[Cyberyeti]

Fluffy, on 2014-May-07, 14:55, said:

I've heard a couple fo times that 5 of our suit, when it is not asking for control in theirs, shows either nothing in trumps, or everything in trumps. So this hand easilly qualifies.

As long as you don't go berserk and keycard yourself you should be ok on this hand. Suit quality is the least important thing for partner, he had J109xxxx AJ Ax AK.

This was one of the biggest scores I ever got for staying away from a slam.

This is the sort of hand where if I stay out of a slam, the punchline is that at every other table they led the K♦ and everybody made 6

I would say that 5♠ here shows all the top spades because there is no other way of showing that, and I might well bid 6 over this with the other hand, there are plenty of things that give me chances here, partner has at least one more minor honour outside spades, Q♣ is plenty provided he has 3 or more, Q♥ puts it on a finesse if they lead a diamond, otherwise cold as long as he has 3+, Q♦ to 3+ puts it on at worst a finesse unless they lead a heart and partner doesn't have the 10 or has 10x, even ♥9xxx gives you a chance on a heart lead if the 10 drops in 3. ♦J10x ♥10xx gives you chances on any red suit lead and I think the balance of probabilities suggests the slam will make in practice more often than not.

I much prefer the method I play here, the auction would start with a 2N "raise to 3 or better" and then a "flat broke" 3♠ rebid after partner shows better than minimum. I'd expect 1♠-2N-3♣(long suit GT initially)-3♠-4♣(now combined with 3♣ shows AK)-4♠-4N-5♠ to be the auction and the big hand would know I had nothing useful other than ♠AKQ as with a Q outside in a 3+ card suit I'd likely be bidding 4♠ over 3♣.

[aguahombre]

Fluffy, on 2014-May-07, 14:55, said:

I've heard a couple fo times that 5 of our suit, when it is not asking for control in theirs, shows either nothing in trumps, or everything in trumps. So this hand easilly qualifies.

As long as you don't go berserk and keycard yourself you should be ok on this hand. Suit quality is the least important thing for partner, he had J109xxxx AJ Ax AK.

This was one of the biggest scores I ever got for staying away from a slam.

Yep. All reasonable bids over 4C keep us out. 5S, and part will know there are two losing tricks. 4S, and Partner won't know anything except we might have three losing tricks. No bonus for bidding 5 instead of playing in 4. Life is good.

[Cyberyeti]

aguahombre, on 2014-May-07, 15:36, said:

Yep. All reasonable bids over 4C keep us out. 5S, and part will know there are two losing tricks. 4S, and Partner won't know anything except we might have three losing tricks. No bonus for bidding 5 instead of playing in 4. Life is good.

He doesn't KNOW there are 2 losing tricks if we bid 5♠, AKQx, xxx, xxx, Qxx is perfectly possible where the slam is laydown (same hand with Q♥ rather than ♣ is on a finesse as is same hand with Q♦ and 10♥), but it's likely the slam is no better than a finesse.

I prefer 4♣-4♠-5♣-5♠ as with the hand above where it's cold, you will at least bid 6.

[fromageGB]

rmnka447, on 2014-May-06, 19:03, said:

I'm bidding 4 ♠. It tells the story of my limit raise best -- namely no red suit controls. Partner ought to be able to infer that I must hold ♠ values if I can't cue anything.

That would be a wrong inference; what would you cue with Qxxx, QJxx, QJx, Ax ?