When not to splinter over 1M?

[SemiMike]

So, I have 13+ HCP, 4 card support, and a singleton which I can show
by splintering. I have been advised that with a singleton ace, this is
not a good bid. Now, I have recently been told similarly not to
splinter with a singleton king. Agree? Disagree? Any other exceptions?

[Kieran Dyke]

Post by SemiMike
So, I have 13+ HCP, 4 card support, and a singleton which I can show
by splintering. I have been advised that with a singleton ace, this is
not a good bid. Now, I have recently been told similarly not to
splinter with a singleton king. Agree? Disagree? Any other exceptions?

Bare ace is a flaw, but the splinter will still often be the best bid
available. The two times when you should be wary of splintering - (1) with
hands lacking four trumps - my splinters are 100% four trumps unless it's
known from the earlier auction that I don't have four - and (2) splintering
when too strong - if you can't respect a signoff, the splinter was the wrong
bid.

Tiggrr

[Dave Flower]

Post by Kieran Dyke

Post by SemiMike
So, I have 13+ HCP, 4 card support, and a singleton which I can show
by splintering. I have been advised that with a singleton ace, this is
not a good bid. Now, I have recently been told similarly not to
splinter with a singleton king. Agree? Disagree? Any other exceptions?

Bare ace is a flaw, but the splinter will still often be the best bid
available. The two times when you should be wary of splintering - (1) with
hands lacking four trumps - my splinters are 100% four trumps unless it's
known from the earlier auction that I don't have four - and (2) splintering
when too strong - if you can't respect a signoff, the splinter was the wrong
bid.
Tiggrr

The last point is an excellent one; I remember getting a cold top on
the sequence:
1H pass 4D pass
4H all pass
Making ten tricks, with everyone else overboard.

Like Blackwood, splinters are an excellent mathod of avoiding bad
slams

Dave Flower

[Lorne]

Post by SemiMike
So, I have 13+ HCP, 4 card support, and a singleton which I can show
by splintering. I have been advised that with a singleton ace, this is
not a good bid. Now, I have recently been told similarly not to
splinter with a singleton king. Agree? Disagree? Any other exceptions?

Think about why you are splintering - it is to pass useful info to partner.

If partner has 3 small opposite your small singleton he knows you are
playing with a 30 point deck (the opponents 10 points in that suit will
yield only 1 trick so most of them are wasted). This makes 28 points a good
bet for slam and partner can continue on that basis. Partner can also look
at a K in the splinter suit and know it is waste paper.

However if you might splinter with an ace or without it how does partner
know what value to put on his King? In one case it is worthless and in the
other it is a certain trick!

If you splinter you should normally have no useful card in the suit, maybe
making an exception with a J if you are pretty sure partner does not have 4+
card length in the suit but never do it with an A, K or Q.

[d***@aol.com]

I demand both a control and top trump for splinters that use up space
--immediate splinters: must have 2xA with void; 2xA +KK/A with
single // must have exactly Axxx, Kxxx support.
Failing either, a delayed splinter claims a flaw: poor trumps, poor
Aces, // richer trumps, richer controls.

I want partner to quit quite well informed, go on also on sure
footing.

[David Babcock]

Post by SemiMike
So, I have 13+ HCP, 4 card support, and a singleton which I can show
by splintering. I have been advised that with a singleton ace, this is
not a good bid. Now, I have recently been told similarly not to
splinter with a singleton king. Agree? Disagree? Any other exceptions?

Agree. If you splinter with a singleton K, partner will have no idea
that his AQx is playing for 3 tricks and 2 discards, and you have the
ongoing problem in the splinter world that you don't have much room
left to sort things out.

As for further exceptions: one variant on the basic splinter is to
require that the splinter include A and/or K in each of the two
remaining side suits. The ideas here are that with one suit
uncontrolled, there may be a better way to bid the hand; and partner,
with most of his bidding room wiped out, may now be able to try RKC
when he has an otherwise suitable hand but an uncontrolled suit (other
than the splinter suit) himself.

David

[b***@gmail.com]

Post by SemiMike
So, I have 13+ HCP, 4 card support, and a singleton which I can show
by splintering. I have been advised that with a singleton ace, this is
not a good bid. Now, I have recently been told similarly not to
splinter with a singleton king. Agree? Disagree? Any other exceptions?

Splinters are funny bids, say 1H - 3S (splinter) and opener is holding
4S. Now the tricky question. How many spades your partner is holding
if he fails to cue spades later? How many hearts?
Is it possible for your partner to be holding a side five card suit
instead of 4+ card heart support. What if as opener you are holding
3=5=3=2 and you hear 1H - (2C) - 3S - (4S), is partner really holding
4+ card heart support for you or possibly improvising with a side five
+ card diamond suit? Bridge is a funny game, many reasonable rules
with some intriguing exceptions.

