts: 1D-2S-3C-3D and you are on your way to at least 6D, maybe even 7D
At 1:01 you say North's bid od 2C is showing "at least 5 diamonds" -why? I can imagine many hands where he has only 4. If he is 3=2=4=4, he cannot raise your spades (yet). If he is 2=3=4=4 with a good 14-hcp hand but with his hcps all concentrated in the minors and no heart stopper, he cannot repeat his diamonds or raise your spades. If he is 1=4=4=4, he cannot show his Hearts - unless he has the hcps to reverse.
This is definitely a partnership style agreement. I teach (and play) that with most of these hands opener will rebid 1NT. Though hearts might be implied on the auction, because they have not been bid by the opponents, a stopper is not required to rebid notrump. I know an expert level player who never rebids notrump when he has a singleton in partner's suit (as you suggest here). I just don't agree. I prefer 2C here to almost always be at least 5 diamonds and 4 clubs and to rebid 1NT with the other hands. This is a great thing to discuss with partner, so you are both on the same page.
Sue, great question! This is the sort of thing you want to discuss with your partner (if you play 4th suit forcing). What is the difference between opener bidding 2s and bidding 3s? Since it's a game forcing auction, either could be stronger, but there should be a difference that you've agreed upon ahead of time. I say it is the top in the video, because this partnership plays that 2s shows the bottom and 3s the top.
We love questions! If you are playing the 2h bid as 4th suit forcing, the partnership should have agreements about the values of followup bids. Yes, opener is forced to bid. But, they could have bid 2s, why did they jump to 3s? The simplest agreement here would be that 2s shows 12-14 and 3s shows 15-17. You could invert the two bids because it is a game forcing auction and have 2s be the stronger of the two bids and 3s be the weaker (this makes perfect sense and saves room in a more powerful auction). Either way is fine, the essential part is that you want to have discussed this as a partnership when you decide to play 4th suit forcing. Understanding the strength and length of follow up bids here is essential. For simplicity's sake, I've used the agreement that 2s is the weaker bid (showing 12-14) and 3s is the stronger bid (showing 15-17).
Very well explained.
Thank you for watching!
Very interesting and helpful. Thank you.
Thank you!
Excellent lesson . Thank you
Welcome!
Thanks, as someone with the strong instinct to just donk 3NT in that spot, that was a great video.
Would E have overcalled 2D to show two 5 card majors? EW going 2 light in 4HX seems good for them.
You're welcome! Great call on East's bid. I definitely would have bid with that hand. I agree with your choice of 2d, but even if I weren't playing Michaels, I would at least bid 1s. 4hx is a great sacrifice and even if you don't get the contract, it's much harder to bid slam with interference.
At 5:10 you say "this partnership plays Specific ..." (in response to the 5NT ask for kings) and that 6D says "no kings". I am not familiar with "Specific" - can you explain it? I would have thought 6D showed DK and no CK since that suit was skipped.
There are (at least) two ways to answer kings in 1430 Keycard Blackwood.
Some people do number, which goes back to regular blackwood: 6c = 0, 6d = 1, 6h = 2, and 6s = 3.
Some people play specific: With specific, we bid the cheapest king we have. If we do not have a king, we bid the trump suit. So here, the rebid of 6d says that South does not have any kings (because diamonds are the trump suit).
Your assumption is correct (bidding a higher king denies a lower). For example, bidding 6h here would show the king of hearts and deny the king of clubs. But there has to be some way to deny having any kings and that is by bidding the trump suit.
We don't need to show the king of diamonds because it is a keycard. When we ask for kings, we should have all of the keycards, so the king of diamonds has already been discussed, which frees that bid up to say: "I don't have any kings".
My confusion arose from thinking partner assumes his 3S bid set Spades as trump, so he/she reads your 4D bid as a cue bid showing the DA, not as setting Diamonds as trump. As South you know Diamonds is a better fit, but how does North know?
@@armantookmanian1938 I agree. I think the auction is difficult and confusing. 3s could well be setting trump as the most common reason we use 4th suit forcing is having 5-cards in the major. In which case, 4d would be a cue bid. It is important for North to remember that the second reason we use 4th suit forcing is we are too strong to bid notrump. Will they be able to determine 4d is setting trump instead of a cue bid? Probably only if the partnership has had detailed conversations about this situation.
There is a good case for a jump force response of 2S on your first turn and then support Diamonds next time. So it starts: 1D-2S-3C-3D and you are on your way to at least 6D, maybe even 7D
At 1:01 you say North's bid od 2C is showing "at least 5 diamonds" -why?
I can imagine many hands where he has only 4.
If he is 3=2=4=4, he cannot raise your spades (yet). If he is 2=3=4=4 with a good 14-hcp hand but with his hcps all concentrated in the minors and no heart stopper, he cannot repeat his diamonds or raise your spades. If he is 1=4=4=4, he cannot show his Hearts - unless he has the hcps to reverse.
This is definitely a partnership style agreement. I teach (and play) that with most of these hands opener will rebid 1NT. Though hearts might be implied on the auction, because they have not been bid by the opponents, a stopper is not required to rebid notrump. I know an expert level player who never rebids notrump when he has a singleton in partner's suit (as you suggest here). I just don't agree. I prefer 2C here to almost always be at least 5 diamonds and 4 clubs and to rebid 1NT with the other hands.
This is a great thing to discuss with partner, so you are both on the same page.
I don’t understand how you know that the 3 spades bid is at the top of the 12 to 17 bid🤪
Sue, great question! This is the sort of thing you want to discuss with your partner (if you play 4th suit forcing). What is the difference between opener bidding 2s and bidding 3s? Since it's a game forcing auction, either could be stronger, but there should be a difference that you've agreed upon ahead of time. I say it is the top in the video, because this partnership plays that 2s shows the bottom and 3s the top.
Thank you
Sorry, but how do you know that partner is at the top of their range after 3S bid? Can't it stil be 12 pts? After all partner is forced to bid anyway.
We love questions! If you are playing the 2h bid as 4th suit forcing, the partnership should have agreements about the values of followup bids.
Yes, opener is forced to bid. But, they could have bid 2s, why did they jump to 3s?
The simplest agreement here would be that 2s shows 12-14 and 3s shows 15-17. You could invert the two bids because it is a game forcing auction and have 2s be the stronger of the two bids and 3s be the weaker (this makes perfect sense and saves room in a more powerful auction). Either way is fine, the essential part is that you want to have discussed this as a partnership when you decide to play 4th suit forcing. Understanding the strength and length of follow up bids here is essential. For simplicity's sake, I've used the agreement that 2s is the weaker bid (showing 12-14) and 3s is the stronger bid (showing 15-17).
@@thebridgeteachers Thx! I just overlooked the jump to 3S. Maybe played too intensely live bridge this afternoon 😉
@@Reteph58 Fantastic reason to overlook it! :)