Tuesday, June 27, 2006 12:44 AM

2C - Kickback

PITBULLS:

Kantar writes that the 2♣ opener has KCB rights that no other auctions have. This is due to the “nature of the beast” being so strong. Playing a 2♣ opener , the clumsiest auctions in the world are just finding your minor fit at the 4 level.

2♣-P-2♦-P 2♣-P-2♦-P

3♣-P-4♣-P 3♦-P-4♦-P

As Kantar also says “this is the agreement” and not the ask. The ask in these auctions are diamonds with a club fit and hearts with a diamond fit i.e. Kickback. Since the 2♣ bidder made the bid , this is not a Q bid but KCB.

Here is a hand from a Spingold ♠ AQx ♥Axx ♦A ♣ AKQxxx you open 2♣ and partner waits with 2♦ so you bid 3♣ raised to 4♣ by responder. In the Spingold , the player did not know what to do as he was afraid that 4NT was natural to play ( probably should be ) so he bid 6♣.

Partner held ♠Kxx ♥KQx ♦xxx ♣109xx and 7NT has 13 tricks . Lets see if we can bid it better with “Kickback” understandings. You bid 4♦ “Kickback” and partner bids 4♠ showing 0 or 3. The Kickback suit repeated is asking for specific kings . Partner bids 5♥ showing the heart king over your 5♦ bid. You bid 5♠ asking for the spade king. The death response is returning to the trump suit so 5NT says you have it. You now bid 6♥ asking for the heart queen and partner bids 7♣ saying yes I have that which you convert to 7NT.

Kantar advocates jumping to the grand if you have the 2^nd king. I do not like that , if you have room to show it by not making the death response of returning to the trump suit. This hand is actually suited for the old fashioned replying number of kings. However , specific kings work better in many hands.