[rogerclee]

han, on Sep 30 2008, 09:13 PM, said:

pclayton, on Sep 30 2008, 12:02 PM, said:

3♠ = 4 spades and a sound opening hand.

4♠ = a hand that would have bid 1m-1♠-3♠

4♥  = something more.

Me too.

I agree, except 3+ spades.

[awm]

People seem unusually conservative today. The following hands offer good play for slam here:

♠Kxxx ♥Axx ♦x ♣AKxxx (slam is cold, even if one of the ♠ is a ♣ it's good)

♠Kxx ♥Qxx ♦Ax ♣AKQxx (quite good despite wasted ♥Q)

♠xxxx ♥AQx ♦AQx ♣AQJx (not cold but quite good despite all the wastage)

♠KJx ♥xx ♦AQx ♣AKxxx (clubs 3-3 or diamond finesse on the likely ♥ lead)

♠Kxx ♥xx ♦Ax ♣AKQxxx (this one is good even if ♣Q is a small one)

All of these look to me like 4♠ rebids in this auction. They are either balanced 18-19 type hands with something wasted in hearts, or shapely hands that would be worth a 3♠ bid without interference (sometimes with only three spades though).

The thing is, if partner has shortness somewhere it rates to be diamonds (if opponents had 11 hearts they might've bid more, and in any case that implies partner will have "no wasted values"). If partner is balanced he rates to have 18/19 and even with some wastage in hearts (with ♥xxx it might be a 4♥ bid in any case) we might make slam opposite that.

In any case, the poll says pass. This was right on the actual hand, as partner held:

♠KJxx ♥Kxxx ♦AQ ♣AQT

After the heart lead, making 5♠ is possible on an endplay. But it's difficult to make any slam try and avoid 6♠, which requires two finesses to win (basically RHO has every card so this is not going to work out).