[manudude03]

Scoring: XIMP

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Sitting North, the bidding goes:

(P)-1S-(P)-2NT, nat, GF jacoby
(3C)-3S-(P)-3NT, max no shortage, serious 3NT
(P)-4C-(P)-4D, cues (1st or 2nd)
(P)-4NT-(P)-5H, RKCB 0314, 2 w/o Q
(P)-5NT-(P)-6H, all key cards- GS try, ♥K
(P)-??

[kenrexford]

Partner has shown up with no spade honors, only two Aces, only one King, and no shortness, and yet he has serious interest in the context of a club intervention?

There's only so many hands he can have.

I mean, he just about has to have the heart Queen.

♠xxxx ♥KQx ♦Axxx ♣Ax?

That's about as bad as he can be, and you just win 13 tricks as long as a 3-0 spade split doesn't strike. Add another spade, and that's out.

I mean, sure. Change the hand to 4-3-3-3 and you lose a club, but is that a "serious" hand? Is that a serious hand where partner cooperates after 5NT? I mean, partner does have the option of bidding an impossible 6_SP] here.

Of course, that raises an interesting question. 5NT is clearly a grand try. After showing serious interest, Responder with no spade honors and two side Aces cannot have NO kings. So, it seems that 6_SP] immediately cannot be saying that Responder, with no shortness, has no Kings.

So, perhaps an "anticipatory Last Train principle is at work here. In other words, 6♥ is the only King that Responder shows without ability for Opener to ask another question. hence, it seems reasonable for 5♠ to show the "bad holding" with the heart King but 5♥ to show the "good holding" with the heart King.

Anyway, I accept.

[Codo]

Partner bid serious 3 NT with just 2 aces, no spade honours and no minor suit king?
He must have long and good hearts.

So we bid grand.
Do we need to be in spades? I see no reason for that, so 7 NT it is.

[Fluffy]

Partner forgot to bid 2♥ for a reason, I don't really think He's got 4 heart tricks. But looking at the bidding, RHO is marked with ♦K and many clubs, he is squeezed as long as partner provides ♥Q. But only if spades split.

At MPs I think 7NT would be the winner, at XIMP 7♠ because partner could be 5242

[gnasher]

When constructing example hands it's easy to forget about cards that you know aren't relevant, but partner doesn't. Partner's assets may include a singleton club, a fifth spade, and various minor honours.

Can partner have Jxxxx KJx AJ10x A ? Perhaps not, but anyway opposite that I'm happy to be in 7♠ on a two-way heart finesse.

Can he have Jxxxx KQx AJ10x A. Yes, so why risk 7NT?

I can, in any case, offer a choice of grand slams with 7♣. If partner has ♥KQJx he'll bid 7NT himself.

[manudude03]

Thanks for the replies. I went with the consensus and bid 7S(as some have noted, partner will nearly always have the ♥Q. Partner ended up producing a slightly disappointing dummy (not good enough for serious 3nt imo).

Scoring: XIMP

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It would be interesting to see how many people here would have gone off (the 3♣ bidder was on a suicide mission). I also found it a little odd that I was the only one in it (though one other pair chickened out after they used 5NT as a king count). Finally, there are natually quite a few BBOers who seem to think 1M-4M is constructive (and natually don't even check for 6)

[kenrexford]

Well, a fairly good 7♠ contextually. You seem to need a simple heart finesse, but you probably can do better. Assuming no 3-0 split in trumps, you can eventually play the diamond Ace and then run down to a three-card ending.

You may well be able to get enough info to even drop Qx behind the KJx in the end, through a show-up squeeze. Or, if RHO actually has both, then you may squeeze him out of Qxx(x) in hearts.

[Tcyk]

I don't understand 4NT as an ace asking bid of any kind after cue bidding has started and continued. I learned that 4NT in this auction is Declarer Interrogative and asks that cue bidding continue or sign off in five of the agreed suit.

4NT has to be one of the most misused bids in duplicate bridge.

[skjaeran]

Tcyk, on Jun 18 2009, 10:35 PM, said:

I don't understand 4NT as an ace asking bid of any kind after cue bidding has started and continued. I learned that 4NT in this auction is Declarer Interrogative and asks that cue bidding continue or sign off in five of the agreed suit.

4NT has to be one of the most misused bids in duplicate bridge.

That's what used to be expert standard in the US, not so all over the world.

I don't think it's standard in the US today, but I might be mistaken.

I played an modern version of Culbertson's 4-5NT convention about 20 years ago. Since then I've always used 4NT as Roman Keycard BW in a cuebid sequence, as a sign off after a minor suit slam try (no cuebids) and else as quantitative.

[cherdanno]

Tcyk, on Jun 18 2009, 03:35 PM, said:

I don't understand 4NT as an ace asking bid of any kind after cue bidding has started and continued. I learned that 4NT in this auction is Declarer Interrogative and asks that cue bidding continue or sign off in five of the agreed suit.

4NT has to be one of the most misused bids in duplicate bridge.

4NT = RKCB combines very well with Italian-style cuebidding (1st or 2nd round control), which seems to be an almost universal standard in the US.