Posted 2010-August-09, 20:23
I'm thinking 6♥, with a pickup partner.
I mean, with me having this many minor cards, partner likely has long hearts. I expect a fair likelihood that he has something like Kxxxx in hearts. If so, I need to right-side the contract NOW, by bidding 6♥. I mean, give partner something like:
♠xxx ♥Kxxxx ♦xxxx ♣x
That's fairly normal. If I bid 6♥, the opponents cannot hurt me. Suppose I get a spade lead. I ruff that and play two top hearts, hearts splitting 3-2. I then run three clubs, ditching the two remaining spades in dummy.
If the club Jack falls, I start ditching the diamonds until they ruff in. I then win the diamond Ace and ditch the remaining diamonds. Worst case, if the club Jack does not fall, I can rely on the diamond hook, hopefully.
Fairly obvious call, with a pickup partner.
Playing with a real partner, where we have discussed this sort of thing, I would clearly bid 5♠, which is a demand bid, demanding that partner transfer to the slam he thinks we will make. If he transfers to hearts like I think he will, no problem. But, if this is a freak hand, and he really doesn't have hearts, he could bid 6♣ to transfer to diamonds, which might have play also (not sure). If he has clubs, which would be really weird, he bids 5NT, in which case I correct to 6♦ because he obviously forgot our system.
"Gibberish in, gibberish out. A trial judge, three sets of lawyers, and now three appellate judges cannot agree on what this law means. And we ask police officers, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and citizens to enforce or abide by it? The legislature continues to write unreadable statutes. Gibberish should not be enforced as law."
-P.J. Painter.