From: maillist@base.cs.ucla.edu (Generic Mailing List ID (Guest))
Subject: PSP #20.2
Organization: UCLA, Computer Science Department
Date: 10 Sep 92 15:00:06 GMT

Problem 2.
IMPS (Calcutta)
Both Vulnerable
Dealer West

You, South, hold, S-void H-AKQ62 D-AQJ32 C-Q72

South  West   North  East
       Pass   1NT(1) 3S  	(1) 15-17
4S     Pass   5C     Pass
5S     Pass   5NT    Pass
?

What call do you make?


[ I accidently left off the 15-17 NT disclaimer, throwing some people off.
  I apologize. ]


The bids:
(MARC) 6C.  If we play weak no-trumps I feel pretty good. If not, I hope we 
	don't make 7.

(MSB) 6C.  I can see what the problem is here: figuring out my side's bidding!
      We seem not to have made a natural bid after the 1NT opening, and
      partner seems not to have a quick spade stopper allowing a NT slam,
      are we supposed to know what suit to play in?  I can only guess that
      5C was not a cue bid but was natural, and 5NT was the grand slam force
      in an unsupported club suit.  I can answer this in the negative with
      6C, which should be playable enough if partner does really have clubs.
      Heaven knows what partner would think I meant if I made a natural
      bid of a red suit at this point, anyway.

(WU) 6C.  5NT shows a spade stopper (at this level, an ace).  5C being bid
	before NT shows a fairly legit club suit.  The Ace of spades is worth
	less than normal opposite my void, so I decide to wimp-out here.

(DM1) 6C. Partner must be 5-3-3-2 with probably too much wasted spade values.

(MOJO) 6C. I have no idea, this auction has completely lost me.  I can't tell
if partner is bidding aces or what.  So I'll make a W.A.G.

(PRM) 6D.  Partner should figure out I have a red two suiter and
correct to hearts if necessary.

(PYNQ) 6D.	What is 1NT? (No explanation given for (1))
	Assuming 1N is 15-17, I will show my red two suiter and let him
	choose.

(IM) 6D.  I hope partner works out that I have a big 2-suiter.

(JLD) 6D.  I suppose.  What was the point of the 5S call?  I'm assuming
that the 1NT call was weak (it isn't stated but it is marked).  Now
that I've gotten around to actually naming one of my suits at the
6-level maybe my partner can make a reasonable decision.
 

(AH) bid 6D.   Spade void is known.  Less preference for clubs is shown.
             Therefore partner knows about length in H and can chose.

(NAIR) 6D.  He should know by now that I've got an extremely strong 2
suiter.  I am assuming that the NT is 15-17.  Chances are that we
won't get to 7.

(EDT) 6H             I plan to throw diamonds on clubs.  I assume 1N is 12-14

(PBHYF) 6H. 1NT description is left out, so I assume pard has at least 2
       hearts. At IMPs 6h is definitely safer than 6NT (although
       6d is even safer).

(JOHN) 6 Hearts

(DESJ) 6H.  5NT should be a simple choice of slams.  But there is no hand
consistent with mine that partner can hold for this bid.  With king of
diamonds and equal length, partner should pick diamonds over hearts.
With two small diamonds and two small hearts, partner's clubs would be
good enough to rebid.  I'm going to guess that partner has a solid spade
holding like AKxx, since partner doesn't seem to be trying to play the
contract from the North side, so I want to play in a red suit, where the
discards will be useful.  And my hearts are slightly better, and 2 IMPs
is 2 IMPs.

(DAG) 6H.  Looks like wastage in spades, my hearts are better.

(EKP) 6NT. Inexperienced partnership.  Will go down in 5NT 
anyway if spades are wrong and DK offside.

(BB) 6NT. Pard's 5NT in response to our re-cueing spades should deny any four
     card support for the red suits. He is 3-2-3-5,3-3-2-5,3-3-3-4,4-3-2-4 or
     4-2-3-4. If I could make some sort of club inquiry, I would. But 6NT seems
     the safest place to be without knowing the club situation.

(SGM) 6N. I sure wish I knew what 5N meant. 
Is it "I've got the spades well stopped"?
Or "I don't have a preference for either red suit"?

(PW) 6S.  I think partner is likely to hold CAK and if not DK it is
likely onside.  With 6S partner get to choose between 7C/D/H.

(RB) 6S.  Partner rates to hold AK of clubs and K of diamonds.
I want to be in 7 something. I'll leave the final choice to
partner. Sooner or later partner has to realize I've got a
big red two suiter. I'll correct both 6NT and 7C to 7D.

(CC1) 6S    You want to be in Grand but not very enthusiastic playing in 7C.
         Ask your partner to make the final decision.

