Bidding Question

Question

I was West – I passed. My partner opened 2C (our strongest bid). I bid 2H. it then went (without interference) 3C, 3S, 4D, 4H, 4NT, 5H, 7H. Without the 3-3 heart split , we were 1 down, Most pairs in the teams event were in 7NT. A) Should I open 1S? B) After 2C should i bid 2S as partner thought I had 6 hearts after my heart rebid?

Bernard's Answer

I think your partner should choose 7NT if he is going for the Grand Slam. However, I agree that you should show your spades first and then rebid hearts. When you hold an ace and 2 kings in response to a 2C opener, you can be pretty confident that you are making a small slam, so your job is to try to investigate a Grand Slam. Having passed as the opener, your partner might make the decision to settle for 6NT which is probably the best contract – other tables have reached the Grand Slam because West chose to open. As for the opening bid, this tends to be a style thing – with two good suits I think it is a reasonable opening bid – the S109 are the key for me, they bolster the spade suit to make it a good opening bid. Clearly if West opens, you are going to struggle to stop East bidding 7NT – the grand slam is about 50% which is not the odds we like for a Grand slam, but from East’s point of view, if you have either the HJ or CJ, then the Grand Slam is very good indeed.