[Liversidge]

We play Acol, weak No Trump, Stayman and Transfers. A couple of hands came up recently where partner opened No Trumps (once 1NT, once 2NT) and I was 5-5 in a major (let's say hearts) and a minor, with a small singleton in the other major, and with enough points to put us into the 30 -32 HCP range.

If partner has 3 of my major or four of my minor a slam could be on, but I can't figure out a way of doing so.

[1eyedjack]

You are limited in part by the sophistication of your response structure.

Transferring into your major then bidding your second suit seems like an obvious start. It gets across the GF values, certainly does not deny slam values, but may not at that stage get across the 5th card in the second suit. But that (together with slam aspirations) would be shown by rebidding your second suit again. By then of course partner may have shown a fit in your first.

[Vampyr]

1eyedjack, on 2017-January-22, 05:13, said:

You are limited in part by the sophistication of your response structure.

?

[Zelandakh]

Basically what Jack wrote. When you transfer to a major and bid a minor over 1NT you are showing willingness to play in 5m if partner has a suitable fit so Opener should not feel reluctant to bypass 3NT with 4 card support. After a 2NT opening the sequence has already bypassed 3NT so Opener should treat it as a slam try and encourage with the right hand. This case is slightly more difficult and you have to agree whether 4M or 4NT is to be bid in the negative case of no fit. There are more complex methods (such as second round transfers) that can help here but I would not recommend these for N/B players. Rather, just show your suits and values and trust partner to make a reasonable decision as to strain and level.

[akwoo]

My understanding of standard is the following:

On the sequence

1N - 2H - 2S - 3C,

responder has shown 5+ spades, 4+ clubs, and interest in slam.

Opener can bid 3N or 4S with no interest in slam. (Note this isn't based so much on point count as on fit and controls. KJx KQJx KQJx Kx is 17 HCP, but probably should bid 3N, whereas AKxx Axx xx Axxx should bid 3S and is very unlikely to stop short of slam.)

3S shows 3+ spades and some interest in a spade slam.

Any other bid shows a control in the bid suit and some interest in a club slam. You might want slightly more serious interest at MPs where ending up at 5C is bad.

After these bids, usual control bidding and RKCB apply.

As usual, any agreements beyond opener's second bid, especially agreements that come up less than once a session, are risky with N/B partners. In fact, my regular local partner told me when I explained this to him that I could not expect him to remember this and couldn't even promise he wouldn't take 3C as a game try rather than a slam try.