[paulhar]

Because this topic was more popular than I thought, and because I was later in posting opener's hand than I should have been, here it is:

S - A J 9
H - K 6
D - A 7 4 3
C - K J 6 3

As you can see, you need a winning club guess PLUS nothing foul, such as a 5-1 heart break or a 6-1 club break. With a trump lead and 4-2 hearts, you need to ruff diamonds several times to trump the hearts good and to lead up to the club. I'm not sure you can handle this. All in all, I don't think you want to be in slam.

This looks like a pretty darn good hand opposite a 4D cuebid. I'm guessing that most of you holding this hand would get to slam after the 4D cuebid. The responder was hoping partner had the same hand with the ace of clubs instead of the king-jack. The opener thought that holding AJ9, K6, A743, A643, that he would have made a stronger move than 3S over 3H; something that says, "I didn't superaccept originally for lack of 4 trump, but now my hand's a monster!" Unfortunately, most cuebids would be taken as support for hearts. When opener corrects to spades, hopefully responder will get the picture.

Any ideas? By the way, would any of you 4D bidders have stopped short of slam with this opener's hand? And of course, reached it with the same responding hand with the doubleton Queen of clubs?

Quote

4s

Partner knows I am at least 5-5 and have game force HCP NOT invite hand.
NO super accept.
Partner is allowed to make one slam try over 4S if they wish.

No. You don't show a hand that is only interested in game across from an opening hand and assume partner can bid again. That's like saying that partner can bid again over the auction 1NT P 3NT. Partner has already shown slam interest by bidding 3S, so I think your 4S would end the auction.

[mike777]

My point with that comment was if partner had some super majic hand they could bid again. Agree p would almost always pass my 4s bid. My 3h bid could be 15 or more hcp so my bidding must show close to this hand type.

Another option may be to rebid 3nt over 3s and 4s over 4d if partner will again play you for this hand type.

[flytoox]

After 4D, opener will cuebid 4H, then responder bid 4S. This implies responder is just showing very light interest in slam. Opener can pass 4S with the hand you show, or bid on with a better hand. 3S is largely undefined given the contest, so I still think responder shoudl bid 4D to help opener to reevaluate his hand.

Even you bid 6S. This is not the worst slam, certainly better than some I saw in BBO vugraph.

[luke warm]

S - A J 9
H - K 6
D - A 7 4 3
C - K J 6 3


S - K Q 10 8 3
H - A 10 8 5 4
D - 4
C - 7 2

1NT : 2H : 2S : 3H : 3S : 4D* : 4H : 4NT : 5H : 6S

the way i play, 4D means "i'm not particularly interested i slam, but here's a cue if you are"... this might not be a great slam anyway

since this hand obliquely concerns serious 3NT, can someone tell me why non-serious 3NT isn't better? seems to me that it retains the ability to play the hand in 3NT (regardless of how miniscule the chances you'd want to)... for example, on the above hand:

1NT : 2H : 2S : 3H : 3S : 3NT ... now responder has said he isn't really interested in slam and leaves a choice of game to opener

[Winstonm]

I must respectfully disagree with your statement that "this looks like a pretty good hand" opposite a 4D cue bid - especially since this should be a "serious" 3NT auction. The 4D bid is defined as a "mild" slam try. With KJxx opposite no club control things do not look good. True,pard could hold Qx of clubs, but when the auction proceeds 4H by you, 4S by partner, you should have a pretty clear idea that partner has shown his all. If partner had a club card, as you suggest, he could continue over 4H with 5H - having denied a club control with 4D, this further move toward slam has to show the club queen.

WinstonM

[hotShot]

S - A J 9
H - K 6
D - A 7 4 3
C - K J 6 3
Well this is not the type of hand i expected, after partners 3♠. Because this is not a hand i would consider "stronger" than 4♠, 4432 the a distribution that is normal for a NT opening and the points may be maximum, but this is still nothing extra.

---

This is more the kind of hand I think is required, to bid "stronger" than game.
And this is what i would call a good hand opposite a ♦ cuebid.

[Winstonm]

I agree with hotshot on this one - the hand shown is not all that wonderful in support of spades. Good, but not wonderful.

My view is that 3S should show slam interest, not simply a good hand. Slam interest in my opinion shows concentrated controls, not random scattering of cards.

I would expect more this type of hand for the auction:
Axx
KQ
AK10xx
xxx

Now 4D does get a stop in 4S. If pard continues with 5H, showing the club Q, it is still resonably O.K. to be at the 5-level.

WinstonM

[luke warm]

Winstonm, on Mar 7 2005, 09:44 PM, said:

I must respectfully disagree with your statement that "this looks like a pretty good hand" opposite a 4D cue bid - especially since this should be a "serious" 3NT auction. The 4D bid is defined as a "mild" slam try. ~~snip~~

actually no, the 4D bid says just the opposite... at least that's my understanding of serious 3nt...

[Winstonm]

I could certainly be wrong but have played 3NT serious, meaning a slam try based on HCP. The direct cue bids are left for the weaker hands due to conservation of space concept.

WinstonM