[jillybean]

Dealer: South Vul: EW Scoring: IMP

♠ K4 ♥ QJ962 ♦ KQJ752 ♣

West North East South

 -     -     -     1♦
 Pass  1♥    Pass  4♣
 Pass  4♦    Pass  4♥
 Pass  4NT   Pass  ?  

I dont know if you like the bidding so far but here we are.
I'd like to bid 6♣ to show my void but do I need any controls for this bid?

[hanp]

Yeah you have a lovely hand in support of hearts but you showed such strength that I wouldn't go to the 6-level with 0 keycards.

By the way, partner already knows you have club shortness so 5NT, 6C, 6D and 6H could/should be used to show your void plus your number of keycards.

[skjaeran]

I already showed my void with 4♣, so I just give my 0 KC response. 4♣ showing a void is standard over here.

[FrancesHinden]

Even if you haven't promised a club void (and it is a long way from standard to this to promise a void- what are you supposed to do with a game force and a singleton?) you are right you should just show your 0 keycards.

If partner was concerned to find out if you had a club void or not he could have cued spades over 4H.

As it is, partner's auction doesn't make any sense anyway: if he has a Blackwood bid now, why didn't he have one last round?

[TylerE]

How does the auction proceed after a 1♥ opening? I dislike opening the minor with a 5M-6m hand when the suits are spades and clubs. When it's hearts and diamonds I *really* dislike it, because you're not really gaining any bidding space. On the somewhat rare occasions that parnter can bid 1♥ over 1♦ (Partner's expectation here is ~2.5♥), you're going to have a hard time convincing him you have five trumps, which just leads to (imo) silly bids like this splinter. To me opener's splinter shows a more control rich / slam going hand than this.

[jillybean]

hanp, on Mar 23 2009, 08:49 PM, said:

By the way, partner already knows you have club shortness so 5NT, 6C, 6D and 6H could/should be used to show your void plus your number of keycards.

Let me get this straight, if I had A rather than K♠ I could bid 6♣ (1430) showing 1KC and telling pard my ♣ splinter is a void? What is 5nt?

[TimG]

Couldn't responder have something like Axx xxxxx Ax Axx? (Maybe that's good enough to bid keycard over 4♣, but hearing about the ♦K isn't a bad thing.) So, any void showing response to keycard that takes you past 5♥ is a bit dangerous.

Switch the ♦A and ♦K, giving opener a single keycard, and bidding 6♣ to show one keycard plus the void is problematic.

I recently did a lot of partnership bidding with a new partner working on a new (to us) system. We found that when someone had splintered, it was seldom a good idea to show the void in response to keycard. We do have the specific agreement that after keycard, a bid in the splinter suit asks partner to bid a grand with a void in the suit. That doesn't help when the void is necessary for the six-level, of course. But, in that case, keycard is often not the best way to proceed.

If responder in the case in question wanted to know about the void, he could have cue-bid his spade control and given opener a cheap opportunity to bid 5♣ to show the void.

[jdonn]

I don't agree with the comments that partner could simply bid 4♠ if he wanted to know about the void. What if he wanted to know about the void AND the number of keycards? The way to find out, he might think, is to bid keycard.

That's not to say I disagree that we shouldn't show the void. It does seem a bit risky after splintering with such a weak hand.

[kfay]

jillybean2, on Mar 24 2009, 10:07 AM, said:

hanp, on Mar 23 2009, 08:49 PM, said:

By the way, partner already knows you have club shortness so 5NT, 6C, 6D and 6H could/should be used to show your void plus your number of keycards.

Let me get this straight, if I had A rather than K♠ I could bid 6♣ (1430) showing 1KC and telling pard my ♣ splinter is a void? What is 5nt?

1430 should reset at 5NT he is saying. So

5NT = 1/4 with club void
6C = 3/0
6D = 2 w/o Q
6H = 2 w/ Q

[neilkaz]

I'm afraid to show my void with no controls after making a weak distributionally oriented splinter.

I suspect that PD's slam investigation would have been better served by a 4♠ Q bid, after which I could show my void, and lacking that my K of ♦