[jschafer]

♠AQ965
♥KQ54
♦J6
♣AJ

All vul at IMPs partner opens:
1♥-1♠
2♦-3♣*
3NT-?

*FSF

You don't have 2NT available as a major raise (sorry!), do you agree with the bidding so far? Do you make the mild slam try bid of 4♥ or are you more adventurous?

[Rossoneri]

jschafer, on 2011-February-05, 16:47, said:

♠AQ965
♥KQ54
♦J6
♣AJ

All vul at IMPs partner opens:
1♥-1♠
2♦-3♣*
3NT-?

*FSF

You don't have 2NT available as a major raise (sorry!), do you agree with the bidding so far? Do you make the mild slam try bid of 4♥ or are you more adventurous?

First of all, why is 2NT not available as a major raise?

Well, back to your question, I bid 4♥ and I'm timid that way.

[Phil]

Raise hearts right away when you have spades otherwise the auction becomes unmanageable. I'll be interested how some will say that 4♣ shows a good heart raise but then I wonder how we would bid a strong black 55.

[Fluffy]

you can't bid anything but 4♥ at this point, you can't reasonably investigate a slam if partner doesn't know the strain

[andy_h]

5H

[Zelandakh]

It seems like you have 3 (obvious) ways of bidding this hand, system dependant. Firstly you could use your forcing raise, 2nt or whatever. Secondly you could make a strong jump shift of 2S and follow it up with 3H. Finally, you have the route chosen. I think this is the most difficult way of bidding the hand and that is the reason for having this headache, having forced the bidding up to the 4 level without showing the most important feature of the hand - KQxx in partner's first bid suit.

[aguahombre]

Answering according to the conditions. No point in complaining about them at this point in the auction. I agree with the OP that 4H is a "mild" slam try after the 3C stall, and that is what I have. Spades, hearts, and mild slam interest.

[nigel_k]

The hand is really unbiddable now but I would try 5♥. I don't agree that 4♥ is a mild slam try since partner's hand got worse when he bid 3NT. I might have mild slam interest opposite some hands that bid 2♦ but not opposite any hand that bids 3NT. This hand is arguably better than that anyway.

[whereagles]

Phil has a good point. Now we're totally stuck for a bid:

4♥ can be passed when slam might be cold
4NT will give pard a headache, even if it's some sort of RKCB
5♥ is just torture

I'll go with 4♥, which seems the lesser evil.

[Lurpoa]

jschafer, on 2011-February-05, 16:47, said:

♠AQ965
♥KQ54
♦J6
♣AJ

All vul at IMPs partner opens:
1♥-1♠
2♦-3♣*
3NT-?

*FSF

You don't have 2NT available as a major raise (sorry!), do you agree with the bidding so far? Do you make the mild slam try bid of 4♥ or are you more adventurous?

4♥.
No adventures: partner need too much....

[Vampyr]

nigel_k, on 2011-February-06, 13:18, said:

The hand is really unbiddable now but I would try 5♥. I don't agree that 4♥ is a mild slam try since partner's hand got worse when he bid 3NT. I might have mild slam interest opposite some hands that bid 2♦ but not opposite any hand that bids 3NT. This hand is arguably better than that anyway.

It seems to me that 4♥ is still a slam try, even though partner's hand has deteriorated a bit. You were intending 4♥ to be a slam try when you bid 3♣. I don't think you can "take it back" now.

[Free]

4th suit forcing followed by 4♥ should show a SI with a decent ♠ suit with ♥ fit. Even without the basic tools (immediate forcing raise) you should manage to get your hand across.

[Phil]

I'm still confused why we can't bid 2N. I assume you have some forcing raise....

[aguahombre]

Phil, on 2011-February-07, 13:20, said:

I'm still confused why we can't bid 2N.

Because the OP said so Even if OP has an immediate forcing raise available to him in response to 1H (other than 2N), it might not be useful to use it on a hand with extra values and where the spade suit as a potential trick source is never shown.

As mentioned, there is a lot of merit in 2S/1H being a strong bid (as well as 2D/1C). But that apparently wasn't available either, so here we sit.

I don't think anyone would have objected to 1S if opener had a 5-3-3-2 (5 in hearts, the rest unknown) and had rebid 1NT. Then, all at the very next round, responder could find out whether opener was min or max, and whether there was a 3-card spade fit ---via 2m force. It was certainly inconvenient that opener did not have the most likely distribution type.