[kfay]

1♥-1♠
3NT-4♣

3N shows long running hearts and a good hand.
What is 4♣? (Natural, right?)

Let's say the auction continues:
4X-4NT

What's 4NT? Does it depend on X?

[JLOL]

4C is a cuebid for hearts just like 1H p 1S p 3H p 4C. A later 4N bid will be keycard for hearts. 3N shows long hearts.

[Phil]

Agree with cuebid. 4x is a cue, although I'm hard pressed to think of a hand that returns to 4♥ (7th or 8th heart maybe?).

4N is subsequently RKC.

I'm stuck what a direct 4N over 3N is, but its probably some kind of quantitative nudge.

[ASkolnick]

4♣ is what I call a "generic" slam try. Most of the time it is a cue-bid, possible big black suiter but unlikely in this scenario. Since partner rebid 3N, he should have a self sufficient suit, so therefore all follow-ups of 4NT should be RKC for hearts, the "agreed" trump suit.

[kenrexford]

4♣ is a cue.

I'm not sure that I agree that 4NT is RKCB, though. I mean, I suppose that the default is the default, except that partner cannot really care about the King and Queen of trumps if his suit is solid. But, I suppose that his suit does not technically need to be "solid" or that it matters, as the responses are going to be the same anyway (Responder not likely to hold three Aces in this sequence).

The only relevance would be whether an ostensible Queen-ask would actually be a Queen-ask. Of course, that won't matter if Responder has a 5♦ response to 4NT. But, if 0 is enough (or 1 if 1430), I think 5♦ maybe should not be a Queen-ask in this sequence.

[whereagles]

Agree 4♣ is a cue. If there's a trump suit here, it's hearts.

However, don't agree that

1♥ 1♠
3♥ 4♣

is a cue. (What if you have a nice 55 or 65 in the blacks?) Not unless the heart suit is as good as the one of the above case.

[Codo]

I would agree that
1♥ 1♠
3♥ 4 ♣ is a cue for hearts.

I will miss on the 6/5 hands where we still find a club fit and win on the hands where I want to go slamming in hearts. Seems to be a pretty good deal.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

I guess 3NT can be passed?
I am hard pressed to think of a hand, that wants to play
3NT instead of 4H, but ...

I understand the idea of the 3NT bid, if the opening was in
a minor, but not in a major.
After a minor opening, 3NT quite often is bid on hands with a
single in partners suit, i.e. basically a hand which is more
usitbale for a trump contracts, but 11 tricks a harder to get
than 9 tricks.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[mikeh]

I agree with Justin on the meaning of 4♣, whether opener had rebid 3N or 3♥. Yes, after a 3♥ rebid one can construct hands on which it is essential for responder to show his big black 2-suiter, but those seem to me to be low-frequency compared to the hands in which he wants to express slam interest in partner's announced heart suit, and can't take control. How else is responder to create a force while agreeing hearts?

A useful default rule, when one player has bid a passable 3N and then bids 4N after a move by partner, is that 4N should be regressive, and 'to play'. However, in the given scenario, this makes little sense since opener has an easy 4♥ as the regressive move, so I agree with the keycard interpretation: give opener, for example: x AKQ10xxx Ax KQx... once responder showed slam interest, keycard is logical... opposite 2 keys, we can check for Kings, and maybe bid the laydown 7N. I like cuebidding, rather than keycarding, more than most, but there are hands on which the simple approach is the easiest approach.

[whereagles]

mikeh, on Mar 25 2009, 05:24 PM, said:

1. Yes, after a 3♥ rebid one can construct hands on which it is essential for responder to show his big black 2-suiter, but those seem to me to be low-frequency compared to the hands in which he wants to express slam interest in partner's announced heart suit, and can't take control.

2. (...) How else is responder to create a force while agreeing hearts?

1. Anything is playable, but, without a specific agreement, I'd take 4♣ as natural, following the meta-rule "undiscussed bids are natural". As to the frequency, I think you're probably right that slammish with hearts is more likely than a hot black 55.

2. If you play 4♣ as natural and have the heart slammish hand, you'd have to guess over 3♥. That's a definite minus, yes.