[jillybean]

I've got 3 hands to share, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - I'll save the Good for another post

Board 17

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Board 15

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[mikeh]

3H shows a great suit (personally my partners would never be holding the King…I’d have it…but I know my partners might do it with AQJ10xxx and extras) so I have an easy 4C bid. Since 3H says ‘we’re playing in hearts or notrump’, 4C is a cuebid. It shows a hand too good to raise to 4H and more interested in hearts or slam than 3N.

On the second, I guess it depends, to some degree, on what 2S would have meant. I know some poor benighted souls mistakenly think that 2S is non-forcing, lol. For them, 3S might mean something other than what I think it should mean

Which is a very good suit, 6+ in length, with slam interest…else bid a FORCING 2S. Btw, 2S is forcing only because the 2H reverse promised another bid. 2S doesn’t say anything more than I have 5+ spades and the values to have responded.

With the south hand, I think 4N is clear. Opposite 2 keycards and the queen I bid 5N, looking for grand. KQxxxx Kxx xxx Ax isn’t an unreasonable (though very nice) holding. He doesn’t need that much, of course, but it shouldn’t be just KQJxxx and out.

[DavidKok]

I hate auctions like this. With an experienced partner these are delights - partner has announced a strong, nearly self-sufficient, suit. I've got great support and extra values. We are well on our way to slam.
With an inexperienced partner the jump rebid almost always means "I forgot you made a strong bid and was afraid you might pass if I bid anything less". Or, even worse, "I was afraid you forgot you made a strong bid, and would mistakenly pass if I bid anything less".

I agree with 4♣ on the first auction. Some partnerships might have 3NT Non-serious available which would be even better, but 3NT is natural for me.
On the second auction I play the jump to 4NT as quantitative. I would bid 3NT (showing the spade ace or king), though most partnerships would prefer 4♣ (control).

[jillybean]

Unfortunately, I can't start cue bidding (forgotten agreement) and had to launch into keycard ask and wrong sided the slam.

lead C4

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This is a new partnership with minimal high level agreements, I stopped in 5 after hearing 1KC

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[DavidKok]

I'll take some time for this one.

On the first board:

• Jumping to 3♥ is a mistake. The 2♣ bid has already established a game force, so there is no need to jump just to show extra values. Instead a jump should show a clear concentration of values, i.e. a nearly self-sufficient heart suit with some outside aces and little tolerance for other strains. This hand is not that. Only 6 out of 17 HCP are in the long heart suit, all the spot cards are missing and there is some tolerance for clubs. I would bid 2♥ (or whichever other low bid shows a sixth heart).
  
• Jumping to 4NT is (always) bad. When searching for a slam it pays to make use of all the bidding space you have available. On this hand there is no reason to take charge, especially since you don't even know that there is sufficient playing strength for a slam. Keep in mind that the purpose of Blackwood is to avoid slams off two keycards. It is not a tool to determine combined playing strength, or a constructive route to slam. On the example hand you are missing controls on two suits, so forcing to slam is ill-advised.
  
• The 6NT bid seems like classic matchpoint greed. There is no reason to presume partner has got honours in both pointed suits. You do need the heart suit to run to have any chance of a slam after overbidding like this, but you might be off two quick tricks in notrumps where you might have a ruff in 6♥.

On the second board:

• The 3♠ bid is lousy. Mikeh already predicted exactly this - that hand is a standard 2♠ rebid. North's awful bid took away your bidding space.
  
• Upon hearing one key card you should bid 6. You are not off two key cards. That is the purpose of bidding Blackwood. You could optionally ask for the queen of spades, but on the auction it is a near certainty that partner has the king as well as queen of spades for their jump (*ahem*) and you are only losing the ace of clubs. You can't sign off with 4 key cards on this auction.
  
• As an aside, I wouldn't mind landing in a club slam on the auction. The 3♠ bid was out of place, not only presenting a lousy 6-card suit as self-sufficient but also losing the known 5-3 club fit.

[mycroft]

I agree with Mike (not really surprising).

First board, I'm afraid to bid 4♣ because I'm afraid partner thinks I have Axx x Kxx AQJxxx or something. Of course it should be a cuebid, because 3♥ should set the suit (especially if they're off the K, it's AQJTxxx or so). But I'm not as confident in partner as he is... But the key is again, you desperately want to a) agree hearts and b) get partner to blackwood, which they are not going to do with two club losers (because you shouldn't be doing it with two losers in two suits, even if partner "has to have" something there). So if you're sure that a) has been done with 3♥, then b) will hopefully get triggered by 4♣.

But also, why 6NT? Is your club so strong that 6♥ on this hand will be below average? If you're worried about wrongsiding - and you should be - concede the extra 10 points and play the known good fit from the right side.

Second is tough. I am one of the benighted, so I'm stuck. But I think I would raise clubs rather than "insisting" on that motheaten suit. If partner then bids spades, okay, fine. Having said that, sort of agree with David after keycard - I'd have bid 5♥ myself, not wanting to be off an ace and the trump queen (even in a 9 card fit). KJxxxx x KJxx xx, maybe (yes, I know, but see above about "one of the benighted").

[pescetom]

DavidKok, on 2023-January-25, 13:36, said:

I hate auctions like this. With an experienced partner these are delights - partner has announced a strong, nearly self-sufficient, suit. I've got great support and extra values. We are well on our way to slam.
With an inexperienced partner the jump rebid almost always means "I forgot you made a strong bid and was afraid you might pass if I bid anything less". Or, even worse, "I was afraid you forgot you made a strong bid, and would mistakenly pass if I bid anything less".

I agree with 4♣ on the first auction. Some partnerships might have 3NT Non-serious available which would be even better, but 3NT is natural for me.
On the second auction I play the jump to 4NT as quantitative. I would bid 3NT (showing the spade ace or king), though most partnerships would prefer 4♣ (control).

I agree 100% with this, although on the second auction 3NT for us *denies* the spade AK and thus 4♣ is automatic here.

PS is it really so difficult to post 1 hand per thread?

[sfi]

mycroft, on 2023-January-25, 15:46, said:

First board, I'm afraid to bid 4♣ because I'm afraid partner thinks I have Axx x Kxx AQJxxx or something.

When playing a multi-way 2C bid, I've always had an exception on this auction that allows the player to rebid 4C as natural. So I'd have to choose 4H or 4D (as last train) on this hand, and with working cards the bid would be 4D here. But yeah - 3H can't be right on the North hand.

[jillybean]

On both boards I felt partner would miss a cue over the major jump and we'd end up in 5 clubs or 4 of their Major so I can bid game or use an ill conceived 4NT to force the auction onwards. Hand 2, I knew we had 1 loser but there was still so much I didn't know about partners hand I wasn't confident of a solid spade suit or entry to the hand.