Splinters

 

Generally speaking, Splinters are shortness-showing jumps with a fit for Partner.  A Splinter asks the basic question "Is your hand improved by knowing about this short suit?  If so, perhaps we have slam".  Good holdings opposite a Splinter are Axx and xxx, where there is no wastage of high cards.  Conversely, holdings such as KQJx and AKQx are poor indeed opposite a Splinter, all those high cards would be better employed in the other suits.

 

 

20th December, 2006        Board 16      Dealer West       E-W Vul

 

 

This hand is going to game (at least) in Spades, but by what route?  The three choices are:

-         2NT:   Most partnerships play some variety of the Jacoby 2NT, a bid which shows Spade support (usually at least 4) and game-going values.

-         4♥:      This double-jump would be a Splinter bid for most players, showing shortness in the bid suit and support for Partner’s Spades.

-         2♣:      Showing the strong side-suit before raising Spades.

 

Of those three bids, we especially dislike the Splinter, it wastes so much bidding space without addressing two important features of the hand, namely the very strong Clubs and the two fast Diamond losers.  This would be much more suitable as a Splinter:

            ♠ KT97

            ♥ 7

            ♦ A85

            ♣ A9852

Here we don’t have a source of tricks in a side-suit, nor do we have 2 fast losers in a side-suit.  Instead, the hand is characterized by good controls and no concentration of values, just what a Splinter should be!

 

 

9th August, 2006               Board 22      Dealer East      E-W Vul

 

 

How do you play 3♠ by North in this situation?  Is it preemptive?  Or a Splinter?  Either’s fine, our own preference is for 3♠ to be a Splinter.  If that is your partnership's agreement, then look no further than a 3♠ bid here ... otherwise, you'll have to make a forcing Diamond raise of some sort ... and, if you don't have one available, then you'll have to fudge things with a 2♣ bid.

 

 

28th March, 2007              Board 17      Dealer North       None Vul

 

 

Here’s another Splinter situation.  Or is it?  Do you play that Splinters are on over a Takeout Double?  Of course, Splinter bids are primarily a slam tool, and the chances of slam go down when the opponents make a Double, but even so we like to play Splinters in this situation.  But that’s not a universally held view, so it’s worth making sure that you and your Partner are on the same wavelength here.

 

And if a Splinter bid is not available in your methods.  Some partnerships play that 2NT is “Jordan”, showing 4-card support and at least a limit raise in Opener’s major, so that would be a good choice.  And if that is not available either, then we would redouble and go to game later.  One thing we would not do is to bid 4♥ directly, that shows a weak hand, perhaps 5 Hearts and not much else.

 

 

30th August, 2006             Board 23      Dealer South       Both Vul

 

 

If South were not a passed hand, and if East had not chimed in with a 1♠ overcall, then 4♣ here would clearly be a Splinter bid.  As it is, we have two questions:

-         Are Splinters on after their overcall?  This is something to agree with your Partner as different people play this different ways … for what it’s worth, we believe that the majority preference is for Splinters still to be on (and also after their Take-out Double)

-         Are Splinters still on by a passed hand?  Again, we would say “Yes”, though it probably won’t come up very often in real life.

 

Anyway, if your partnership answers “Yes” to both these questions, we’d say that the South hand is worth a 4♣ Splinter bid.  True, Partner may have opened light in 3^rd seat, but even with this in mind we are no doubt planning to bid up to 4♥ eventually … if that is the case, we might as well get there quickly and descriptively.

 

If the 4♣ Splinter is not an option in your methods, then a simple 2♠ cue-bid will suffice to tell Partner you have an unusually good hand (for a passed hand) in support of Hearts.

