[Elyk25]

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Had these beautiful hands today sitting in south's seat. Imagine my surprise when my PARTNER reversed! Anyways, quick question on these type of auctions where there is an obvious grand slam--

When's the best point in the bidding sequence to just throw down that satisfying 7NT down on the table? Might it have been better to explore a suit contract here (at least in IMPs). How about in MPs?

When there's this much strength here is it best and typical to go through the nice and slow bidding sequence to show controls, bid your suits, and etc? Are there any likely risks of your partner freaking out on you and passing at the 6 level? Is bidding the 7 level earlier without exchanging information have any benefits (i.e. could it help with making the opps lead harder in the case that it might matter?). Thanks for any and all replies!

[P_Marlowe]

If you know the final contract, bid it.
One bid reason to end the auction quickly is to safe save stamina, if you know the contract,
you save the stamina of your partner, and it avoids misunderstandings.

Only if you believe, that they may double in a making contract, you can try to go slow,
trying to paint the picture of a possible misunderstanding, and you may find willing customer,
... I have quite often paid some of those bills.
But usually you need a competive auction to find poor souls like me.

NT has the advantage, that they dont have trumps to ruff your side suit winners,
a common theme is to investigate, if 6NT / 7NT is possible besides playing 6M / 7M.
Similar, if you have add. HCPs it is quite often a good idea to play 3NT instead of 4M,
basically this is the same theme.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[Zelandakh]

When you know the best contract, or know that you cannot obtain any further useful information for your side and are in a better position to judge than partner, you bid it. You also bid it when you judge that furtehr exploration is more likely to help the opps than your team. On this hand though, are you really sure of 7NT before knowing whether partner holds all of ♣AK, ♥A and ♠K? I think the best rebid here is 2♠, assuming that is forcing. That makes the hand very easy if partner happens to be 3415 but also maximises the available bidding space. When the club fit drops out, we can key card to check for our important cards and convert to NT upon finding everything present and correct.

[oldem]

If North's holding is as shown, then will he reverse? The reason being: He knows for sure that his partnership must reach game, and he wants to create a "forcing" situation hoping his partner's second suit be ♥. A jump to 3♣ is not forcing.
I also wonder how South can see 13 tricks in NT just by hearing the reverse? (In fact, as the cards lie, NS has in combination 17 sure tricks!!!).

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[johnu]

Zelandakh, on 2016-April-06, 09:10, said:

When you know the best contract, or know that you cannot obtain any further useful information for your side and are in a better position to judge than partner, you bid it. You also bid it when you judge that furtehr exploration is more likely to help the opps than your team. On this hand though, are you really sure of 7NT before knowing whether partner holds all of ♣AK, ♥A and ♠K? I think the best rebid here is 2♠, assuming that is forcing. That makes the hand very easy if partner happens to be 3415 but also maximises the available bidding space. When the club fit drops out, we can key card to check for our important cards and convert to NT upon finding everything present and correct.

I don't see why you need ♠K for 7NT if either hearts or diamonds provide extra tricks. Even if you are playing a relay system, you probably aren't going to be able to find out whether the ♠K is necessary.

[Zelandakh]

johnu, on 2016-April-15, 15:52, said:

I don't see why you need ♠K for 7NT if either hearts or diamonds provide extra tricks. Even if you are playing a relay system, you probably aren't going to be able to find out whether the ♠K is necessary.

You do not need the ♠K on the hand itself but to find that out you need to get hold of additional distributional information. That is not a problem for a relay system because partner's exact shape is known.

[johnu]

Zelandakh, on 2016-April-15, 17:57, said:

You do not need the ♠K on the hand itself but to find that out you need to get hold of additional distributional information. That is not a problem for a relay system because partner's exact shape is known.

There are other key features you aren't going to be able to find. ♦J means a good chance for 5 diamond tricks. ♥QJ means 4 or 5 heart tricks. A 7 card club suit headed by AK is 7 club tricks (and 3 diamonds, 2 hearts, and a spade, etc).