[Al_U_Card]

Scoring: IMP

2♣ p 2♦ p
2♠ p 4♠ p
???
Playing 2D waiting with an ADV, 2/1 pick-up pard.

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To be (in slam) or not to be (in slam) that is the question....(How good should the raise to 4S be?)....and how to investigate if at all

[pclayton]

A possible auction:

2♣ - 2♦ - 2♠ - 3♠ - 3N - (pass or 4♥) - 4♠.

Al - whatcha mean by Slam?

After 2♦ waiting, a jump to 4♠ denies an outside s/v or A or K. I'd be curious to know how those that play a direct 2♥ negative clarify these jumps.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

4S is an underbid, North has two controls
and should bid 3S, the only arguement against
3S is the shape.

With kind reggards
Marlowe

[mikeh]

I would open 1♠, but I understand 2♣, and I think that 2♣ would be the more popular choice.

Having said that, it is certainly a terrible 2♣ opening bid, so even thinking of bidding over 4♠ is an overbid.

Put another way, no matter what meaning or lack of meaning you attribute to 4♠, it is clearly a bid that can be passed (as opposed to 3♠). Therefore, when you have the world's worst (second-worst?) 2♣ opening, this becomes a non-problem.

Having said that, I am with Justin in this space-devouring 4♠ raise: no outside 1st or 2nd round controls and good (in context) trump.

I am a 2♥ immediate negative player, but this does not change the meaning of the sequence. It does become very rare in my style, since 2♦ promses an A or K, and 4♠ denies any outside of ♠: so 4♠ will deliver the A or K of ♠.

[Al_U_Card]

My thinking on this sequence is that 4S shows decent trumps (not at issue in this case) and is a mild slam try. I play that 3S is a minimum (with outside Q and J's) and 3NT then by opener can be passed. My other question is, despite being near minimum, is it reasonable (say he bid controls to show 2 instead) to try for slam or is it too dangerous?