trevahound, on 2012-October-04, 13:03, said:
Had the auction continued with doubler rebidding 4s and advancer bidding 4nt, that would be keycard ask, correct? How is this different? How else could responder set trumps and then ask? If advancer had a just spade moose, this wouldn't be a difficult problem to foresee, and advancer can't bid it this way. This is rule c for me (what else could partner have done earlier in the auction?).
But, just to torture myself I'm going to send this problem to my regular partners.
Brian Zaugg
Mostly I'd say that the argument for spades being spades, and 4N being keycard is that we don't need a natural 4N, and that being able to show a single-suited spade hand that is too good for 4S but not safe at the 5 level opposite a minimum take-out double is more important than being able to cue-bid spades in support of hearts.
Edit: Just to be clear, I am saying that is the argument, not necessarily endorsing the argument, though my natural inclination is to lean that way. I am interested in hearing what people have to say on this.
I guess that also begs the question: In a non-kickback partnership, is 4
♠ a correction of strain, or a cue-bid?
If it is a correction of strain, then I can see a potential meta-agreement: when the standard auction would have shown a cue-bid, then its kickback; but when a standard auction would have shown a correction of strain, then that is also the agreement we have, and 4N becomes regular keycard.
This post has been edited by CSGibson: 2012-October-04, 13:31