[Cyberyeti]

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You are playing weak NT, the entire field reached either 6♥ or 6N, both are 50% but on a diamond lead 6N is -2 if the finesse is wrong.

[mw64ahw]

Some form of Jacoby style 2N is required. My variation as below starting with 2♠
1♥ - 2♠ 4+, lim+
3♣ 13hcp - 3♠ SI ctrl
3N weak ♥ - 4♣ ctrl
4♥ no ♦ ctrl - 5♥ odd KCs, ♦ ctrl, 2x ♥ honour
Now opener counts 11tricks and can identify the ♠ finesse is required for either contract.

[mike777]

1H-2NT
4C!-kickback then 6h or 6nT, probably 6Nt from East.

4C=13ish, no shortness, no good second suit, ace or King of clubs, says nothing additional about spades or diamonds.

[mikeh]

I’m a big believer in showing shape and in upgrading. Since my weak notrump is 10-13, I’d be thinking about upgrading, but not for long.

I’m be also be thinking about 1H but also not for long. The idea of showing 5=4 reds with those suits makes me feel ill. Plus, he should tend to downgrade holdings such as AJ or AQ. Make the hand xx AQxxx AJxx Qx and it’s an obvious 1H.


Given the above:

1N. 2D. Gf relay
2S. 3H. 2S denies spades, shows hearts. Responder could relay again but on this hand would, I think, set trump.

Opener cues spades and responder cues clubs. Opener bids 4H to deny a diamond control. If I were playing these methods in the context of a 12-14 1N, I’d drive to slam. In the context of 10-13, I’d cuebid…4N would be a spade cue, 4S would be kickback. Opener will not stop short of slam though f opener moves over 4H…super max with extra heart length. We’d never play notrump. Not even in mps.

Were we red, we’d open 1H. Now

1H. 2N
3C. All non awful minimums
3D. Asking
3H. No shortness

Cuebids in spades and clubs follow…then over 4D opener bids 4H….weak heart suit for slam purposes, so won’t go by game.

Responder is worth one more try. We do open most 11 counts and we’d never jump to 4H with 4 controls no matter how weak our hand, so responder can’t force to slam.

What that try would be is hard to say since my thinking is unavoidably coloured by seeing the two hands. I think that 5H will is probably the best call, asking for ‘how do you like your hand’ rather than any specific question. And I’m not sure but I think opener should ‘like’ his hand despite the weak suit and his hcp being in short suits, but it’s close.

Btw, this isn’t quite a 50% slam….its very slightly better than that since nice in a while north might choose a spade away from the Queen. After all, he may have an ugly hand especially if we haven’t used keycard, so we haven’t announced the trump Queen. Your lead from Qxxxxx x KJx Jxx?