Tuesday,
October 17, 2006 12:19 PM
5 Level Q Bids
PITBULLS:
Playing
Italian style Q bids , 5 level Q bids virtually do not exist. This is obvious
as you bypassed KCB which you need to verify if your previous Q bids were 1st or 2nd round
control. The bid is even more rare
when the strong hand is bidding at the 5
level to
the limited hand. Fred Gittleman advises & I agree whole heartedly with him
, that 5 level Q bids should be Exclusion Blackwood. Here is a hand from a
Bermuda Bowl where exclusion
makes the auction simple. ♠AQJxx ♥AQJxx
♦Axx
♣ void You open 1♠ and partner bids a forcing
NT. You bid a multi-purpose 3♣ and partner bids 3♦ as directed. You bid 3♥ to show the heart jump shift. Partner has
♠Kx ♥Kxxxx
♦Kxx
♣xxx and bids 4♦
which obviously accepts hearts as trumps. She would have broken the relay to 3♠ , if she had a strong
spade hand.
Partner
now bids 5♣ . This can not be extending the Q bidding to the 5 level. Why is
the huge hand showing the
limited hand a control ? The strong hand actually takes control by bidding 5♣ Exclusion Blackwood. Partner
bids 5♦
showing one Ace outside of clubs. The opener now bids 5♠ which can not be
interpreted as a queen ask as queen asks do not
exist with exclusion.( queens can be included in two control responses
) . This must be a suit ask in spades. Partner with Kx of
spades bids 7♥ .
Exclusion Blackwood
is a nice tool. You can use suit asking bids with the bid which makes it even
more useful. Make room in your system for it. Do not start Q
bidding at the 5 level. Define
an initial 5 level Q bid as exclusion Blackwood. I play
Exclusion as most 5 level Q bids , immediate jumps to the 4 level in a minor after a major
opener . After a 2/1 or response a jump to the 4 level where the
context of the bidding determines that the bid is an obvious void is also Exclusion Blackwood. Of course , with a
fit established , a jump to the 5 level is obviously Exclusion Blackwood. In
the era of Italian Q bids , KCB is needed. Also welcome Exclusion KCB into the family.
Here
is a hand from Reno where a 5 level Q bid is impossible so we define the bid to
be Exclusion KCB. BJ Trelford opens 3♦ vulnerable and my RHO doubles. I hold ♠AQJx ♥AK1098 ♦Qxx ♣K
& I decided to pass. If they have an accident and pass , it is 200
an overtrick & compensates for a slam . If they bid hearts , I will try for
my slam by them playing 3♥
doubled. BJ is a disciplined pre-empter vulnerable so at worst his diamond suit
is KJ109xxx or AJ1098xx and he
does not pre-empt with outside Aces. LHO opponent bids 4♣ so around to me. Using
our definition that initial Q bids at the 5
level is Exclusion KCB , I try and find out if BJ has both the ♦AK . BJ bids 5♥ showing the diamond AK and I bid our baby 6♦ slam.
Usually
Exclusion follows the same KCB the partnership plays so it is easy on the
memory. Kiz Fung plays a two control
response to Exclusion where the queen is included in the responses. This is
quite ingenious and works well.