[ggwhiz]

1. 2♥

2. 4nt While I have no agreement that it's anything other than rkc, it's barely possible that pard has 2 and free to ask. Maybe partner can divine my serious intent but it's too much detail on a rare auction to have a specific agreement other than this in my partnership.

ps, If pard gets to show 1 kc and they bid 5♠ I'll smack it and under lead with a middlin heart to get a diamond shift.

[JLOGIC]

 Zelandakh, on 2012-September-21, 03:00, said:

I think an original 2♥ overcall is absolutely clear. One option after 4♠ is to play a direct 5♥ as a slam try and 4NT followed by 5♥ as merely competitive. Am interested what our senior posters would use 4NT for on this auction.

I would use 4N as keycard. In general I dont think 4N should be keycard in competitive auctions when it could be 2 places to play or w/e, but here 4N must be some hand with hearts imo. In that case, you could use 4N as a slam try rather than keycard to facilitate cuebidding, but honestly I don't play that (though would when clubs is our suit, so maybe it makes sense here also).

I have often thought, just as a matter of theory, that when 4N can be 1 of "slam try" or "keycard" and you have no other slam tries available, that it should be slam try. This situation would qualify, but would require that agreement which I don't have.

On that note, bidding keycard seems better than bidding 6H, if we are off 2 keycards I would not want to try slam even though it might be good since I don't have the Q or J of hearts.

[JLOGIC]

This hand is a good example where I'd love to make a slam try. Bidding 4N and then 6 opposite 1 seems pretty dangerous, even if we are on the diamond hook which rates to be on we probably still need the CK with partner. Similarly, if partner has the DK we will often just have 2 losers, we don't rate to have the pitches. If parner is 3-5 we will, but given their aggressive bidding they rate to have 10+ spades imo. I would love to be able to bid 4N slam try and if I heard 5C bid 5D and assume partner will bid 6 with good trumps (true, if he is just K K he will sign off and we'll miss a good slam, but he rates to have more heart honors given our length). If he bid 5D I would sign off since the DK is really a bad card for us since we are hoping to be on a diamond hook.

[Fluffy]

as long as you have any agreements 4NT must be better than 5♥, if only for the reasons stated by ggwhiz.

[rmnka447]

I would bid 2 ♥ originally instead of double.

Given the auction thus far, I'll bid 5 ♥ and take what looks like a pretty sure positive. There's just no way to know if 6 ♥ is a make or not. So, bidding 6 is shooting for a top.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

#1 No
#2 It worked out perfect, I guess you have to bid 6H

With kind regards
Marlowe

[dwar0123]

Thanks for the replies all.

Is the hand to weak to double and bid hearts or are the hearts to good to not bid originally?

5♥ was the winning call with the layout that we got, 6 has no play, closed hand had kqjx of hearts and a stray jack.

[phil_20686]

 dwar0123, on 2012-September-25, 10:37, said:

Thanks for the replies all.

Is the hand to weak to double and bid hearts or are the hearts to good to not bid originally?

5♥ was the winning call with the layout that we got, 6 has no play, closed hand had kqjx of hearts and a stray jack.

Too weak generally. 2/1 overcalls are much stronger than 1/1 overcalls.

I would use I have two meta agreements about 4N that conflict here.

1) If there is no other sensible way to make a slam try then 4N is a slam try.
2) If it is conceivable that we still have two places to play at the 5 level, 4N is that.

I have never seen an auction where both of them can be in play at once, so I don't know which one has priority. I would guess the slam try one. Will ask my partner.

You might need two places to play if you have doubled on a x36x shape that is too strong to overcall. Or x37x shape. I would just guess that it is more likely that we need option one than option two.