[Bbradley62]

http://tinyurl.com/2e888qk

Since North is a passed hand, 3♠ is explained as "3+H; 11 HCP; 12 total points; forcing to 4♥". 4♦ is then "Help-suit slam try -- 3=D; 5+H; 2-11 8421 points in D".

How much "help" does North need to have in D before he will accept the slam try? Was this a forcing pass situation?

Funny... I was the only South who didn't try to sign off in 4♥ after 3♠, but some balanced with 5♦ after 4♠, and in those cases North went to 6♥.

[ahydra]

Wow, for GIB 3♠ was a really good bid. Pity it couldn't follow up with 6♥ (fairly obvious given its spade void and the combined 31+ total points, according to the descriptions).

I wonder what other options were available to South after 4♠ was passed round to him? In particular, was there anything that might have encouraged GIB to try harder for a slam by giving the impression "we should play this hand as we likely have slam" rather than "we can beat 4♠ a bunch".

ahydra

[Bbradley62]

Unfortunately, I took GIB's pass over 4♠ as a negative response to my hsst, and didn't think that asking the same question a second time would get a different answer. Everyone who did bid 5♦ had already tried to sign-off in 4♥, so I suspect they were trying to compete, not trying to find a slam. Funny that GIB took the weaker sequence to slam but not the stronger one.

West's trap-pass was also pretty clever