[jdeegan]

Pass. I am only a king better than an average minimum. One king is NOT the two tricks needed for slam. Another of Bob Hamman's maxims is never try for slam if you need the magic hand.

[lycier]

I am very willing to rebid 5♥ as trump quality ask bid.

[Codo]

lycier, on 2013-August-27, 04:23, said:

I am very willing to rebid 5♥ as trump qualty ask bid.

Just too bad that partner will take it as a question about spade control.

[awm]

Partner's hand:

♠A
♥AKQx
♦Jxxxx
♣AJx

All thirteen tricks were there in our 4♥ contract. It seems that either of us could be an ace lighter for our bidding up to 4♥, and that if partner is an ace lighter (on either side of the table) we don't necessarily have five-level safety, much less a good slam.

I thought my hand was closer to bidding on than partner's hand was to bidding beyond 4♥ opposite a simple negative double. There could be some case for making an artificial use of one of Dbl/3NT/4♣/4♦ to show a strong heart raise, but we have no such agreements.

[Lord Molyb]

My vastly superior methods would have opened this 1NT and now partner knows roughly what I have and can assume the role of captain freely

[Cyberyeti]

Opening 2N in 4th seat would have neatly preempted opps out the auction and given you a chance, it's not difficult to foresee the 1♠ overcall.

We'd have handled it very differently and bid

1♦-(1♠)-2♦(inverted 9+ with 5 or 10+ with 4 not denying 4M)-(3♠)
X(neg)-4♥(nat)
4♠(BW♥)-5♣(1/4)
6♥

Assuming partner has no wasted spade card, he looks to have 9-11 points in the minors including A♦ which seems to offer good chances.

[awm]

Note that opposite ♠Ax ♥AKQx ♦Jxxx ♣AJx slam is terrible. Even if you change ♦J to ♦Q it's not good. So it's not clear at all that we bid slam opposite a 2NT opening -- it's opener's "extra shape" that makes slam good. It'd be pretty easy to give an auction like 2NT-3♣-3♥-4♥-Pass and the fault for missing slam would surely go to opener for distorting his shape, not to responder for failing to look for slam on 20 balanced opposite 10 balanced with terrible trumps.

[Zelandakh]

So I have a theoretical question about this auction (for a change). Over 3♠, would it be possible for us to play a direct 4♥ as showing full values and first doubling and then bidding 4♥ with the hand that is stretching? Or is that putting too much pressure on partner to work out when to pass?

[ggwhiz]

One of my favorite answers in a bidding contest was from Allan Graves: "I don't mind a poorish result to maintain overall partnership integrity"

And I don't want my partner to experience fear and loathing when stretching to compete.

[Winstonm]

Pass is rather clear cut, is it not? Expecting partner to cover 8 losers on this auction is asking for too many specific cards.

[suleiman22]

I would pass- I think slam bidding is too optimistic and places partner with many key cards. If partner is missing even 2 key cards and slam can go down.