[dickiegera]

---

North will overcall 1♠ at his next bid.

[mycroft]

How many spades will South raise to after 2♦?

[CamHenry]

Start is easy: 1♣-1♦
Then the overcall; at which stage E wants to show a good raise in ♦, so 2♠ looks right.
W has huge extras, and clearly needs to bid something GF here. I'd think 3♥ fits the bill.
E then thinks "well, I've only shown 14 HCP in this shape and I've got a well-fitting control-rich hand", and might well Keycard. At that stage, W has to work out what to bid, but I think 6♦ is reasonable: you've got an 11-card fit; partner might hold ♦xxxx but that's unlikely for a straight Keycard auction. It's the only thing that gets the hand across.

At this stage, E says "If partner can bid 6♦ without the AK, I can surely raise to 7 with both of them".

[Cyberyeti]

I think I'm going to bid this as a 66 as I want to put hearts in the frame particularly at pairs.

1♣-1♥-(1♠)
2♦-3♠(splinter)
3N(A♠)-5♣(voidwood)
5♦(0/3)-5N(general ask, but in this case with a stiff spade and a void club must be a heart ask)
7♦

[Zelandakh]

CamHenry, on 2013-April-25, 02:20, said:

Start is easy: 1♣-1♦
Then the overcall; at which stage E wants to show a good raise in ♦, so 2♠ looks right.
W has huge extras, and clearly needs to bid something GF here. I'd think 3♥ fits the bill.

Cyberyeti, on 2013-April-25, 02:37, said:

1♣-1♥-(1♠)
2♦-3♠(splinter)

Perhaps we should start with the assumption that South raises to (at least) 4♠ at their second turn to call.

[Cyberyeti]

Zelandakh, on 2013-April-25, 02:43, said:

Perhaps we should start with the assumption that South raises to (at least) 4♠ at their second turn to call.

I agree that this is likely to happen in practice but was not specified in the OP so I took the conditions as given.

[CamHenry]

Maybe S has Qxxx/J9x/xx/Qxxx and thinks that his hand is worth approximately nothing? N didn't open because... he's comatose?

[kenberg]

I would start with 1♥ as West. It's true that I will then never be able to convince partner that I have more diamonds than hearts, but other matters take precedence. The plan is play in one of the red suits so I want to bid them both, and I want to be able to do so with some safety. partner is not always going to have a big hand with four diamonds to the AK. If indeed the auction is at a high level in spades when it comes back to me, I want to bid diamonds, giving partner a choice.


I suppose I could have an agreement that if I start with diamonds and then, over say 4♠, I bid 4NT it shoes a red two-suiter heavy in diamonds, but I don't have that agreement with anyone so I just start with the hearts.As they lie, E will bid 2♦ over N's promised 1♠ and maybe we end up looking good. But my heart bid is based on getting to the right game, not on getting to the grand when opener has AKxx in diamonds and Kx in hearts.

As support for this view I offer the following: With the hands as they are, clearly you want to be in 7♦. But it is not impossible 7♥ makes. So even with the great discrepancy in suits, enough so that you will never be playing in hearts, still hearts is not bad. If I bid hearts first, then diamonds, and partner has a more modest hand, I expect I will usually land in a playable game. Not always, but usually.

[Fluffy]

start with 1♥, and bi Grand Slam Force over reverse, there is really no way for me to show 2 voids, so lets ask about trump honnors, ♥K is obviously a problem, but a finese can allow 3 ruffs, clubs could provide enough pitches maybe, and if everything fails there is a finese.


Note that 1♠ overcall helps in 2 ways:
-It gives opener the option to support double, and since he fails to there is no dreaded AQ10xxx vs xxx.
-It gives opener the chance to cuebid with a strong 1suiter, this means that 2♦ now cannot be a hand such as ♠Qx ♥J ♦Axx ♣AKQ10xxx

[mycroft]

Sure, use the OP as set, but if you get to play against people who have 11-card spade fits and bid to a grand total of 1♠, it doesn't matter what your bidding system is.

Which was sort of the point of my first comment.