[EugeneLS]

I sat West on this board (Acol bidding; IMPs):

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I admit I wasn't keen on that immediate blackwood, and 5♠ was a mystery - I now assume East was asking me to show preference at the 6 level: ♠ or ♥ - but I guessed we had enough hcp to venture the slam. I should have bid 6♥ but I was confused at this point.

Lead was a low ♣.

I was hoping partner would venture the finesse: if it loses you're still in control and can make the slam if the ♠ break 3-3, but if it wins you don't need the ♠ break; you have twelve tricks on top.

Alas! Partner goes up with A♣. ♠ don't break so it's one down. And the ♣ finesse would have made! Hard to blame partner for this, but still a bit disappointing.

[mw64ahw]

Acol wise you need to establish the 8-card Heart fit first, then suit controls followed by keycards. If all looks good then a conversion to NT may be warranted.

[EugeneLS]

mw64ahw, on 2026-October-21, 03:00, said:

Acol wise you need to establish the 8-card Heart fit first, then suit controls followed by keycards. If all looks good then a conversion to NT may be warranted.

yes, agreed.

[apollo1201]

 EugeneLS, on 2026-October-21, 03:13, said:

yes, agreed.

At least partner s level of card play equals their bidding skills. If their defense is at par with the above, you should definitely try to make them dummy as much as possible.

[Cyberyeti]

if the finesse is right, you may not need to take it, play low on the club, now imagine this layout

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Club goes to the J, safest exit seems to be a spade, cash 2 more pitching a club and a diamond, now cash 5 hearts pitching spades and you get this position with S forced to discard his 3rd diamond to keep the clubs guarded

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Now ♣A squeezes N and either the 3rd diamond or the low spade will win the 12th trick

[P_Marlowe]

5S is commonly played as Queens as, 5D was showing a certain amount of KCs, but did not say anything
about the Queen of trumps.
Obv. bypassing 5H means, you are playing 6H, i.e. 5S is a grand slam try, ..., maybe a effort to find out
if NT is better, but Grand Slam try / probe is more likely.

5S is certainly not an offer to play spades.

[mike777]

What was 5D?
Is 4NT old fashioned blackwood, not keycard blackwood where the KH is counted?

If so then I can understand if there is no trump agreement, anything can be the trump suit