[kenrexford]

Interesting problem hand arose.

Partner opens 1NT (15-17 but adjustments allowed).

You have:

♠AKJ10xxx ♥Axxx ♦-- ♣KQ

There seemed to be several obvious ideas.

1. Set focus plainly in spades with Texas and then RKCB. This works really well if partner has the club Ace, the diamond Ace-King, and the spade Queen.

2. Set focus plainly in spades with Texas and then bid Exclusion RKCB 5♦. This has some benefits when partner lacks the diamond Ace, but the heart Queen may be needed and unresolved.

3. Try Stayman. If partner bids 2S or 2D, follow one of the above; he may later know that the heart Queen has value and accept a grand try himself. If he bids 2H, focus hearts with or without Exclusion, possibly asking a question and then bidding 6♠, hoping partner follows. This helps when partner has hearts but lacks the spade Queen, but it gets muddy in some sequences.

4. Something else.

I tried the Stayman approach, followed by 5D Exclusion when partner bid 2H. When I found out about "two without the Queen," by partner's 5NT call, I bid 6♠, expecting a solution for the two heart losers. This worked poorly, as partner had the spade Queen, heart King, club Ace, and diamond Ace-King.

Partner did bid 6NT over 6♠, which suggested to me that he may well have had the diamond Ace-King, but I was unsure about the sequence and passed. Maybe I should have raised to 7NT?

[Jlall]

Focusing on hearts sucks imo, you don't need the HQ most of the time since you'll have 2 pitches. The SQ is a much more important card.

1N 4H
4S 5D
5S 5N
6D 6H
7S

or something

I think partner is supposed to show the queen if he has 3 trumps in this auction since we should not be 6304 without solid trumps to bid this way ever, so he can infer we have 7 trumps.

[kenrexford]

That's what my partner thought. I remain obsessed with partner having this hand:

♠xx ♥KQxx ♦KQJx ♣Axx

Or, a variation. I mean, if I KNOW that he has four hearts with the King and Queen, and the club Ace, 7♥ seems obvious.

His response was that I would end up in 7♥ opposite that hand, with no one else joining me, at the cost of head explosions on all other hands. Maybe that's more right than I thought.

[Jlall]

Hey Ken, yeah that hand is possible obv, but it requires partner to have 2 spades, no SQ, and 4+ hearts and the HQ. All of that seems less likely to me than the various combos of hands where partner has no HQ but we have 13 (Axx of clubs and the DA).

Also your example hand is not the greatest 7H ever, not saying you wouldn't want to be there but it's still not a crime to miss it when compared to missing some 100 % 7S contracts. Of course you could add in the HJ or a fifth heart to make it extremely bad to miss 7H but just sayin.

[Jlall]

Also I haven't analyzed it closely but are you ever getting to 7H opposite something like Qx KQxx KJxx Axx or xxx KQxx AQxx Axx instead of 7S? If so I would consider that a near disaster that my auction will not have.

[pooltuna]

Jlall, on Jun 2 2010, 03:07 PM, said:

Focusing on hearts sucks imo, you don't need the HQ most of the time since you'll have 2 pitches. The SQ is a much more important card.

1N 4H
4S 5D
5S 5N
6D 6H
7S

or something

I think partner is supposed to show the queen if he has 3 trumps in this auction since we should not be 6304 without solid trumps to bid this way ever, so he can infer we have 7 trumps.

The Q♠ would be nice but is damn near irrelevant since partner is known to hold 2,3,4, or 5 spades. So finding a parking place for 3 losing ♥ is the paramount issue for this hand IMO

[ONEferBRID]

My approach with a slammish hand is to use:
1)IanD's invention for a "2-suiter", but incorporating Josh's technique that 3C! ( after a transfer to Sp ) may or may not be a 2nd suit-- to be clarified later ( Responder is in control and may make the final bid as Spades-to-play ); 3C! establishes a low-level GF, slammish; and the replies clarify some distributions for Opener.

2) I'm going to use Justin's "forget the Ht suit as trumps".
[ We know we have at least a 9 card fit in Sp ] .

3) And I'm going to use Ken's thought on finding possible needed Ht discards on Diams if possible:

Opener ( assuming the following distribution ).
Q x
K x x x
A K x x
A x x

Responder
A K J T x x x
A x x x
void
K Q

1NT - 2H!
2S - 3C!
??
3D! = cheapest new suit showing 4 or 5c and only 2s
3S! = 3s and less than 4c
3NT! = 2s and less than 4c
4C! = 3s AND 4 or 5c

After:
3NT! - 4D! ( other minor showing the long Sp, slammish hand and no real Cl suit )

4H! ( cue or last train; interested ) - 4NT ( RKC for Sp )
5S ( 2 + sQ ) - 5NT ( specific K-ask )
6D ( dK ) - 6H ( 2nd K-ask )
6NT ( hK ; NT shows feature in asking suit ) - 7NT ( 7s, 2h, 2d, 2 or 3c )

[aguahombre]

If you are going to exclusion after transfer, how about Jacoby, rather than Texas? You might find out pard has a super-accept . That might answer the question about whether he has two small.

[whereagles]

1NT 2♥
2♠ 5♦

this has gotta be voidwood or whatever you call it. Should be easy from there on.

[ONEferBRID]

whereagles, on Jun 3 2010, 10:28 AM, said:

1NT 2♥
2♠ 5♦

this has gotta be voidwood or whatever you call it. Should be easy from there on.

Standard for Exclusion ( Voidwood ) is Texas, then 5-level new suit bid:
1NT - 4H!
4S - 5D! ...

but I don't see the "easy" part after Exclusion .

[Phil]

whereagles, on Jun 3 2010, 10:28 AM, said:

1NT 2♥
2♠ 5♦

this has gotta be voidwood or whatever you call it. Should be easy from there on.

This is how I play it, but I recognize this isn't standard either. I find it easier to recognize EKB when it is a jump. Texas and then a new suit 'sounds' like a cuebid.

If you play the 'standard' method, what is 1N -2♥ - 2♠ - 5x?

[ONEferBRID]

Phil, on Jun 3 2010, 11:40 AM, said:

If you play the 'standard' method, what is 1N -2♥ - 2♠ - 5x?

Meckwell plays the simple transfer and then the 5-level suit bid as RKC ( for Sp here, long suit, slammish ) "showing" .....
For example:
1NT - 2H!
2S - ??

??
5C = 0 or 3
5D = 1 or 4
5H = 2 - sQ
5S = 2 + sQ

[Crunch3nt]

I think you are all being too kind on partner. He had an easy 7S bid over 6S. What could you possibly have for this auction other than this or similar? He can see your two hearts can be discarded on AK of diamonds and has the SQ.

[kenrexford]

Crunch3nt, on Jun 3 2010, 07:59 PM, said:

I think you are all being too kind on partner. He had an easy 7S bid over 6S. What could you possibly have for this auction other than this or similar? He can see your two hearts can be discarded on AK of diamonds and has the SQ.

That was my take on the sequence. Partner's response was that I could have had...

♠AKJ10xxx ♥Qxxx ♦-- ♣KQ

I did not have a compelling response to that possibility, which was the problem. I wondered, then, whether his 6NT call was a good hedge against that possibility, such that perhaps I should have takemn the plunge to the grand myself.

Of course, all of this gets back to the original point. To avoid the need for an auction where...

6♠ is out of the blue and must be interpreted,
6NT is a hedge against a possible queen-high heart suit, and
7♠ interprets the undiscussed sequence properly...

perhaps a more practical spade-centered sequence makes sense, even if the occasional how-about-that grand in hearts is missed.