[jillybean]

We won Flight B with a last-minute pickup pair! I know some of you will "pooh-pooh" the idea, but I was thrilled.
I must add, we had THE one of the best directors out there, Michael Roberts. He provided pre-duplicated boards and hand records for the Sunday Swiss. The boards moved as smoothly as a pairs event. Whenever an adjacent table was running too slow to pass their boards, Michael magically and happily produced another board for us to play.Excellent, excellent, excellent! Thanks to all the hard work that went into pre-duplicating the boards, we can truly compare our results against the entire field and I can post this hand.

Experts, please give the I/A's a chance to think through this before revealing your answers.

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2/1. 15-17 nt.
edit: 1nt by passed hand is not forcing
What is your plan, what are you agreements?

edit: corrected DIC name, sorry

[apollo1201]

Congrats!!!!

A nice control rich hand.

Absent 2NT GF or stuff like Gazzili, that many experts will have? a GF 3C will do the job.

We could belong in 3NT, 4H, 4S or 5-6C. That is the only way to learn.

[jillybean]

Thanks

How do you continue after a gf 3♣?, do we all have agreements here?

[WasWinM]

Congrats!

Now on to the hand. Although control rich and high card strength, not a lot of tricks. As I play, a passed hand doesn't have the luxury of forcing NT, the 1NT bid can be passed. I'm tempted to simply bid 2C, not that I'm looking for club support but hoping partner might now be able to bid 2H, after which he gets to play a heart game. I don't think he'd feel as frisky over 3C, but that might be wrong-headed of me. I think in the end I would have chosen 2C, expecting a correction to a doubleton spade or another call other than pass. If it is pass, it might be our best contract.

[Cyberyeti]

Did partner have a weak 2♦ available ? and what agreements do you have about your weak 2s ?

[jillybean]

1nt is not forcing, I have added this to the OP

Partner did have a weak 2♦ available. (while we now have pre duplicated boards for this Swiss, we still can't play Multi)
This is a new partnership and our agreements are very simple, 6-10 , 6 cards, 2NT feature ask.

[mike777]

jillybean, on 2026-August-10, 11:11, said:

We won Flight B with a last-minute pickup pair! I know some of you will "pooh-pooh" the idea, but I was thrilled.
I must add, we had THE one of the best directors out there, Michael Wilkinson. He provided pre-duplicated boards and hand records for the Sunday Swiss. The boards moved as smoothly as a pairs event. Whenever an adjacent table was running too slow to pass their boards, Michael magically and happily produced another board for us to play.Excellent, excellent, excellent! Thanks to all the hard work that went into pre-duplicating the boards, we can truly compare our results against the entire field and I can post this hand.

Experts, please give the I/A's a chance to think through this before revealing your answers.

---

2/1. 15-17 nt.
edit: 1nt by passed hand is not forcing
What is your plan, what are you agreements?

Big Congratulations! Very well done.

As others mentioned 3C clubs, going to force to game, nothing fancy. Not going to mastermind....
This is teams, bid games....

[jillybean]

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Agreements now?

[mike777]

jillybean, on 2026-August-10, 13:03, said:

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Agreements now?

Natural, you are in a game force.

[jillybean]

mike777, on 2026-August-10, 13:26, said:

Natural, you are in a game force.

That would be too easy, but what I would expect with no agreements.

[mike777]

jillybean, on 2026-August-10, 13:48, said:

That would be too easy, but what I would expect with no agreements.

Probably? Partner bids 3NT and plays it brilliantly...

No NV 2 diamond opening...

[apollo1201]

 jillybean, on 2026-August-10, 13:48, said:

That would be too easy, but what I would expect with no agreements.

These sequences consume a lot of space that is why experts have ways to start lower and leave more space before reaching 3NT. So usually agreements are quite basic and natural.

I have not discussed details but I guess my partner would do as per below.

3D/H tend to be suits (5 cards but could be 6 that did not want to open a weak 2), could be strength to reach 3NT when partner is 5431 and we ensure we have no wide open hole. Nevertheless, as opener, we are expected to fit with 3 cards.

3S is doubleton and not wanting to bid 3 red. Probably wants to avoid being fitted at the 4 level with Qxxx suit.

3NT is positive about red stoppers.

4C is a hand revalued by the jump, probably 5 card-fit and no wasted red honors.

4 red is risky but I would interpret it as a jump fit (5 + 4 clubs). The risky thing is that is goes past 3NT to introduce a suit facing a likely sg where 3NT would have been best to reach.

4S is a lousy 3-cd raise too weak to bid 2S.

There are probably muchc more intelligent things to do.

[jillybean]

Continuing with the premise of no agreements,

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[mike777]

4D if RKC for clubs, if no agreement then control bid, clubs are trump.

Btw 4C should be stronger than five clubs, in context.

[jillybean]

This was our auction.

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We had a few challenging auctions like this with undiscussed sequences, this one ended in the right suit.
A few pairs did find 6♣.

[mike777]

Pretty difficult
I wouldn't worry about this one

Low Hcp minor suit slams tough to bid

[apollo1201]

(duplicate voided - seems the forum is experiencing the same issues that had been contained for a while)

[mw64ahw]

apollo1201, on 2026-August-10, 15:47, said:

These sequences consume a lot of space that is why experts have ways to start lower and leave more space before reaching 3NT. So usually agreements are quite basic and natural.

A transfer approach aims to resolve shape/strength earlier i.e.

1♠ - 1N <3♠
2♣ 5x4x, 52+x4 or strong ♣ - 2♦ pref

Now showing clubs
2N 5xx4 good 16 to bad 18 - stopping in 2♠ playing Gazzili may be preferable
3♣ and higher show GF shapes

[apollo1201]

(duplicate voided - seems the forum is experiencing the same issues that had been contained for a while)

[jillybean]

As Mike777 noted, and others I spoke with play 3C as gf and now 4D is keycard which gets you to 6.

Not worried, hopefully will remember and discuss with partners. Low hcp minor slams may be the hardest to bid , but that makes them the most profitable, and fun.