msjennifer, on 2018-September-13, 14:52, said:
Sir,you have asked some nice questions. and here are the clarifications.After 5C If we did not possess SQ then we bid 5D.Since we have it already we would like to find out if he has the HQ and so we bid 5H.SInce he does not have it his reply is 5S.Now we want to find out DQ so we bid 5NT the next step. .Without DQ he bids 6C.With only the DQ he bids 6D and with CQ also he bids 6H which denies holding the SJ.( Which is the next important card in the Spiral.).And please excuse Sir, I am not an expert.A bid of 5S over his 5C would ask him about DQ.And a bid of 5NT over his 5C would ask him about CQ.
Spiral scans, and bids that ask for controls, can be very useful. I have played a complex relay method over a strong 1N opening (and a different relay method over 2N), and (subject to memory load) the results are amazing. Once we diagnosed that we had zero play (not even a squeeze) for 13 tricks with 21 opposite 16, to win a slam swing when the other team failed in the grand, and once we lost a slam swing to Hamman-Wolff in a Bermuda Bowl when we reached a grand that failed when trump broke 4-0.
However, the notion of asking for controls starting at the 4-level and then asking about honours in suits starting beyond that leaves me very unimpressed.
For accurate slam bidding, one needs either overwhelming strength (or a very long suit) or detailed information about shape, fit, etc. Control information is never enough. When the spiral is about Queens, it is absurd, unless one has a combined 12 controls, since one really needs to know about Aces and Kings! Not merely how many but, often, which ones.
I'm all for players experimenting but there are already far better methods that the ones that we see here. The truth is that many players invent methods that work on the hands that prompted the idea, but in reality 99% of such methods are inferior, if not to what the player already used then to other methods that the player hasn't found out about yet.
Here, using a bid of 4x over 1N or 2N as asking, no matter what it asks for, is not going to enhance one's game. Yes, you can demonstrate hands where it works wonderfully, but that is only a minor part of evaluating any convention. Are there hands that one can no longer bid as well, because of the use to which we put the bids now? Yes....texas, or SA Texas, or other meanings definitely are useful on some hands.
DO we gain? Or are there other methods that allow us the same information yet don't create the problems? Yes.
Do the hands that we can now bid very easily come up very often? Here, absolutely NO.
And so on.
Oftentimes somebody's bright idea really is just a solution in search of a problem....there are lots of very good methods over 1N and 2N that allow for accurate bidding. The fact that the OP doesn't know them doesn't make his solution good.
'one of the great markers of the advance of human kindness is the howls you will hear from the Men of God' Johann Hari
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