CSGibson

Hey Timo, I respect your opinions, especially when you agree with me :).

I understand what you are saying, and I don't disagree. At the same time, that's one of those things that lets you win the postmortem after you get to 7♠ down 1 - partner should have been able to figure out your brilliant sequence. Maybe I err on the side of caution in murky cue-bidding situations too much, but I don't want to put that much pressure on partner. I make my one grand slam try and sign off.

double looks right, agree with reasoning laid out by the previous poster. I don't hate 2♠ or 3♦ either, but they don't really do justice to my hand, so I think of those as lesser choices, approximately equal in value. If partner leaves in the double, at least we have 2 aces and a singleton.

If I receive a compliment, I say thank you. If I don't deserve the compliment, I say thank you, then talk to partner afterwards. Compliments can be a tool - use them to settle down a nervous partner if you can. Other than that, do what comes natural to you in terms of giving out compliments.

Thanks Mike, that makes a ton of sense to me - I do play serious/non-serious, and I would put a non-serious 3♠ on the table effectively; partner would likely only cooperate with good trump for the prior bidding, you are correct. I was thinking more of the style of cue-bidding where people would show first round controls, but even then surely 3N after 3S would say "I have interest, but nothing convenient to cue-bid". Just lazy thinking.

What I am worried about, Mike, is that the hands that you need for slam are very specific (good trumps, working Q of clubs, spade values or diamond KQ), and it is going to be hard to either show or ask for what you need after a limit raise without getting too high on the occasions that partner's trump are not robust. Since I don't think I have the tools to evaluate whether slam is good in the space I have, I would not make a try.

No.

form of scoring/vulnerability? My inclination is to call it a limit raise (after all, if I had another K I would game force with a splinter), but I don't object to 2♥ or 3♣ either. In fact, I have a sneaking admiration for 3♣ given your description of the call, despite the fact that my hand meets none of the parameters, I think it is probably the closest approximation of my playing strength.

I like 5N (encouraging, showing more than 6♠) as long as I had the plan of bidding 6♠ over anything partner did, and as long as partner has not denied minor suit aces by bidding 5♥ (a style that makes some sense to me, especially if partner has controls in every suit, and needs to make a general slam try, which is what I believe 5♥ should be...you can't make an intelligent "invite partner to the party" Q with that hand, since partner is known not to have any 1st round controls, and cannot cooperate). I strongly believe that since this is your first opportunity to Q, any 6 level Q should show first round control. So now, 6♠ - partner will infer secondary honors and good trump for having bid 5N and not being able to cue a 1st round control at the 6 level. This was edited to expand on my original thoughts.

Yeah, I agree that void showing would be standard, but in this partnership we don't force to slam with 1 keycard and a void when we have shown opening values - we specifically reserve the jump for 3 keycards and a useful void (5N being 2 with a void). Even after 6D, partner does not know about the Q of diamonds, so GSF has more utility in case I'm 3=1=5=4, 3=0=5=5, 4=1=4=4, or any of the other myriad shapes I could be for this sequence.

North is bidding 2♦ because he knows that if I have a balanced hand, I am at least 15-17 - we play a weak NT - and in that case he will convert to 6N anyway. On the other hand, if I don't have a balanced hand, he makes the auction easier by setting trump and asking for a description. If he had responded 1S, imagine the auction to follow - 2♣-2♥; 3♣-3♦; 4♥...now we are at the same place we were at 3♥, but a level higher.

Yeah, partner really made the auction easy with his 2♦ bid…This wasn't a results thing so much as partner telling me that no one uses Grand Slam Force anymore, and that I shouldn't have jumped to 7, even though he had me covered.

Here is the actual hand

From partner's perspective, he doesn't know for sure whether the 4♥ bid is a void or an ace, so the answer to keycard may not be entirely helpful. Granted that the bidding would be extremely aggressive with a Q high suit and a stiff ace as the first round control, but GSF is just a much clearer way of finding out what he wants to know.

I like a prior poster's point about 5N, with the idea that hearts will play better, perhaps, but I hate the idea of introducing clubs - one of the biggest things I have going for me is that they don't know that they have to keep their 4 clubs to the T instead of 4 hearts to the J or 4 diamonds to the Q. So I think 5N is a great idea, with the plan of forcing to 7.

I would be concerned that 7♣ would encourage partner to think I showed the singleton ace of hearts instead of a void - I don't want him to think I'm giving a choice of slams in that case.

2♦ ostensibly denies a 4 card major. Systemically, showing a big two suited in diamonds and clubs takes up much more space (requires a 4♣ call), but it was definitely also an option.

3S is ambiguous - It could be cheapest 1st round control, or it could be a probe for strain at that point (between NT and diamonds). With a singleton heart honor, I suspect I would bid 3N, and get clarity. I think the subsequent 5N, though, clarifies that N had slam interest in mind, so I would expect 1st round control of spades.

[hv=pc=n&s=st7hdkqt964ckqj83&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=1dp2d(limit%20raise%20or%20better)p3h(short%20hearts%2C%20GF)p3sp4h(cheapest%201st%20round%20control)p5n(undiscussed)p7dppp]133|200[/hv] Hi. Any actions you disagree with for the south hand? Obviously South took 5N as grand slam force even though it was undiscussed. Is that reasonable in this auction, or is south off his rocker? Q bidding style is to bid 1st round controls first.

I see this in a similar light to what I would do with a 3 card limit raise in the auction 1H-(2S)...in preempted auctions, limit raises with no room to differentiate generally just bid game. That being said, I think the N hand is borderline, but I still think it is generally worth a shot.

Nothing is perfect, this comes close enough for me. I play in a district where suction is allowed in all competitions, and I have never had the situation you have quoted come up even once, and if it does, I expect opener to use their judgement - at least if they pass, they are behind the length.

I play X then X as penalty, pass then X as take-out. 2 level suits are natural and to play, transfers starting at 3♣ which are invitational or better. If I double then cue-bid, that's stayman. xfer lebensohl is on after they have defined their suit as well as immediately. This structure works for me because it is general principles what I play against other defenses, and I don't want to spend a lot of time devising and memorizing defenses to all of the common interference over 1N when I already have a lot of artificiality in our system that I have to memorize.

Diamond. I don't hate a heart. Partner had an opportunity to overcall and did not, and is marked with some values because they are not in slam/barely got to game, so I think percentages are to look for help in suits that partner is less likely to be long in - ie, our own longest suit.

pass. No 2nd choice. I expect this to be a miserable contract in which I have lots of field protection. If RHO had made a penalty double, then I would consider transfering to spades, mostly because I don't want them to get into a doubling tempo, and a majority of pairs who would automatically be in forcing auctions are only forced through 2♠ - I've gotten away with it before, but it feels like a crapshoot.