Bridge - The Scotsman 15/02/2012

WHEN partner shows a balanced hand with a specific point range you can immediately decide whether slam is in the air.

Here South shows 23-24 points by opening 2C and rebidding 2NT. North adds his 9, and realises that with a combined 32 or 33 points there may well be a slam. He cannot quite commit to 6NT, but he wishes to invite slam, and does so by bidding 4NT. This bid, taking the partnership past 3NT, is known as the Quantitative 4NT, inviting partner to bid slam if he is not minimum.

How does one define “minimum” in a two-point range? The 4-4-3-2 distribution is useful if a 4-4 fit comes to light: you may make slam with fewer than 33 points in a trump suit because you can make extra tricks by ruffing. So South issues an invitation of his own by bidding his four-card suits upwards. 5C means he has a four-card club suit, and North, with four-card support, is happy to raise. If he does not have four clubs he bids a four-card suit of his own to see if partner can raise that; if no fit is found the partnership may screech to a halt in 5NT.

6C is a far better spot than 6NT. When clubs break 3-2 there are 11 sure tricks, but 6NT needs a successful heart finesse. In 6C the 12th trick comes from ruffing a heart in dummy. Note that nobody was able to ask for aces – in quantitative auctions you are never maximum with fewer than two.