Jennbridge: LTC and Splinters - A Powerful Combination

By Bob Klein.
I cannot overemphasize the value of splinter bids in slam bidding, particularly when combined with judicious use of Losing Trick Count.  Here are two spectacular successes I had recently.

Hand A.

In a pair game at the recent regional in Sacramento playing with Dave Neuman, I held, in first seat, neither side vulnerable:

♠ void
♥ Jxxx
♦ Axxxxx
♣ Axx

I thought it was a bit of  stretch to open it, so I passed.  LHO passed and Dave, in third seat, opened 1 Heart.  RHO passed.  Now, this marginal opening bid had turned into a monster!  First-round control of all side suits, 4-card trump support, and only 6 losers using the adjusted losing trick count where you subtract a half-loser for each ace when there are no queens.  I decided that the hand was worth a game force, so I made a splinter bid of 3 Spades.  Dave now bid 4NT, RKC.  I had the perfect hand to show that the splinter was a void by bidding 5NT, which shows 2 keycards and a useful void.  This hit the jackpot as Dave jumped to 7 Hearts.

The two hands combined were:

♠  void
♥  Jxxx
♦  Axxxxx
♣ Axx

♠  Txxx
♥  AKQxxx
♦  KQ
♣  K

The grand slam came home easily.  Hearts were 3-0 but diamonds were 3-2.

Note how my splinter bid improved the value of Dave's hand.  Once he knew that I had 4 hearts and no more than 1 spade, he could envision ruffing three spades in dummy or discarding them if I had any aces. Moreover, he could envision me holding the 2 minor suit aces since I couldn't have much else to justify a game force opposite  third-seat opening bid.

Nobody else in the field bid the grand slam.  Only one other pair even got to six.

Hand B

In a recent team game at the club, I picked up this hand:

♠ QTxx
♥ x
♦ Axx
♣ Kxxxx

My partner, Joanne Pransky, dealt and opened 1 Spade.  I saw that while the hand had only 9 HCP, it had only 7 losers, decent 4-card support and prime controls in the side suits.  So I forced to game with a splinter bid of 4 Hearts.   Joanne bid 4NT, I bid 5 Diamonds to show one keycard (we play 0314), she bid 5 Hearts, asking if I had the queen of spades, I bid 6 Clubs, showing her the queen and the club king, and she bid 7 Spades.

The two hands were

♠ QTxx
♥ x
♦ Axx
♣ Kxxxx

♠ AKJxx
♥ Axxx
♦ x
♣ AQx


The grand slam came home easily.  My counterpart at the other table chose to treat it as a limit raise and  bid 3 Diamonds, showing a 4-card limit raise (Bergen), and they only got to six, so we won 13 IMPs for the only swing in a 6-board swiss match.

Good luck!