Weak major suits with good side suit

[cloa513]

♠/♥xxxxx or ♠/♥xxxxxx or more without any high honour and very good quality second suit or otherwise all round hand and of course opening values. Obviously it is not a big deal bidding the major to start with and other suit second but what if partner has shortage in the first suit and the combined hands have slam or even reasonable game quality in the second suit or even partner's suit. How do you know your partner that your partner has shortage in your major and how do tell him that is gold for your hand? Do you downgrade the 5 card major to four to start with or what? Can your partner splinter in your first suit?

[andy_h]

It depends on the auction. If it flows out well partner may be able to splinter in our suit or we may even be able to "splinter" our own suit to partner, AKA bluhmer.

[cherdano]

It is easier to answer if you give some example auctions where you would want to do that. Some players would never hide there 5-card major, anyway.

[kenrexford]

It depends on the sequence and such. However, I also recognize this problem and cater to it, myself.

 

For instance, consider 1♠-P-2♣-P-2♥ as your start (2/1 GF sequence). If I want to set trumps as spades as Responder, I bid 2♠, or 4♠ as a Picture Bid. If I want to set hearts as trumps, I could bid 3♥, 4♥, or splinter, or jump in clubs. This leaves one auction without obvious meaning, namely 1♠-P-2♣-P-2♥-P-3♠, except that the "splinter, short spades, agrees hearts" meaning is available.

 

Similarly, I have 1♠-P-1NT(forcing)-P-2♥-P-3NT as a strange agreement, showing a heart "super-acceptance" with shortness in spades.

 

These are always strange-sounding sequences for partner (or you if partner does it to you), so discussion is critical.