forcing "bid 'em up":
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You establish a game force and trumps somewhere below game. In two-over-one, this can happen two levels below game. The way two-over-one is used, a game force often shows a queen above the strength needed for game.
If a major is trumps:
We use up-the-line cue-bidding, where you cue an ace, a king, a singleton, or a void in the order you come to them. In practice, and because of splinters, the first cue tends to be an ace or king. If partner cues, you are expected to cue in response below the agreed game, rather than signoff. If partner is limited and you have no slam interest, you may signoff.
If a minor is trumps, a concern is switching trumps or playing 3NT. Therefore, bids below 3NT do not necessarily show slam interest.
Study the examples throughout Robinson's book. He knows whether or not slam exists there by the time he reaches game. He finishes with Roman Key-Card Blackwood, which is frosting on the cake. Also, his small slams have about 32 suit points, and his grand slams are either 13 obvious tricks or about 35 suit points.
Sometimes I am too involved in point count arguments. If you count 12 tricks, bid a small slam. If you count 13 tricks, bid a grand slam. I also argue that if you can't count 13 tricks, don't bid a grand slam. However, occasionally the point count is so high that you must bid a grand even if you don't know what the tricks are. I always put this in my notes:
Never bid a grand slam.
We have to go through the four-level before 4NT is Blackwood. Therefore, slam interest forces a cue-bid. Check on the laws of bridge. You are allowed to bid slam without Blackwood. Also there are hands you should make partner use Blackwood.
If we jump to 4NT, it is quantitative. It is possible that partner is unlimited. Therefore, a five-level response to a quantitative 4NT is aces.
Either partner can Blackwood over a four-level cue, and if a minor is trumps you have only one chance to do so. Standard American uses the opposite rule over a notrump opening and a minor fit, and their Blackwood auctions require a three-step or four-step walk to 4NT. It is difficult to do what you most often want to do.
Before you do anything in a slammish auction, formulate a plan. Otherwise, you have hesitation cue-bids, and hesitation Blackwood, and partner is barred from the final decision.
Step zero of the plan should be done as you read this. Determine the minimum count for slam. If you want to be aggressive, here is an argument for 31 points. Partner's bidding has shown some number of points (assume 12), and he would bid the same way with one more point. Then, if you have 19, the expected count is 31 1/2. Chapter 2 says 32 for a suit slam, but because you will know that two aces are not missing and there are no two-loser suits, the 50-50 number will be less than 32.
Other steps are:
Confirming aces usually asks partner to bid a grand with extras. If you are tightly limited and partner is unlimited, then confirm aces. My example of tightly limited is an ace response to a quantitative 4NT. Confirming aces yields control back to partner. The question isn't does partner have extra points, but rather does partner have undisclosed features that makes a grand reasonable.
If you and your partner know that the partnership has 28 points, or if you are unlimited, I think your plan should look like:
Table 1. You are unlimited, or are already half-way to slam Combined value relative to slam Plan < -2 Over a queen short Walk -2 2 points short Cue and stop at game. 0 Cue and bid on. +2 An extra 2 points Cue, bid on, confirm aces, and stop at 6. +4 An extra 4 points Cue, bid on, and bid grand slam.
If you are limited and your partner is unlimited, and 31 is your "do it" number, then your plan should look like:
Table 2. You are limited and partner is unlimited Combined count Plan 25 Walk 28 Cue and stop at game 30 Cue and smoothly stop. 31 Cue and bid on.
We should think about the "Last Train" concept. Last Train says that if there is only one bid between partner's last bid and the agreed game contract, then that bid is Last Train. Robinson has examples in section 12.11.
Last Train can cause trouble. This from a 1 forcing "bid 'em up":
Q J x x
K x
A x
2 2 2 4 ?
East wants to know about a heart control, and does not want a last train decision by West. This deal causes the same problem in two-over-one forcing.
West has 15 suit points at spades and East has 12 suit points at
spades. As the newspaper would say: "Staying out of slam is a matter of simple arithmetic." Yet, 6NT is about 70% and 6 is
about 65%. The two 10 's are critical. Without them, the slam is
about 50%.
Maybe we should revalue both hands upward. This would lead to:
1 2 3 3 4 4NT ... 6NT
Change West's A-x-x to K-Q-x and West should bid the same way.
Change East's A-x-x to K-Q-x and East should bid the same way up
to and including 4NT. When aces are missing East stops at 5 or
6 .
1 2 3 3 4 4 Pass
As the newspaper would say: "Bidding slam is a matter of simple arithmetic." Again West revalues upward and cues either diamonds or
hearts. It shouldn't matter which. He skips clubs and so does not
have the ace or king of clubs. East stops at 4 . East would like
to play notrump but that is not possible.
Q. You cue-bid with a king. Aren't you afraid of a double for the lead?
A. It is a two-way sword. If they double and a king is exposed, I stop at game. If they don't, slam chances improve because the ace is more apt to be in front of the king or in partner's hand.
Q. Then I should double your cues with the Q-J and not the ace.
A. Yes. After a double, Redouble or Pass — Pass - Redouble shows first round control.
I had fun putting the following together for the two-over-one Monday night group. As a result the hand examples are not exactly right for a big club discussion. I tried to make several serious points in a humorous setting. The group encouraged me by laughing when they read it. One thespian read lines aloud auditioning for the part of the senorita.
Evan: Joel told me you should learn to count tricks.
Senorita: Why should I count tricks when your friends don't?
E: What do you mean?
S: I heard about the following deal.
