Strong 6-4-3, do you want to be in slam? How to go about that?

[diana_eva]

2/1 udca, MP scoring. Good partner. No matter what you bid now, expect partner to understand it unless it's completely made up and unheard of:

 

[hv=pc=n&sn=diana_eva&s=SAKT7HQ42DAKQ842C&wn=onoway&w=SQ85HAT876DT973CA&nn=navahak&n=SJ962HKJ5D5CKQ763&en=kenberg&e=S43H93DJ6CJT98542&d=e&v=n&k=s&a=P1D1HDP?]399|300[/hv]

[PhantomSac]

You can bid 4C splinter or 4D 4S 6D or 2H followed by spades

[diana_eva]

You can bid 4C splinter or 4D 4S 6D or 2H followed by spades

 

Yeah pd wd understand any of these, but which one is most appropriate in your opinion?

 

FWIW I chose 2H.

[aguahombre]

Yeah pd wd understand any of these, but which one is most appropriate in your opinion?

 

FWIW I chose 2H.

In my world, the one thing a 2H cue does not have for this situation is 4-card "support" for partner's "1S" bid showing 4 spades but not five.

 

It seems we must use some Game-forcing spade raise which denies control of the heart suit. It hasn't been raised and that means partner cannot be presumed to have shortness there.

 

The convention with no name, if you play it at all, should apply here just as if Responder had bid 1S. So, a 4D rebid would work for us. IMO, it is short of slammish 4C (which is not necessarily a splinter in clubs the way we use CWNN.) 4D and 4C are both 4-6 bids for us, with 4C being stronger.

[PhantomSac]

Yeah pd wd understand any of these, but which one is most appropriate in your opinion?

 

FWIW I chose 2H.

 

I have no strong opinion. I would probably bid 4C and pass a signoff, I don't think this hand is as good as it looks though I could miss a slam. We have problems in diamonds, trumps, heart ruff (not to mention control), and entries if they lead a club and tap us (we have to negotiate keeping control, setting up/running diamonds, and pulling trumps while being able to get back to our hand and get to partners hand to pull trumps etc). A lot of times we will need at least the pointed suits to split. I think partner will in general evaluate well knowing we have club shortness (and having a 4H bid avail). Of course partner with QJ9x Kx xxx xxxx will not cuebid and I will miss a very good slam. I'm not sure other routes will get him to appreciate that hand either though.

[diana_eva]

Interesting. I thought the hand was a monster, but it wasn't and slam does not make. We were the only ones in slam too, which seemed weird to me. I mean, who wouldn't want to be in slam with this - I thought at the time.

 

Gotta work on my hand evaluation sigh.

 

Full hand was:

 

[hv=pc=n&sn=diana_eva&s=SAKT7HQ42DAKQ842C&wn=onoway&w=SQ85HAT876DT973CA&nn=navahak&n=SJ962HKJ5D5CKQ763&en=kenberg&e=S43H93DJ6CJT98542&d=e&v=n&b=2&a=P1D1HDP2H!P3NP6SPPP]399|300[/hv]

[whereagles]

at my table it went

 

(3♣) dbl all pass

 

 

I felt somewhat disappointed to see my dbl passed out :)

[ArtK78]

How would you like to have my result?

 

At my table, the bidding was as shown, and opener rebid 4♣. Responder signed off in 4♠, and that was the final contract.

 

-650 was a ZERO. We lost to the slam that diana and navahak bid, and the other two results were 3♣x going off less than the value of game.

[whereagles]

oh.. that sucked.. lol.

 

still, the junk pree brought back memories of my junior days http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif

[Fluffy]

I agree with aguahombre, opener's cuebid denies support. With 2♠, 3♠, and all the 4 level bids for support you don't need a cuebid as well.

 

I would go for 4♣, partner will understand directly the importance of ♠QJ, a 5th spade, ♥AK and heart short. He will slightly missevaluate at first ♣A, but I plan on bidding 5♣ next so that he understands. Once I show void I also show long diamonds, and that means partner knows ♥Ax is zero losers on te long run.

[rmnka447]

Yes, the hand is a monster opposite a negative double where responder has 4+ ♠. But when contemplating slam, stop and ask yourself what you need to ensure slam makes. Here it's pretty plain to see that slam is a good bet if responder has a ♥ control and at least 4 ♠ including the ♠ Q. Responder had the opportunity to bid 1 ♠ over 1 ♥ to show 5+ ♠s. So it seems pretty likely that responder probably has only 4 ♠s when holding ♠s.

 

Responder's 3 NT bid after your 2 ♥ seems to provide the ♥ control, but the issue of whether responder has the ♠ Q is still up in the air. The 3 NT bid suggests there are enough HCP that it might be there, but it doesn't guarantee it. Unless you can find a way to find out if it's there, you shouldn't bid slam. (I'm sure we all have fallen in love with hands and bid too much at times. I know I have.)

 

About the only way I can see to be sure that it's there would be a bidding sequence with a ♠ agreement, cues where responder could show the ♥ control, and RKCB with a queen ask. I'm not sure I can come up with such a sequence.

[gszes]

Your instinct about slam potential was right on so do not get discouraged when

an attempt to get there works out badly (it happens a LOT). IMHO 2h was the right

way to go and your partner should not have wasted all that space with 3n when a

2n (2 quick tricks up to just short of 3 aces) bid was correct (3n should be reserved

for 3 aces or better so there are automatically slam aspirations opposite a cue bid).

 

With any rock gut minimum responder can bid a non forcing 2s over 2h. This does not

suddenly promise more spades it merely makes it clear responder has little in reserve.

sometimes responder will have to bid 3s (forcing) which shows the 2QT+ but nothing else to

bid and still only promises 4 spades.

 

So the bidding proceeds 1d 1h x p 2h 2n p 3s

 

This sets spades and along with the cue bid is game forcing and showing slam aspirations.

Our hand has gotten better now that we know responder has something in hearts (hopefully

not JTxx ouchies). It is now a matter of partnership understanding (nothing mentioned

so far should be less than standard when you think about it). My method (which works well here)

is to treat 3n as showing at least 1 of the top 3 trump honors by any hand limited to less than

an opening bid (opening bid+ needs at least 2 of top 3) and if unable to bid nt cue bid aces.

So on this hand responder has to merely bid 4s and we should sign off since we know we are missing

both the heart ace and the spade Q (unless we need to gamble:)

[Phil]

Whether or not you rebid 4♣ or 4♦, partner should get turned off holding secondary clubs, a stiff in your suit and crappy trump. This hand does not have five level safety.

 

If you start with 2!h, the auction tends to get rather muddy, but you have two extras levels to work things out, although I'd rather make an initial, descriptive call.