Tuesday, March 22, 2005 5:22 AM

Hand Evaluation - Minorwood

PITBULLS:

Minorwood ( KCB with the minors) can cause confusion even among the most established partnerships. Kantar offers some guidelines. He advises to break down the understandings depending on whether the minor fit is found at the 3 level or the 4 level. If the fit is found at the 3 level , a 4 level raise of that minor is KCB as longs as there are two obvious conditions satisfied. 1) The partnership must be in a game forcing auction. This is obvious or else the raise to 4 of the minor just might be invitational or a waiting bid . 2) The other condition is that one partner has KCB rights that the other does not have. Only the unlimited hand can bid minor KCB . The limited hand can raise to the 4 level but is it not KCB . Here are some examples. from Kantar to try. The unlimited hand concept is very important for understanding Minorwood. The 4 level is the slam investigation level in the game of Bridge.

When the minor fit is just discovered at the 4 level , Kantar calls that the agreement and not the ask. No matter if it is a forcing auction or the hand it unlimited , 4 of a minor is the agreement , not the ask. At the rarified 4 level , Kantar advises you use Kickback to ask for Aces rather than the bid interpreted as a Q bid. He defines Kickback when clubs is the agreed suit as always being diamonds except when diamonds have been previously bid . Hearts is KCB in that case. When diamonds are the agreed suit , hearts are the KCB ask unless it was a first bid suit by opener or responder. In that case 4♠ is KCB. Here are some examples from Kantar to try.

The above understandings assume the partnership has just agreed upon a minor fit at the 4 level. What if just one partner keeps rebidding his minor single handedly . Is there any way he can use KCB at the 4 level ? Kantar says yes & no . He says it depends on the number of unbid suits remaining during the auction. 1) If there are two unbid suits, there is NO keycard ask; bidding either unbid suit is a cuebid , 4NT is to play.  Furthermore, a suit bid by either opponent can never be used as the minor RKB ask suit If there is one or none unbid suits , the 4^th suit can be used as KCB.  Here are some examples from Kantar to try.

Pulling 3NT to a minor is never done from a position of weakness. If the minor has already been agreed upon by the partnership , pulling 3NT to that minor is KCB. If it is a singlehanded pull of 3NT to a minor , then it is a slam try but not KCB .

1♥-P-1♠-P

2♣-P-3NT-P

4♣ is a slam try but not KCB.

Minor suit agreements at the 2 level are trivial. A jump to the 4 level is KCB . If NT has been bid at the 1 or 2 level , a jump to 4 of the agreed minor is KCB. Even single handed bid minors , if it is a jump after a NT bid , is KCB.

Kantar does not define any way to ask for kings with minor suit KCB. The queen ask is the next suit and partner is to respond the lower ranking King if she holds the trump queen. For those purists who want a way of asking for Kings after a minor suit KCB sequence, Maurice & Susan recommend using the suit above the trump suit as asking for Kings. Specific suit asking bids are not defined for minor suits either. Both these concepts were invented by Kantar for major suits only.

Partnership understandings after systemic bids can signal KCB in the minor . my partners & I have two of them . One of a major – 3NT , a pull to a minor is KCB . This understanding is based on the 3NT bid showing 4-4 in the minors. The other is after our 3♣ Re-Stayman bid after a 1NT or 2NT openers. If we agree to the suit indicated , it is automatically KCB . Here are some examples to try.