Can you bid to slam with these hands?

[Cyberyeti]

If N bids his hand as balanced once S shows spades, it's not difficult to bid a slam, possibly the big one, but it's a lot more difficult if the auction starts 1♥-1♠-2♦.

 

Eg for us:

 

1♥(4+ cards, if only 4 will not have 4m)-1♠

1N(15-bad 19)-2♣(asking)

3♦(5♥/4♦ 17-19, 2542/1543 one or both red suits indifferent)-3♠(6+ of them, <3♥)

3N-4♣(cue setting ♠)

4♦-5♥(this is clearly a short suit, 4♥ would be a high card cue, unclear if unequivocally a void, no other cue to make, so likely to be void or stiff honour to have enough to push on)

6♠ or 7♠ (if this is a void, partner can't have any less than he has, but is it ?)

 

1♥-1♠-2♦-3♣-3N-4♠-5♠-6♠ is a possible rustic auction, but guessing a lot.

[daveharty]

Yes, people who talk about Zar points make me think of General Zod too.

http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/25243-your-opening-style/page__view__findpost__p__278226

LOL that's priceless, thanks. I knew I voted for the wrong guy!

[billw55]

Looks like a job for precision.

[xxhong]

1H 1S

2C(transfer to D) 2S(starts invitations)

3C(extra, accept the invitation, natural) 3S(good 6 spades)

4C(cue bid in C, stiff honor in S) 5H(void in H)

6S(great news,no much wastage in H)

[whereagles]

Looks like a job for precision.

 

I played a precision variant long ago which could indeed dig this one out. It involved symmetric relays and spiral scans (or denial cuebids, if you prefer).

[Zelandakh]

The difficulty for symmetric relay on this hand is that you have no fit. Thus North might easily curtail the relays early not knowing about the great spade suit opposite. Of course if you are willing to commit the hand to spades anyway you can gather the relevant information. The auction I gave is an example of this.

[gnasher]

Here's an unlikely auction using methods that I don't play:

 

1♥-1♠

2NT-4♥ (self-splinter)

5♥        (void-inclusion keycard)

    -6♣  (2 with the queen)

6♦        (confirms all necessary keycards present, shows ♦K)

    -6♥  (last train - concerned that opener might have Ax Jxxxx AKx AQx)

7♠       (because the long diamond may be gold dust)

[gnasher]

In real life, I expect I'd bid

1♥-1♠

2♦-3♣

4NT-6♠

[whereagles]

The difficulty for symmetric relay on this hand is that you have no fit. Thus North might easily curtail the relays early not knowing about the great spade suit opposite. Of course if you are willing to commit the hand to spades anyway you can gather the relevant information. The auction I gave is an example of this.

 

Well, you get to find out that the void across has no wastage on opener's side. That encourages him to do the spiral scan, as he's virtually sure to have at least

 

KQxxxx/--/xxx/Kxxx or

Kxxxxx/--/Qxx/Kxxx

 

across. In the system I played I could stop at 5♠ opposite those hands (not 100% safe but to probe a slam I wouldn't be able to stop in 4♠) and reach the good 6/7 opposite

 

KQxxxx/--/Qxx/Kxxx or

KQxxxx/--/Qxx/KJxx

 

Risk worth taking? I'll let you decide ;)