Subject: Italian Q bids

PITBULLS: 

Whether you have bought into the philosophy of the "serious 3NT"or not , Q bids are still an area to be discussed . The serious 3NT philosophy is that you can not jump to game in a major if partner is unlimited unless you have nothing to say.  Instead you Q bid . There are 2 styles of Qbidding ,  one which is so called standard and the other one which the Italians (blue team ) made famous . The standard way of Q bidding of course is 1st round control first and the lower ranking Q bid first followed by second round controls.

The Italians and Fred Gittleman in his articles on "serious 3NT"  play the Italian style of Q bidding . This means that a Q bid can be either a 2nd or 1st round control when initially bid . Therefore you do not know how many Aces you off and Blackwood is necessary for all slam auctions . I have brought this up before in "serious 3NT" discussions but I think it is worth repeating .


x                 xxx
AKQxxx       J10x
xxx              AKQxx            1♥       2♦
Axx              Kx                   2♥ 3♥
3♠

Q bid  2nd round spade control first , then your club ace when convenient . This allows a
margin of safety .



xxx                xxx
AKQxxx         J10x                1♥     2♣
Ax                  KQ                 2♥     3♥
xx                  AKQJ10           4♦     5♣   

(oops we are down at the 5 level )   With the inference that partner does not have 2nd control in
spades or she would have bid it "Italian style" keeps us out of the 5 level whether we
play"serious 3NT" or not

I think we should adopt the Italian style of Q bidding and be very careful and use Blackwood for slams. So it does not matter which order you Q bid anymore.

ex

Kx                   Axx
AKQxxx         J10x             1♥       2♣
Axx                 Kx               2♥       3♥
xx                   AKxxx          3♠      4♣
4♦  4♠             2nd round
in spades bid before 1st round but who cares ? You have them both ..

The ability to Q bid singletons will make your splinters more disciplined
( possibly always have 4 trump ) . However as I mentioned in a previous
E-mail splinters are still a better way to find out duplication of value and
stay out of messy contracts.

If you are past Blackwood then Q bids should be first round control ex

                  4♥
1♠                              4♠
5♣                                             Stupid to bid 2nd round control when we do not have Blackwood to

fall back on.

Common sense should still prevail .


Anyway , having given it some thought ,  the Italian way of Q bidding makes more sense to me than the standard treatment . I will try to co-erce Mr. Jones in playing them as he is still dragging his feet about the serious 3NT ( refuses to even discuss it ) .

There are disadvantages to the "serious 3NT" as it is too accurate sometimes. When both sides of the partnership are Q bidding with minimum values and staying out of slam , you assist the opponents on their opening leads.

Klimo says "serious 3NT" has got him to some nice slams but has cost him match points on the opening leads !  Also the leap to game in a major ( a no no with serious 3NT ) makes the opponents lead a little bit more blind . So whether you adopt the "serious 3NT" is more on your "religious beliefs" about the game of Bridge to borrow a phrase from Klimo .