 

 

12th July, 2006                 Board 15      Dealer South      N-S Vul

 

 

Here are the options:

(a)    4♠ gets E-W to where they probably belong, and takes bidding space away from South.  The trouble is that this is a preemptive bid, and Partner might not expect so much defense from us … if South were to bid 5♦ now, and Partner held a slightly different hand to his actual one (say one less Diamond, one more Spade), he might well guess wrong and try a white against red sacrifice.  For this reason, we don’t much care for the 4♠ bid;

(b)  On the previous hand, West was able to make a jump-cue in the opponent’s suit to show shortness and game values.  So, how about 3♦ here?  No, opposite an overcall the jump-cue is generally used to show a mixed raise, which is to say something less than a limit raise, 4-card support.  Take away a Queen, a Jack, and one of those trumps, and East would have been a fine 3♦ bid!

(c)    The 2♦ cue-bid would show a limit raise (or better), and would be a reasonable choice …

(d)   … but our own personal favorite is a Splinter of 4♦, which takes bidding space away from the opponents.  And, it is also descriptive, giving Partner the best chance of guessing right if South takes another call.

 

 

5th July, 2006                    Board 19      Dealer South    E-W Vul

 

 

After 1♥, South has the values for game, and could just bid 4♥ directly.  But, a more descriptive bid is available … yes, 3♦!  This is a jump reverse, and a good treatment for the bid is to play it as showing a (Heart) fit and shortness.  Although Splinters are usually thought of as a slam bidding tool, we suggest that the Jump Reverse be played as not game-forcing.  So, South would have made the same rebid, holding about a King less.  Using this treatment, the Jump Reverse can help us improve our game bidding, too.  Consider these two hands:                       

                            ♠ Q64                ♠ 972

                            ♥ AJ94              ♥ QT62

                            ♦ 9                     ♦ KQ87

                            ♣ AQJ74          ♣ K2

Opener has the values (after 1♣ 1♥) for a 3♥ rebid, after which Responder would no doubt guess to bid the (poor) game.  But, if the partnership has a Jump Reverse available, Responder will be warned off game by that unsuitable Diamond holding.  Here's another example:

                            ♠ Q64                ♠ K72

                            ♥ AJ94              ♥ QT65

                            ♦ 9                     ♦ 873

                            ♣ AQJ74          ♣ K32

Now, in the same situation as before, Responder can take a shot at game ... he has a lesser hand than before, but it's a more suitable one opposite Diamond shortness.

 

 

29th Novemeber, 2006     Board 10      Dealer East       Both Vul

 

 

What does 4♦ mean here?  Yes, it’s a Splinter bid … shortness in their suit, Spade support, and enough for game.  But we would say that this hand is not suitable for that, just not enough trumps … normally we have 4 of them for a Splinter, holding only 3 may not be enough for us to take advantage of the ruffs on the board, especially when all 3 of them are honors.  So, we’d suggest 3♦ instead, showing Spade support and invitational values or better.

 

 

21st February, 2007          Board 32      Dealer West       E-W Vul

 

 

We may have only an 11-count, but our hand has considerable slam potential, don’t you think?  Yes, indeed, and the question is how to express that slam interest.  Here are some options:

-         3♥:      No, this is not an option, with standard agreements this bid is non-forcing, let’s remember that Partner’s 2/1 was in competition.

-         4♥:      This shows enough for game, of course, but does not do justice to our slam potential.

-         4NT:   Roman Key Card won’t help much on this hand, Partner is virtually certain to have at least one of the two missing Key Cards, and finding out that he really does will leave us none the wiser as to whether his hand is slam suitable.  For example, give him ♠ 62  ♥ AQJT9  ♦ KJ96  ♣ 75 and he would be good value for his 2♥ bid, and would have one of the requested Key Cards, but would not have a slam suitable hand by any means.

-         3♣:      “If in doubt, then cue-bid” is a common refrain when faced with a difficult bidding problem, but here it may not help us.  For example, suppose that after our 3♣, Partner bids 3♦.  Now we can try a forcing 3♥, but Partner won’t know whether we have serious Heart support, or whether we are still fishing for the best game.  He’ll assume the latter until proven otherwise, so will next show us a 5^th Diamond or doubleton Spade support, or even bid 3NT, none of which help us much in our slam search.

