[eagles123]

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North deals and they are silent

q1:) bid it

q2: ) seeing both hands where do ya want to be

thanks

Eagles

[kenrexford]

1H-2C (gf,clubs or fit)
2D (diamonds or balanced)-2H (fit)
3D (no spade control, 2 top hearts, no club Queen or higher, two top diamonds, not three of top four diamonds)-3H (third topheart)
4C (club stiff or void)-4S (Variable Key Card Blackwood)

At this point, Opener will be able to show that hearts are AKJxx, diamonds KQ-empty, spade Jack, and club void.

I as West bid 6H.

[Cyberyeti]

This hits one of many odd bits of our system head on:

1♥-2♣
3♦-3♥
3N-4♣
4♦-4♠
5N-6♥

3♦ is 2 good (at least one of top 3, 3 of top 5 not QJ10) 5+ card suits, but not a huge hand, 3N is suggestive of 3550, or 2551 with a spade honour
4♠ is keycard
5N is 2 without the Q and a void which will be clubs on this auction

I'd rather be in 6♥ by W

[Zelandakh]

My auction has the same flaw as CY's, namely that the hand with ♦A instead of ♥A is awkward. In my case the difference is found but not quickly enough to stop in 5♥ (response would be 5♦). A similar issue is likely to occur in XKCB auctions, so Ken's very specific agreements for the 3♦ call are extremely useful on this hand.

1♥ = ~10-17, 5+ hearts, unbalanced
... - 1♠ = INV+ relay
2♠ = extras, 5+ diamonds, GF
... - 2NT = relay
3♥ = 3=5=5=0
... - 3♠ = relay
4♣ = 4 controls
... - 4♦ = relay
4NT = red suit controls, no spade control
... - 5♣ = relay
5♠ = 2 of top 3 in both red suits, no ♠Q
... - 6♥

[kenberg]

I don't see it as crystal clear that we want to be in slam, and the beginning auction that I would expect would make the uncertainty show up

1H Of course
2C gf
2D natural
2H showing three card support\
3H exploratory
3S forward going, first or second round control.

Now it depends on how optimistic we are. And I would be wishing I had more detailed agreement.

After responder shows the heart fit opener should not make too much out of the 2C bid. Responder wanted to gf, had three hearts rather than four, and did not have five diamonds. Any old club holding is adequate. So I think 4C can still be on a void (or stiff). I would not want to cue a void in partner's real suit, but the 2C was just to get things going. Yes, with shaggy clubs and four decent spades he would have started wit 1S, but still the 2C is does not promise much in clubs.


So 4C

Responder is not thrilled to hear of opener's club void/stiff, and not thrilled to have a void in his diamond suit, but he still has a very good hand.

I regard this as a fairly useful beginning. Responder has a good idea of where the problems are likely to be. He doesn't know of opener's spade J, he doesn't know opener lacks the diamond Jack, there are other things of this sort that he doesn't know and probably cannot find out. But he has a decent idea of how the hands fit and don't fit. Probably he drives to slam on the basis of his overall strength, perhaps hoping that the 4C cue is on a stiff rather than a void, but I think opener has now said his piece so will defer to responder.

[Cyberyeti]

 Zelandakh, on 2016-January-30, 18:55, said:

My auction has the same flaw as CY's, namely that the hand with ♦A instead of ♥A is awkward.

Mine would have the advantage that to meet the suit quality requirements for 3♦, I'd have ♥KJ10xx so the slam would still be decent, needing basically a 4-3 diamond break or Jx and possibly trumps 3-2 depending on whether I had the 8.

[lycier]

 eagles123, on 2016-January-30, 16:03, said:

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North deals and they are silent

q1:) bid it

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[nige1]

 eagles123, on 2016-January-30, 16:03, said:

North deals and they are silent
q1:) bid it
q2: ) seeing both hands where do ya want to be.

Agree with Lycier. 6♥ is playable but on the likely trump lead, you have a lot of work to do. It's hard to stay out of slam, with such strong, control-rich hands, unless you are able to discover and evaluate the likely duplication,

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[gszes]

 lycier, on 2016-January-31, 13:20, said:

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I think 4c here should show something :useful: in clubs A/K/Q using it to show only a control is far less useful overall and can be properly interpreted as short only when responder stated with AK. In fact it is worse than that since opener has not supported clubs it becomes useless knowledge since responder already knows opener is short (2 or less) (surely opener would prefer 3c over 2h vs 3d).
1h
2c
2d
2h
3d
3s
3n (at least 2 of top 3 heart honors) I realize this is not a popular treatment (normally this bid is made with nothing crucial that needs to be bid) (ie give opener a stiff A/K/Q of clubs and would prefer a 4c bid - something that might get buried if not mentioned immediately.
4c cue
4h nothing else useful to describe
pass responder knows opener is almost surely 2551 or 3550 (no 3s bid over 2h) and max 15 (can be significantly less) bidding more is hoping opener is near max and even then slam is probably shaky at best.