[twcho]

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Which bid is the worst? How can the excellent slam be reached?

[Lord Molyb]

Technically, the slam is not cold
What is exactly does the 4♠ bid mean?

[akwoo]

I think the 4♠ splinter needs to be well-defined. If you can make it with that hand or with the same hand minus Q♦ and J♥, partner isn't going to have a way to judge and there isn't enough room to find out more. Probably the better choice is to declare the West hand too strong for a splinter.

The easiest thing I can think of with the West hand is to fake a Western cue bid 3♠ and blast to 6♦ (or if possible use RKCB) if partner denies a spade stop.

[aguahombre]

IMO, the responding hand is much too strong to make partner the Captain with the 4S splinter. Given that 2C did not force game in your style (assumed), Responder should cue 3S to force game, and opener should bid 4D. 3S is DSIP. Responder should then just go to six.

[Codo]

Of course 2 ♣ was forcing and the worst bid was 5 ♦. I cannot hold a better spade holding then Jxxx- okay I may hold xxxx....


To Akwoo: You do not need the jack of hearts and you may even spare the queen of diamonds...

[Fluffy]

I point towards east, but its not totally clear, east only has AK trumps, singleton club and 5th trump. He easilly has room for 1 more feature, and even 2 is not unthinkable.

I think west made a slight mistake, either he is worried about best trump (partner could be 4432) or he is not. If he is not then a direct 4♠ is better, since telling partner that club honnors are useful when he cannot have any is not a good idea. If he is worried about wich trump he should first worry about the best trump at a lower level, bidding a cheap forcing bid (3♦ for me)

I don't play exclusion, and this kind of splinters have a lot of nuances you have to get into agreement with partner. For example look at this 2 biddings:


1♦-(1♠)-2♣-(2♠)
ps-(ps)-4♠


1♦-(1♠)-2♣-(2♠)
ps-(ps)-3♠-(ps)
3NT-(ps)-4♠


For me the first one is merely a game raise with a just in case splinter show, something like a 0355 with AQK in the minors or a bit stronger with 1255 perhaps.

The second one is a strong void showng slam try. It tells partner that there is a void and not a singleton (wich is really important), and that we have slam values when he has almost opening values outside spades. Partner can even use regular blackwood with 4NT if he accepts, knowing parter has a void in spades.

As the cards lie, East is not bidding 3NT over 3♠, but that just has to mean that he has 10+ HCP in the red suits, so west can happily bid slam and think about grand now.

But this is my understanding of this bids, other players can have others and you have to get in tone. Maybe exclusion blackwood works better in non stablished partnerships not only for the convention itself, but also because it restricts the options.

[rhm]

I blame your agreements, though they may be common.
Agree that a splinter jump above four of the agreed suit should be a void.
If you are strong enough to bid 4♠ with a hypothetical singleton you might as well use Minorwood or whatever is your way of asking for keycards.
Void splinter bids above four of the agreed trump suit as a general slam try are too nebulous. There is little room to sort things out.
Play void splinter above four of the agreed trump suit as exclusion keycard Blackwood and suddenly the bidding becomes simple and efficient.
Providing keycard information outside of the side suit void is invariable the type of information most needed in this situation.
I play that the side suit, clubs in this case, bid by the one who splintered, is a second key card suit.
Not that it matters in this case, but give responder the ♥A instead of the ♣K and it does.

Rainer Herrmann