(IL) 7C.  I have shown 5-5 in reds. Partner have denied soft values in spades,
        denied 3 hearts. He has probably 3-2-3-5, with any other distribution
        should he bid 6D in the third round. Now I tell the strain, partner can
        correct to 7NT with A of spades. It is valuable to have partner as 
        declarer, since if one minor is 5-0 the right defender is on lead.

(RLG) 7D.  I'm not sure I understand what additional information my 5S bid
was supposed to convey, but I've got a strong 2 suiter.  There is an
excellent chance we have a grand in a red suit.  I want my partner to
bid his preferance.

(DOUG) 7D. I can't tell whether partner has A or KS therefore can't bid
    NT.I'm worried about bad splits after the preempt and I think the
    JD gives getter sacurity in case of a bad trump split. Maybe I
    should try 6S and let partner choose the suit? (IFF BS is not the
    3S bidder and partner does not know about his psychic
    proclivities)

(CC2) 7H.  I suspect partner may be showing first round space control which
        should make 7N safe, but I will pass the gamble.

(DK) 7h.  Partner has no preference between red suits, but I still
        believe he must hold K of diamonds as well as AK of clubs.

(KP) 7H.  Partner is *obviously* doing something brilliant here.  I'm going
to hazard he's 3-3-3-4 and wants me to bid my favorite grand slam; if
partner has AKx Jxx Kxx KJxx we'll figure out whose fault it was after
we chalk up +2210 on a dimaond lead :).

(DM2) 7NT.  Partner has to have both black aces and a near max for his bidding.
         He can hardly have more than 7 points in spades, leaving at least 8
         in the minors. The worst partner will have is AQJx Jxx xx AKJx and
         even then the chance of finding the Diamond King onside is better than
         50%.

The totals:
6C	5
6D	6
6H	5
6NT	3
6S	3
7C	1
7D	2
7H	3
7NT	1

[ This was by far the best problem in terms of spread on the calls that 
  people made.   I also found it interesting how many people tried to
  hypothesize what partner was holding (many of them unsuccessful). ]


At the table, eventual winner Sam Lev (partner Amos Kaminsky) bid 7D.  
From Henry Francis' account:
  
  Lev felt there had to be a grand slam somewhere and he bid 7D to give
  Kaminsky a choice of 7D, 7H and 7NT.  Kaminsky, looking at the S-AQ,
  chose 7NT.

  There was nothing to the play.  This was the full deal:

          AQ7
          9743
          K7
94        AKJ4      KJT86532
J                   T85
T965                84
T98653    -         - 
          AKQ62
          AQJ32
          Q72

  Yes, the grand was cold -- but 2470 IMPs changed hands on the deal.  
  The big gainers North-South were the eight pairs who arrived at 7NT 
  or 7H.  The big losers were the five pairs who wandered into 7C and 
  went down two because of the 6-0 [club] break.

The players:
(AH)	ahaas@ecn.purdue.edu (Alan Haas)
(BB)	Brett Barksdale <brett@porky.oce.orst.edu>
(CC1)	Chun Chang <chunchan@aludra.usc.edu>
(CC2)	chris.chambers@rose.com
(DESJ)	desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)
(DAG)	dagibbs@quantum.qnx.com (David Gibbs)
(DK)	Dennis Kibler <kibler@turing.ICS.UCI.EDU>
(DM1)	mytelka@enzyme.Berkeley.Edu (Daniel Mytelka)
(DM2)	davidm@Rational.COM
(EDT)	taylor@tivoli.com (Eric Taylor)
(EKP)	Edward Pavelchek <ekp@mcnc.org>
(IL)	Ingvar Lagerstedt <LAGERSTEDT@oc.chalmers.se>
(IM)	Ilene Morgan <morgan@math.psu.edu>
(JLD)	jld1@ihlpm.att.com
(JOHN)	<john@picks.almanac.bc.ca>
(KP)	hampton@ais.org (Kevin Podsiadlik)
(MARC)	marc@wrs.com (Marc Shepard)
(MOJO)	mojo@caere.com (Morris Jones)
(MSB)	msb@sq.com (Mark Brader)
(NAIR)	nair@astro.ufl.edu
(PBHYF)	pbhyf!skataba@ns.PacBell.COM
(PRM)	Paul Markowitz <PRM@BROWNVM.brown.edu>
(PW)	Per Westling <c85perwe@und.ida.liu.se>
(PYNQ)	"George Jetson" <pynq@midway.uchicago.edu>
(RB)	rainbow@ihlpf.att.com
(RLG)	Raymond L. Gilbert <pi@wam.umd.edu>
(SGM)	Myerson <sgm@ssd.ray.com>
(WU)	Warren Usui <aardvark@snap.la.locus.com>

--

Matthew Merzbacher	ARPA:	matthew@CS.UCLA.EDU
Moo - Moo Moo  		UUCP:	...!{uunet|rutgers|ucbvax}!cs.ucla.edu!matthew
               		This time, *with* the oys