[DrJ_Bridge]

This really depends on your partner. If your partner is trustworthy, there is the indisputably correct bid of 4H.

If your partner is not trustworthy, then 5C is a practical solution because it is almost surely making. But if partner and you have had some good success lately, you should not be making insulting, protective bids like this.

The reason 4H is indisputably the correct bid is that there is no reasonable interpretation that it can be anything other than a cue bid in support of clubs. You can't have a heart suit, since you responded 1NT to partner's opening bid of 1D. To suddenly bid a suit you cannot have therefore suggests that you hand suddenly improved. The only explanation possible for that is that partner's 3C bid dramatically improved your hand and so 4H must be a cue bid in support of clubs. It can't be diamond support since you did not support diamonds at your first turn. No trustworthy partner will get this one wrong.

Making the cue bid is important because there are many hands that partner can have where 6C is icy cold. (If partner has a spade void - pretty unlikely but possible - 7C could be making too.) Most days, partner has 10 or 11 minor suit cards including 5 clubs for the 3C bid. Variations on this are possible, of course, but at minimum you can imagine that, with 10 minor suit cards and a singleton spade, partner virtually always will have play for 6C.

(By the way, 3C does not show extra high card values. Partner does not need anything more than a minimum hand with 5-5 in minors for 3C since the 1NT response assures partner that we have a 9 card minor suit fit.)

x
xx
Axxxx
AKxxx

Slam is cold unless diamonds are splitting worse than 4-2.

x
Qx
AQxxx
Axxxx

Slam is far from cold, but also far from hopeless.

x
Kx
Axxxx
Axxxx

Again, slam is not cold, but it has play.

void
xx
Axxxxx
AKxxx

I want to bid 7C, don't you? It may not make if diamonds split badly, but it is a strong favorite to score up.

These hands are not definitive, but they are minimums that demonstrate that slam is possible - perhaps probable - and warrants exploration. 5C simply does not do this hand justice.

[helene_t]

I don't like dbl with partner's hand. That should be 18-19 balanced, probably three spades, happy for responder to pass with 18 points.

2nt could be scrambling with 5-3 minors in which case I agree with partner's 3♣ bid. But if you play g/b 2nt then I would bid 2nt.

That said, of course I would not stop at 4♣. Oh well, opps might be friendly at let us make 5.

[mike777]

This ia a very old fashion way to bid but I wonder if it might be ok to pass with some of these minimum minor 2 suiters or perhaps even open a very sound weak two bid with 6 card suit. I just wonder if this can be a winning style in 2015. Of course all of this would need to be clear to the table


That permits 3c here to show more.