[pclayton]

Played in the MBC a few days ago and picked up this Circus Act:

All Vul.

♠KJT9xx ♥AKQTxxx ♦- ♣-

RHO opens 1♦. Say you bid the mother of all Michaels 2♦. Pard bids 2♥ and RHO is in with 3♦. Do you have a plan for this or are you content to blast?

[Mr. Dodgy]

4♦, 5♣?

[mikestar]

A grand is out of the question--if partner had two high spades and three hearts, he would have jumped to 3♥. If you want to be scientific, cue bid to show strength then follow with 5♥--this may inspire partner to carry on with a spade card.

A blast to 6♥ is not a bad strategy at all. Partner may have a spade card, or the opponent may take a phantom save or may have a make in 6 of a minor--then you have a very cheap save or they may stretch to 7 down one.

At matchpoints, I think that this is a difficult decision. At IMPs, I bid 6♥ without a second thought--this hand could be a double slam swing.

[rogerclee]

Partner certainly doesn't have the ♠AQ, or he would have done something other than 2♥. I think there is merit to blasting, but I'm going to cue 4♦ first and try to get in 5♥ the next round. Partner, having promised nothing, should go to slam with any useful card (and any nonuseful card too, like the minor aces, but oh well). If I have to, I will bid 6♥ the next time around.

I think fears of a double-slam swing are unfounded. LHO passed over Michaels; I doubt they are going slamming now.

[matmat]

rogerclee, on Jan 20 2008, 05:38 PM, said:

Partner certainly doesn't have the ♠AQ, or he would have done something other than 2♥. I think there is merit to blasting, but I'm going to cue 4♦ first and try to get in 5♥ the next round. Partner, having promised nothing, should go to slam with any useful card (and any nonuseful card too, like the minor aces, but oh well). If I have to, I will bid 6♥ the next time around.

I think fears of a double-slam swing are unfounded. LHO passed over Michaels; I doubt they are going slamming now.

so... holding AQ xxx xxx Jxxxx you bid more than 2H?

[rogerclee]

matmat, on Jan 20 2008, 06:03 PM, said:

rogerclee, on Jan 20 2008, 05:38 PM, said:

Partner certainly doesn't have the ♠AQ, or he would have done something other than 2♥. I think there is merit to blasting, but I'm going to cue 4♦ first and try to get in 5♥ the next round. Partner, having promised nothing, should go to slam with any useful card (and any nonuseful card too, like the minor aces, but oh well). If I have to, I will bid 6♥ the next time around.

I think fears of a double-slam swing are unfounded. LHO passed over Michaels; I doubt they are going slamming now.

so... holding AQ xxx xxx Jxxxx you bid more than 2H?

At the risk of sounding like an idiot: Yeah, why not? And a 22(45) hand with the AQ of spades might have chosen 2S over 2H.

[Fluffy]

Partner just needs ♠Ax for the grand to be playable. I wouldnt stop below slam, the slowest we go, the ore chances we have of partner bidding spade ace. So start with 4 diamonds, next 5 clubs and then 6 diamonds

[pclayton]

Fluffy, on Jan 21 2008, 12:03 PM, said:

Partner just needs ♠Ax for the grand to be playable. I wouldnt stop below slam, the slowest we go, the ore chances we have of partner bidding spade ace. So start with 4 diamonds, next 5 clubs and then 6 diamonds

This is exactly what he had.

I bid 6♥ over 3♦ and made a forcing pass over RHO's 7♦. By the way, RHO had: Qxx, x, AJTxxxx, Ax (nice, huh?) +800 for a small loss.

Pard didn't bid the grand on: ♠Ax ♥xxx ♦Qxx ♣Kxxxx. Not sure I blame him.

I hold the master suits, so I think we can do a better job of involving pard by cue-bidding a few times.

[Fluffy]

Jlall, on Jan 21 2008, 11:17 PM, said:

If he has Ax of spades we need at least 3 hearts from him, and even if he has Ax xxx in the majors 7 is not good. I would just bid 6H now.

I agree, but ♥J is a likelly extra that we cant investigate.

After all it seemed that the important thing was to buy the final contract, at any level.