[gwnn]

Partner had this hand yesterday (I had very balanced crappy hands the whole evening ):

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Spoiler

in before someone suggests 6C.

[helene_t]

6♠.

[cherdano]

I will take full advantage of knowing that my partner has a crappy balanced hand, and bid 4♠ of course!

[gwnn]

I could have up to 13, no?

[Zelandakh]

Our choices seem to be 5♠; 6♠; 5♥ followed by 6♠; 4NT followed by 5♠; 4NT followed by 6♠; and 4NT followed by 5♥ followed by 6♠. So the first question is whether a direct 6♠ denies first round heart control or if the slower routes just show better hands. 5♥ followed by 6♠ feels right to me here. I do not think this needs to show a better hand when we also have the 4NT -> 5♥ -> 6♠ route available.

[Cascade]

cherdano, on 2014-January-30, 05:10, said:

I will take full advantage of knowing that my partner has a crappy balanced hand, and bid 4♠ of course!

Of course but you could be up three opposite crappy balanced.

[ahydra]

5H

ahydra

[Lord Molyb]

cherdano, on 2014-January-30, 05:10, said:

I will take full advantage of knowing that my partner has a crappy balanced hand, and bid 4♠ of course!

♠xxx ♥xxx ♦Axxx ♣KJx

I'm in the 5♥ followed by 6♠ camp.

[TWO4BRIDGE]

Zelandakh, on 2014-January-30, 05:38, said:

4NT -> 5♥ -> 6♠ route available.

5H

[ I don't think 4NT is an option since it should show at least 5-5 in the minors . I'm not sure how partner would take 5S after 4NT .]

[cherdano]

You guys get better hand's than I do. A hand with A and KJ is something worth jumping up and down, it's not a "crappy balanced".

[awm]

I'll go with 5♠; for me this shows a strong hand with spades, control of hearts, and about 10.5-11.5 tricks. This seems a pretty accurate description of what I have. Partner will raise with the diamond ace. He probably won't raise with just a minor suit king, but would certainly raise with both minor suit kings.

For those blasting 6♠ (or 5♥..6♠ whatever that means for you), don't you expect partner to raise to grand with just the diamond ace? I don't think this is really such a hot contract.

[mikeh]

I can see no way of finding out what we need. If partner has KJxxx xxxx in the minors, 5♠ is our limit (I am assuming that we are going to bid on the assumption that we have no spade losers: anything else is too pessimistic). If he has Jxxxx Kxxx then we are almost surely making slam.

When we have no idea which is the better contract, choose 6.

5♠ seems to me like a call designed to win the post mortem I prefer to win the imps/mp.

As for the risk of partner raising to grand: I can't imagine anyone in their right mind thinking that the diamond A is the only card I need for grand. He knows we are under pressure.

These hands arise rarely, but I'd seen a few of them, and I don't recall ever seeing anyone hold 12 winners for the bid. Partner knows that we are crossing our fingers and hoping for something useful in order to make the small slam. He'll be delighted if he holds a minor Ace, since that rates to be the sort of value we are gambling on him having. He'd be a monumental idiot, imo, to raise. Indeed, I wouldn't raise with the diamond A AND the club K.

So I miss a grand. I'm not worried about that at all. At least I got to the small.

[Zelandakh]

awm, on 2014-January-30, 11:06, said:

For those blasting 6♠ (or 5♥..6♠ whatever that means for you), don't you expect partner to raise to grand with just the diamond ace?

I thought I had addressed that. If we had a hand of this shape that only needed the ♦A then we could try 4NT - 5♦; 5♥ - any; 6♠, which ought to be a grand try with lots of black cards, very good spades and first round heart control. I do not buy the argument that 4NT automatically shows both minors. While that is the most common hand type I think also using it for very strong hands with spades and a minor makes sense. Where I do agree with you is that it is probably better as a general agreement if bypassing their suit shows the control rather than denying it; but that is sadly still very much non-standard.

[monikrazy]

What is 5H supposed to show on this auction? Does it allow partner to sign off in 5S?


4N does seem somewhat dangerous but i do see the appeal - what if auction goes something like (4H) - 4N - (5H) - 6D

[mr1303]

I bid 5H and then 6S. I think this should tell partner not to worry about first round control in hearts, nor to worry about the trumps. So with A♦ K♣ he might just find a raise.

[aguahombre]

Anyone think 6S might be a nice advance sacrifice vs their 1430?