-         4♣:      Splintering with a singleton Ace?  Generally, this is a no-no but here it figures to work rather well!  Partner will be in no doubt about our Heart support and slam interest, so things will be less fuzzy than in the aforementioned cue-bidding sequence.

 

Yes, we rather like the unorthodox Splinter bid, it seems the most likely way to get Partner’s cooperation and opinion in our slam hunt.  As it breaks with the conventional wisdom about not splintering with an Ace, perhaps we should analyze why it might be a good idea on this particular occasion:

-         We are not in a game-forcing auction

-         We have no way (other than the Splinter) of agreeing Hearts below game while also establishing a force

-         We are less worried than we might sometimes be about misleading Partner in Clubs, because the enemy has bid that suit … so the chances of Partner discounting the “useless” K♣ (but really useful, it would provide a Diamond pitch) are greatly reduced, he probably doesn’t have that card.

 

 

7th June, 2006                  Board 27    Dealer South     None Vul

 

 

Yes, this is a 4♣ bid!  Club support?  No, not exactly!  We are in a forcing auction, Partner has identified our fit in Spades, so this jump is shortness, inviting Partner to re-evaluate her hand opposite a Club singleton or void.  As luck would have it, she has a moderate hand, with AQT75 opposite our shortness.  Not a good holding, too much wastage, so she signs off in 4♠.  Making 11 tricks as it happens.

 

 

13th September, 2006       Board 31      Dealer South       N-S Vul

 

 

That 4♣ bid was (by partnership agreement) a Splinter bid, showing game-going values, and shortness in Clubs.  South has limited her hand (and North knows that, of course) so, for slam purposes, South must evaluate her hand in that context.  She has a truly magnificent hand in that context!  Let’s look at the plus factors:

-         a perfect Club holding (nothing wasted opposite Partner’s shortness)

-         a 4^th trump (which was not guaranteed by the 2♠ bid)

-         great controls

 

A more slammish hand is hard to construct (well, we could also have the Q♠!), and this hand should be ready to commit itself to slam.  Does it seem a little odd that South should be making such a decision?  It shouldn’t, Partner asked our opinion with that 4♣ Splinter, and our opinion is “We love our hand!”

 

6th June, 2007                   Board 21      Dealer North       N-S Vul

 

 

Clearly we want to take this one to game, the question is “How?”

-         4♠?      Not a good idea, we have some defense here, and we don’t want Partner taking a phantom sacrifice if the opponents bid on to the 5-level.  Better to reserve those 4♠ bids for purely preemptive hand-types.

-         2♦?      That’s altogether too delicate, we need to support Spades right away, we’d hate the bidding to get to the 5-level before we support Partner.

-         2♣?     That will show some strength and Spade support, but it also gives our non-vulnerable opponents plenty of space in which to find a profitable sacrifice.

-         4♥?      Yes, that’s our choice, hopefully Partner will be on the same wavelength and read this as a Splinter.  If so, it’s perfect … Heart shortness, and some values, enough to try for game.  Another benefit is that it gets the auction high in a hurry, it’ll be harder for the opponents to find a profitable sacrifice, especially if that sacrifice is in Clubs.

 

3rd October, 2007             Board 9      Dealer North       E-W Vul

 

 

West is just about good enough to insist on game, and the question is how?  The two options are:

-         A simple raise to 4♠

-         A Splinter raise to 4♣, showing Club shortness

 

This one looks easy to us, we normally avoid splintering with a singleton Ace or King, it paints a misleading picture for Partner.  When we splinter we are asking “How do you like your hand opposite this shortness?” and Partner will assume that the shortness is a small card (or a void).  Opposite a singleton Deuce a holding of KQJx is rather poor, a wastage of values, and with this holding we would be discouraged from pursuing a slam.  But, opposite a singleton Ace, that KQJx holding is rather fine.  The conclusion is that a bid of 4♠ is more descriptive than the Splinter.

 

 

 

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