[Mbodell]

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Your call? If it matters partner is a little wide ranging on preempts, but does pay attention to seat and vulnerability, and 2♦ would have been a natural weak 2 and 4♦ would also have be natural and weak.

[whereagles]

Keycard seems fine. Unless pard has assorted junk like QJTxxxx and out, I might make 6D.

[gordontd]

whereagles, on 2011-November-26, 04:13, said:

Keycard seems fine. Unless pard has assorted junk like QJTxxxx and out, I might make 6D.

Keycard won't tell you whether you're off two heart tricks.

[gnasher]

In my world, this is a decision about whether to bid 5♦ or stop in a partscore. If you give partner ♦KQJxxxx and nothing else, 5♦ ranges from poor to awful, depending on his shape. Finding him with a side-suit queen or king is probably more likely than not, so bidding game seems sensible.

However, having Keycard available may allow a bit more accuracy. If I bid 4♣, will 4♦ show zero keycards? If so I'll do that, planning to pass 4♦.

If partner shows one key card, it's just possible that we belong in slam (6NT), opposite ♦KQ and ♣K. If I can find out about that without getting to the six-level opposite ♦KQ and ♠K, I'll ask; otherwise I won't.

[Mbodell]

gnasher, on 2011-November-26, 05:10, said:

However, having Keycard available may allow a bit more accuracy. If I bid 4♣, will 4♦ show zero keycards? If so I'll do that, planning to pass 4♦.

The answers to preemptive keycard are:

4♦ = 0 KC
4♥ = 1 KC, no diamond Q
4♠ = 1 KC and diamond Q
4nt = 2 KC, no diamond Q
5♣ = 2 KC and diamond Q

and in theory it continues 3 w/o Q and 3 w/ Q etc. but obviously that isn't really possible. Over the answers you can probably ask for specific K, although we haven't discussed it.

[gnasher]

OK, so I can't safely find out about ♦KQ and ♣K, so I'll settle for 4♦ opposite no keycard, 5♦ opposite one, and a discussion of preempting style opposite two.

[phil_20686]

3N just seems auto to me. I seem to have a decent chance of 9 tricks even if I cannot get the diamonds going. No reason partner cannot have help in clubs, or a spade entry. Sure, could be off, but just seems totally normal to me.

[Phil]

Good problem. I think 5♦ is right.

Partner is 2nd seat at equal. I expect a solid preempt, but not necessarily the nuts.

Lets give partner one of two hands:

One is great diamonds, and nothing outside. 3N is awful, and we will struggle for undertricks. I would need two slow tricks in non-diamonds to make 5. This looks like a two finesses out of three shot. Partner needs to get to their hand to draw trump, but the opponents need to lead something, and there should some inferences available on the opening lead.

The second is non-solid diamonds and some stuff outside. Lets give partner the ♦K, plus a side K or a major Q. Depending on which black K, I probably needs a club finesse, or a heart guess, or clubs 3-3, an endplay - something like that. 5♦ may be excellent, or it might need a little luck, but I doubt its ever hopeless.

Overall it seems we are at or above the 50% threshold for 5♦.

When I play RKC over preempts, the next step is a 2nd round control ask. I also sometimes play that 4N is 'never' a response, to keep the NT rightsided. Also, it seems wrong to not allow us to play 4N if partner bids 4♠. I could try it, but I just don't think there is a 'right' answer, and hoping for ♦KQ + ♣K seems too far fetched, plus I will run out of space. Advertising too big of a hand will also get a low heart lead which doesn't look like it will help 5♦.

The only reason to actually bid 4♣ that I can see is that LHO might double with the ♣K which will help us to stay lower as well.

6 of anything seems really far off to me, and is playing partner for very specific cards, which mine never seem to have.

[S2000magic]

I'd bid 5♦; seems relatively straightforward.

I'd never come across preempt key-card before now; it's an interesting idea.