Cheers
Boris

[Andrew]

Post by SemiMike
So, I have 13+ HCP, 4 card support, and a singleton which I can show
by splintering. I have been advised that with a singleton ace, this is
not a good bid. Now, I have recently been told similarly not to
splinter with a singleton king. Agree? Disagree? Any other exceptions?

Don't splinter when a 2/1 followed by a delayed raise is a better
description of your hand: KJxx, x, xx, AKJxxx

[t***@att.net]

Post by Andrew

Post by SemiMike
So, I have 13+ HCP, 4 card support, and a singleton which I can show
by splintering. I have been advised that with a singleton ace, this is
not a good bid. Now, I have recently been told similarly not to
splinter with a singleton king. Agree? Disagree? Any other exceptions?

Don't splinter when a 2/1 followed by a delayed raise is a better
description of your hand: KJxx, x, xx, AKJxxx

Other examples would be KJxx, x, xx, AKQxxx as opposed to AKxx, x,
xx, KQxxxx. I would splinter the first hand an bid 2C on the second
(over 1S). The point is that the 2C bid should encourage partner to
upgrade club honors, but in the first hand, the ruffing values (or
duplication of Heart values) may be more important. Of course, if a
sequence such as 1S-2C, 2NT-4H were to show a delayed splinter, this
may be better than either treatment.

[alvin]

Post by SemiMike
So, I have 13+ HCP, 4 card support, and a singleton which I can show
by splintering. I have been advised that with a singleton ace, this is
not a good bid. Now, I have recently been told similarly not to
splinter with a singleton king. Agree? Disagree? Any other exceptions?

Dear SemiMike:

The posts here (on when not to splinter) offer useful guidelines. Here
is another: when making a GF splinter (some low-level splinters can be
invitational), try to have controls (aces or kings) in each of the two
off-suits. This will give partner considerable information and may
avoid one or two rounds of before cue-bidding (which would be
problematic as you are starting at a high level because of the
splinter.).

Alvin P. Bluthman
***@aol.com

[h***@yahoo.com]

Post by SemiMike
So, I have 13+ HCP, 4 card support, and a singleton which I can show
by splintering. I have been advised that with a singleton ace, this is
not a good bid. Now, I have recently been told similarly not to
splinter with a singleton king. Agree? Disagree? Any other exceptions?

The problem with splintering with a singleton ace is that responder
will downgrade KQx when in fact that is worth 2 tricks to our side.

My preference is to treat a singleton A or K as if it were a
doubleton, and a singleton Q or lower as a singleton, but there are
many who would disagree with that.

Henrysun909

[Eric Leong]

Post by SemiMike
So, I have 13+ HCP, 4 card support, and a singleton which I can show
by splintering. I have been advised that with a singleton ace, this is
not a good bid. Now, I have recently been told similarly not to
splinter with a singleton king. Agree? Disagree? Any other exceptions?

The problem with splintering with say the stiff ace or stiff king is
partner is supposed to devalue his honors in the suit. For example,
stiff ace is a good card opposite KQxx, and a stiff king is a good
card opposite AQxx. Also, an ace or a king as a filler in a fragment
suit opposite partner's long suit can contribute more than a trick.
For example, xxx opposite KQx is expected to take 1.5 tricks on
average. But Axx opposite KQx is expected to take 3 tricks.
Similarily, xxx opposite AQx is expected to take 1.5 tricks on
average. But Kxx opposite AQx is expected to take 3 tricks. If I
splintered with a stiff ace or king the rest of the hand would have to
be a minimal acceptable splinter without a stiff ace or king e.g. S
KQxx H Axxx D K C Kxxx or S Kxxx H KQxx D A C Kxxx.

Eric Leong

[Michael Angelo Ravera]

Post by SemiMike
So, I have 13+ HCP, 4 card support, and a singleton which I can show
by splintering. I have been advised that with a singleton ace, this is
not a good bid. Now, I have recently been told similarly not to
splinter with a singleton king. Agree? Disagree? Any other exceptions?

People often react to particular results.

My take is that, if you put too many restrictions on a bid, it never
comes up so you might as well use it for something else.

I suspect that, if you can't splinter with a singleton Ace or King and
always have to have at least 4-card support of the Major or 5-card
support of the minor, that fit jumps will come up more often than
splinters.

On the other hand, over balanced openers, short suits come up more
often than 5-5s.

All that having been said, because splinters are often so space-
consuming, you do want them to provide a benefit to opener's
evaluation of the hand and have a pretty good idea of what you are
going to do after opener rebids.

I can get behind 3-card support of a major with a singleton ace as one
situation where you probably have a better bid than a splinter, but
I'm not as sure about 3-cards with a singleton king, 4-card support
with an ace, or 4-card support with a signleton king. You may not
always have a particularly descriptive bid in those instances.

With 3-card support and a singleton Ace, it isn't a foregone
conclusion that you want to play in the Opener's major. You will most
of the time, but there is still no trump and the other 5+-card suit
that you always will have (You can't have only 3-card support, a
singleton, have no outside 5-card suit, and still have 13 cards).