[SimonFa]

You pick up:

♠AKJTx
♥
♦KQJTx
♣AJx

You just know that partner as dealer is going to open 1♥and lo and behold it comes to pass. Partnership agreement is open on count of 19 with unbalanced hands and partner has been known to open with 10 points with 5/5 in the Majors, but that seems unlikely as he would be reversing to show 16+ points. You decide to progress slowly as opps are unlikely to start intervening and the bidding goes:

1♥ p 1♠ p
2♥¹ p 3♦ P
3♠² P 4♣³ P
4H³ P ?

1. Doesn't guarantee 6♥s
2. Probably 3 card support on this bidding
3. Cue bid first round control

Firstly, do you agree with bidding so far? If not what's the best approach?

What now? Slam is a definite possibility but I see no point in bidding RKCB at this stage and what I would really like to know is if partner has ♣K but we don't really have the tool kit for going much higher without RKCB.

In practice I took a leap of faith and bid 6NT. Partner showed up with ♠Qxx and ♥AKQxx ♦xx ♣xx and the contract walked home after ♦A lead and a ♠switch.

[Mbodell]

You seem to have 2 ♠ suit and no ♣ in the OP currently. You also have your second round bid as 2♦ when I think you mean 3♦ over the 2♥ rebid.

I think I'd punt 6♠ over partner's 4♥. Partner has 3+♠, ♥A, no points in diamonds, but an opening hand (or at least rule of 19).

If you want to investigate over partners 4♥ and ask about the ♣K I think your bid is 5♦ which is a cue skipping clubs showing that you need something else for slam. Now if your partner has the ♣K and/or the ♥K he'll likely cooperate and otherwise he'll retreat to 5♠. The danger is if he has the club K but not the heart K he might be worried it isn't enough and make a (slow?) 5♠ call and you'll be stuck in 5♠. Something like Qxx AJxxxx xx Kx might well be scary to partner over 5♦ as it is such a minimum (and no 5♥ call is available), yet slam is quite good.

[menggq]

4H cue bid deny DA.the rest key cards r SQ and CK,looks like PD sd hv one of them at least.if SQ that can hv entry to cash H honors discards C losers,if CK no SQ drop it or finesse.so i wd like to bid 6S after 4H directly.

[SimonFa]

Mbodell, on 2011-May-17, 02:27, said:

You seem to have 2 ♠ suit and no ♣ in the OP currently. You also have your second round bid as 2♦ when I think you mean 3♦ over the 2♥ rebid.

I think I'd punt 6♠ over partner's 4♥. Partner has 3+♠, ♥A, no points in diamonds, but an opening hand (or at least rule of 19).

If you want to investigate over partners 4♥ and ask about the ♣K I think your bid is 5♦ which is a cue skipping clubs showing that you need something else for slam. Now if your partner has the ♣K and/or the ♥K he'll likely cooperate and otherwise he'll retreat to 5♠. The danger is if he has the club K but not the heart K he might be worried it isn't enough and make a (slow?) 5♠ call and you'll be stuck in 5♠. Something like Qxx AJxxxx xx Kx might well be scary to partner over 5♦ as it is such a minimum (and no 5♥ call is available), yet slam is quite good.

Problems fixed, thanks.

[Quantumcat]

SimonFa, on 2011-May-17, 02:01, said:

partner has been known to open with 10 points with 5/5 in the Majors, but that seems unlikely as he would be reversing to show 16+ points.

I think what you are saying is that with 5/5 in hearts and spades, with 16+ points he will open hearts first and then bids spades twice?

This is not right. With equal length in two suits, you ALWAYS open the higher one first. If you open the lower one, then bid the higher one twice, you are showing SIX cards in the lower one, and FIVE in the higher.

e.g.
1♦ 1♥
1♠ 1NT
2♠

This shows SIX diamonds and FIVE spades.

However,
1♠ 1NT
2♦ 2♠
3♦

This shows only five spades and five diamonds.

Opening 1♠ then rebidding 2♥ can contain up to about 17 points. You need to be forcing to game opposite a minimum response to jump to 3♥, and if a minimum response is 6 points, 17 points plus some shape is the minimum to do this. But usually 18 or 19 points are required.

[Cyberyeti]

SimonFa, on 2011-May-17, 02:01, said:

In practice I took a leap of faith and bid 6NT. Partner showed up with ♠Qxx and ♥AKQxx ♦xx ♣xx and the contract walked home after ♦A lead and a ♠switch.

What was partner's 13th card ?

If a minor suit, I'd have bid 2♠ not 2♥. I would never play 1♥-1♠-2♥ not showing 6, I think it's just bad bridge (which is not to say that I wouldn't do it with Ax, AKQJx, xxx, xxx, I'd just claim that was a 6 card suit). Either rebid a 3 card minor or raise ♠ with a random 5332 if you're not playing a weak no trump.

Blackwood here will tell you what you need to know, as you know partner does not have A♦ from the 4♥ bid. 4N-5♦-5♥-6♥ tells you that your clubs are walking on the ♥AK and that partner has the Q♠ but not the K♣ so you play 6♠. The only thing you don't know is whether partner has the Q♣ which would mean that 6N is as good as 6♠ so you'd want to be in it at pairs.