Your big club auction was so bad I won't show it. The two-over-one auction was unscientific.
1 2 2NT 4 6
E: Wasn't 6 right?
S: How about 6NT? What was 4 ?
E: That was fast arrival. It meant East had a minimum hand for
2 .
S: When are you going to teach me that?
E: Never.
S: East has 5 1/2 tricks, and West has 6 1/2 tricks. My Intel heart tells me that is 12 tricks.
E: Did you do any better?
S: All you taught me to do was count points. I counted 30 at
spades (18 and 12). You told me 32 was needed for slam. So I could
only get to 4 .
E: Maybe I should have said 31 for slam.
S: Maybe you should have listened to Grant who said an ace was worth 5 points.
Evan: No, what I should have said was that the J was worth three,
the J was worth two and the J was worth zero. Then you get to
32.
Senorita: Are you telling me that
is not any better than the East hand? It's got 2 more points.
E: It's worse. Now you want to play 6 and not 6NT.
S: West has 6 1/2 tricks, East has 5 1/2 tricks, and 32 are needed for slam. I calculate that West is worth 17 1/3 and East is worth 14 2/3 points.
E: Your Pentium is overheating.
S: Show me a good auction.
E: How about (Hands repeated):
1 2 2NT 3 4 5 6
S: You told me to cue the first control I came to which could be an ace, a king, a singleton, or a void. Therefore, West denies a club control. What hand can West have other than the given hand?
E: The deal could be:
or:
S: OK, so, as East, I'll Blackwood, ask for the queen of spades,
and then ask for kings. If West has the last hand I'll get to 7NT.
If he doesn't have a king I'll get to 6NT, and if he doesn't have
the spade queen I'll get to 6 .
Evan: You wanted to learn fast arrival!
Senorita: Could you teach me RKCB?
E: The important thing is the bidding below game. I will change the deal slightly:
Now the analysis is about the same except I can exchange suits
inside of each hand. For example, switch hearts and clubs in the
West hand and all you can make is 4 .
S: That's SWAPping. Oh senor, I have a great SWAP function. I was born to SWAP. I could also SWAP hearts and clubs in the East hand.
E: West's A could be swapped to a side suit.
S: The J could be SWAPped into and out of the East hand.
E: The source of tricks suit could be swapped to hearts or clubs.
S: Let me count the ways to SWAP! Is there a guideline for bidding all these hands?
E: I think so.
. Senorita: And the J is the extra king if partner has cued
diamonds.
Evan: That last point is tricky.
S: When East makes his second bid he doesn't know whether his hand is worth 12 points or 14-15 points. Are you going to write a program to show that cue-bidding works for all of our SWAPping?
E: No.
S: We can SWAP the opening bidder. You told me that a five-card suit and 17 notrump points is a jump shift. The jump shift shows the extra ace for a slam investigation. The rest should be easy.
E: The jump shift gets opener to evaluate his hand for slam immediately.
S: Surely, your friends can bid to slam after a one-over-one response.
Cuebidding also works when the main suit is SWAPped to hearts. What happens if the trump suit is a minor? That's 576 SWAPs.
E: West will probably open 1NT. They do not learn about the two source-of-tricks suits, and slam is missed. When East is the opener, he bids a suit and then raises West. Is West's next bid a second suit, a cue toward 3NT, or a cue toward slam?
S: You say the important part of the auction is below 4 . Is that
why my BLACKWOOD function seems like an afterthought? All I seem to
use it for is to check for aces and stop at five missing two.
E: Yes, if there is nothing else to do, it is good to test partner on Blackwood responses.
S: And you use simple Blackwood so you don't fail the test. Doesn't it bother you that people think you are yokels from the backwoods? Maybe you should call it Backwoods Blackwood.
Senorita: I heard that even before you had reported our last conversation to the group, Joe Kivel provided more ammunition.
Evan: Yes
S: If you hadn't already Xeroxed for Monday night, we could have had a longer discussion.
E: No. I had run out of space on the second page.
S: That conversation did seem cryptic toward the end.
E: Joe's hand and the auction:
Partner Joe 1 2 3 3 4 4NT 5 6
S: They reached 4 with maximum self jamming. Joe and Partner were
on the same wavelength about 3 showing spades.
E: Yes, there was no indication of extras.
S: Joe has 20 suit points at clubs and 17 suit points at spades.
My point count algorithm says his partner has 11 suit points at
clubs and 12 at spades. Without any indication of magic cards in
partner's hand shouldn't Joe quit at 4 ?
E: I think so.
S: With two aces shouldn't there be a play for 6 ? Partner could
have the king of clubs.
Evan: 4NT was RKC. Joe thought spades were trumps. His partner thought clubs were trumps and had one ace and the king of clubs.
Senorita: It was a Roman Key-Card disaster. Joel is getting ready to sermonize on Two-Suit Key-Card.
E: It's not really RKCD. The 4NT disaster simply caused them to lose focus on their poor auction. They were non-regular partners. Each checked with their regular partners and got moral support about which suit was trumps.
I think Joe's 3 bid can be a suit, a try toward 3NT, or a cue
toward slam. Then with four spades and a normal hand partner raises
and that's that.
S: With extras his partner would start a cue sequence over 3 .
Can you stop at 4 or play 6 after that?
E: I don't think so.
S: What did my simulation have to say?
E: You didn't worry about a spade fit after the club raise. In 48 deals:
A big club simulation gave the same results except for the missing mooses.
S: On the good slams, partner had three out four of the missing key cards. That could be less than a minimum opening!
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