[hanp]

This is the decisive board from the last round of the swiss. Don't get nervous, the board was already lost at the other table so you can't win.

876
Ax
AK10xx
KQx

Partner opens, the opponents don't bid.

1S - 2D
2S - 3S
4C* - 4D
4S - 4NT
5D - 5H - (Dbl)
5S

Partner's 4C showed more than a minimum (3NT would be non-serious), 5D showed 0 or 3, and 5S denied the queen. You don't have further agreements about what 5S says about hearts, but partner probably intended it as the most negative bid. I suspect that with 6 spades missing the queen, he would have passed.

Your call?

[FrancesHinden]

I assume that 2S was a catch-all bid.

I would bid a slam, because

(i) partner might have the HK (they don't always have what they should do when they double)
(ii) we know about AKxxx xxx xx Ax (or something similar) but partner must have more than that to have 'extras' and there's nothing really missing except the red suit queens (and the jack of spades which sould also help).

Can partner have a 5332 15-17? Or am I suppose to infer he is 5224?

[hanp]

Partner doesn't have the heart king because he bid 4S. It is not possible for partner to bypass 3NT and then to be not good enough to cue hearts.

2S was indeed a catch-all bid. It would be unusual for partner to open 1S with 15-17. He might bid this way with a suitable 14 though, for example with AKJ, A and the well-placed diamond queen.

[whereagles]

The lack of ♥K and marked lead on that suit, coupled to trump suit possibly not running makes me weary of slam failing. I'll stick to no-man's land.

[JLOGIC]

What's your NT range and do you open 1N with 5 card majors?

[nigel_k]

Clear pass for me.

[gnasher]

I think you make your life unnecessarily difficult by not being able to find out if he has six trumps until you get the the five-level, and even then having to rely upon the opponents to help you.

Anyway, he probably has AK?xx ?x ?x A?xx, where each question mark is the queen or worse (but not ♠Q), and overall he has a non-minimum. If it's AKJxx xx Qx AJxx, either 6♠ or 6NT is OK, though not cold. Take away a black jack and it's still one we want to be in. Turn ♦Q into ♦J and 6♠ is about 50%, 6NT a bit worse. Give him ♥Q instead of ♦Q and we don't want to be in any slam. Give him ♥Q instead of the black jacks and 6NT is OK but not 6♠.

If I had a way to offer a choice between 6♠ and 6NT, I'd do that, but presumably 5NT is a king-ask. Given that, I'd pass 5♠.

Edit: If AKJxx xx Qx AJxx or a similar hand would have bid 3♣ over 2♥, ignore all of the above - it would just be an obvious pass of 5♠.

This post has been edited by gnasher: 2010-July-11, 16:02

[JLOGIC]

King ask after asking for the queen and partner rejects it? Never heard of that. Why not just ask for kings directly if you already have the queen? I was thinking of maybe 5N pick a slam but decided that if I had KJx of hearts or something I'd want to bid 5N natural, and that's what I think it is.

If you want to offer a choice between 6S and 6N I think that's what 6H shows.

[gnasher]

JLOGIC, on Jul 11 2010, 11:11 PM, said:

King ask after asking for the queen and partner rejects it? Never heard of that. Why not just ask for kings directly if you already have the queen?

True. Put me down for 5NT.

Quote

I was thinking of maybe 5N pick a slam but decided that if I had KJx of hearts or something I'd want to bid 5N natural, and that's what I think it is.

Hmm. I've never in my life wanted to bid 5NT as a natural sign-off. I can see that you might want to do it here, hoping either for nine tricks in the minors or for an avoidance play in spades. At the table, though, I'd know it wasn't natural, using this logic (or possibly "logic"): we'd never risk passing it; hence we'd never risk bidding it wanting it to be non-forcing; hence it's not natural.

[JLOGIC]

I have had experiences where they Xed a keycard auction and we had to play 5N so maybe that is biasing my judgment on what the best treatment is. I think 6H is a clearer bid anyways (even though 5N may be better for pick a slam because sometimes we might want to get to 6D on this auction in order to rightside etc). 6H cannot be natural (obv) and can't be a grand slam try after partner denied the queen when you asked for it.

In general I think 5N as a playable spot in auctions where we get new info as to which side we need to play it from makes sense.