[Mbodell]

Your style is rule of 2/3/4, so partner should make 7 tricks (down 2 unfavorable) most of the time with a useless hand from you. Partner had a preemptive natural 2♦ and 4♦ available, and choose 3♦ as the call to make. You know partner has the AQ of diamonds, and don't know about the J. You know partner doesn't have the ♥K, and you don't have systems to ask for Q (you can ask for 3rd round control but partner will show it with shortness or the Q). Where do you place the contract in the 3 different fields/scoring?

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[the hog]

I would just bid 7D at any form of scoring.

[mr1303]

I'm going to bid 5nt and invite partner's opinion on this one, to see if he has anything extra

[Trinidad]

If he is truely supposed to have 7 tricks in diamonds opposite a useless hand from me then this is a very easy question: I have 6 tricks for him for a total of 13.

If he doesn't have an outside king, he should either have:

• 8 diamonds
  
• 7 diamonds + at least 2 queens (yuck!)
  
• 7 diamonds + a 4 card club suit (i.e. less than 3 spades)

In all these cases, 7♦ is pretty much cold, barring a ruff on opening lead, or a Jxxx-x (or Jxxx-void) trump split (and partner certainly can have the trump jack).

Rik

[Fluffy]

I don't need to count anything, ruffing out spades we make all tricks, just bid grand.

[Codo]

IF Partner has 7 diamonds, 7 is cold if he has the jack or the diamonds are 3-2.

If partner may hold a 1264 hand we need trumps 3-3 or the jack and may even have some more trouble in devellop the spades after a heart lead...

But okay, partner should have seven tricks somehow without an outside ace or king, so I play him for the right hand for the grand. I doubt that I can find out about a black queen, so I settle for 7 ♦.

[Zelandakh]

Playing proper KCB I would ask if partner has the ♠Q and bid 7NT if yes or 7♦ if not. Given that this is not available for some reason, we are left with 7♦. I think it should be though: either 5♥ should ask for specific queens and 5♠/5NT/6♣ just ask for that 3rd round control, or 5♥ and 5♠ are SSAs, each with enough space to differentiate between a doubleton and a queen.

[wank]

assuming we can't ask for queens, at mps the choice is obv between 7d and 7nt. i presume partner either has 4 clubs or 8 diamonds. aq to 8 diamonds would put 7nt on a 2-2 break and 4 clubs with no queen would leave us needing the diamonds to run (presumably he'd have a minor honour then) and a finesse or queen to drop.

7nt is only good then opposite aqj or aq10 to 8 or aq to 7 with an outside queen, so i'll go for 7d.

[billw55]

heheh, I voted all 7NT in the poll but now I am rethinking possible entry problems. Still very tempting at matchpoints though, this looks like an easy grand for the field to bid.

[gwnn]

billw55, on 2013-March-19, 06:33, said:

heheh, I voted all 7NT in the poll but now I am rethinking possible entry problems. Still very tempting at matchpoints though, this looks like an easy grand for the field to bid.

Luckily, there will be many people in the wrong grand.

[Free]

Always 7♦, I don't even know why I asked about side suit Kings.

[Mbodell]

Free, on 2013-March-19, 13:06, said:

Always 7♦, I don't even know why I asked about side suit Kings.

Really? If you know partner has ♥K, and AQ♦ you don't want to be in 7nt which rates to be safer (can survive some bad diamond breaks) and score higher [as long as K isn't stiff with them leading it].

[Free]

Mbodell, on 2013-March-20, 01:03, said:

Really? If you know partner has ♥K, and AQ♦ you don't want to be in 7nt which rates to be safer (can survive some bad diamond breaks) and score higher [as long as K isn't stiff with them leading it].

My partners always have that king stiff

[rmnka447]

7 ♦ across the board.

Of course, if partner likes to push the down 2/3/4 approach a lot, I might be tempted to bid one less.

If 7 ♦ doesn't do well at MPs, that's life.

7 ♦ at IMPS seems no worst than a -2 IMPs and seems a bit safer to me than 7 NT.

[gszes]

I couldnt care less how strong or weak the opps are or form of scoring this is
partnership trust (3d bid). the question is how to proceed. IMO
3d
3s (i want to set spades since i need to know about the apde Q) I really
dont care if p raises or not but if p raises we might be able to avoid a
7 level contract that depends on a finesse.
4d lets assume p does not raise
4n rkc for spades if i wanted dia i would have bid 4n right away.
5d 1/4
5h spade Q?
5s = n else (6s=no and nothing else) (6c or 6h = no but side K or Q)
any time p shows no spade Q we jump to 7d
5n = yes now we bid 7n

if p shows support {(4c or 4h) short} or 4s no short instead of 4d.
4n
5d 1
5h asks about Q
if p says no queen we are best off bidding 6s
If p has the Q we bid 7n though 7s at imps would be better and safer

these sequences are possible only if you trust your partner to answer
questions and not take matters into their own hands amd to trust you
when you place a contract somewhere. trust works both ways.

IMO merely placing the contract somewhere w/o investigation is nothing
more than a form of lottery. Use tools to your advantage when possible.

[Alik1974]

7♦. P should not bid 3♦ in first position , vuln with ♦AQ10xxxx. He should have ♦AQJ9xxxx at least.

[the hog]

True but what does it matter? You can probably ruff the Spades good anyway.

[Cyberyeti]

I bid 5♥ to see if partner bids 5♠ which must be the Q on this auction, if he shows this I bid 7N Partner really should have J♦ or an 8th one otherwise he can't really have enough tricks depending on how you calculate them, so worst case is that the Q♠ is stiff and they lead one, in this case I'm down to a 3-2 diamond break or a 4-2 spade break and whichever finesse I choose to take. If partner has AQ empty 8th/A empty 9th and a stiff Q♠ and no Q♣ is the only time I'm seriously below odds.

The interesting one is if partner bids 6♣ over 5♥. If Q♣ is not stiff, 7N is always going to have good play, if it is stiff and they lead one it might not be good.