[AL78]

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MPs. What do you do now?

[pescetom]

I bid 4♡, trusting partner's bidding and probable diamonds lead.

[Evies Dad]

Partner has made a minimum bid in the first available suit. Might be 3343 or some other undesirable shape.
I assume X then cue is GF, so 4H it is.
Will probably make opposite something like xxx xxxx xxxx xx

[mw64ahw]

10+ playing tricks in hand. It only needs K♠s & Q♥s to be looking at 12 tricks. 4♦ may get the message across

[smerriman]

4♥ for me too. Might be in trouble if there's a 4-1 heart break, but seems too much to pass.

[AL78]

I intended my double followed by a cue bid as showing a monster.

I would have liked to make a slam interest nudge agreeing hearts without going past game, but couldn't think of a satisfying way to do this given I was playing with a partner who struggles with much beyond a simple auction (by that I mean she gets confused by anything that looks unusual or hasn't come up before). I therefore decided since she has made the weakest responses possible opposite my strong actions, slam might be a bit too much of a punt and settled for 4♥.

I don't have a copy of the board (this club uses manually dealt hands), but partner turned up with five hearts to the queen and three clubs and there were no heart losers (hearts were 4-0 onside), so after the defence cashed their diamond winner, partner wrapped up 12 tricks.

I wonder what 5♥ by me would mean here, does it invite slam with reasonable trumps, whatever reasonable means here? Should I have gone through RCKB and persisted with 5♦ after partner bids 5♣ (0/3) asking about the trump queen? I might have done that with a more experienced partner but I wasn't confident she was familiar with RCKB beyond the key card and king asking bids.

[Cyberyeti]

 mw64ahw, on 2022-May-20, 14:30, said:

10+ playing tricks in hand. It only needs K♠s & Q♥s to be looking at 12 tricks. 4♦ may get the message across

Doesn't need that much given the discards on the clubs, ♥Qxxx, a 3-2 break and the clubs to run would seem to be sufficient.

[apollo1201]

 AL78, on 2022-May-20, 15:02, said:

I wonder what 5♥ by me would mean here, does it invite slam with reasonable trumps, whatever reasonable means here? Should I have gone through RCKB and persisted with 5♦ after partner bids 5♣ (0/3) asking about the trump queen? I might have done that with a more experienced partner but I wasn't confident she was familiar with RCKB beyond the key card and king asking bids.

5H is often used as bid slam if you control opp’s suit (your cue did not promise that control).
But if you feel RKC could be confusing enough, 5H, whatever it means, looks riskier.
With such a partner, the most practical bid if 6H, unless you expect the field to be playing 2C🤣🤣

[LBengtsson]

No one has considered what if partner bids 3♠ instead of 3♥ here? I do not sit comfortable with East bidding 3♦ here. Yes it is game force but it takes away a level of bidding. I could risk another X here instead of 3♦. Then bid 3♦ after he bids. It is not likely partner will pass my second X for penalties, but if he does then his shape will be without a 4M. If partner is 3343 shape and v. weak, 3NT may be the only making game.

[AL78]

 LBengtsson, on 2022-May-21, 07:03, said:

No one has considered what if partner bids 3♠ instead of 3♥ here? I do not sit comfortable with East bidding 3♦ here. Yes it is game force but it takes away a level of bidding. I could risk another X here instead of 3♦. Then bid 3♦ after he bids. It is not likely partner will pass my second X for penalties, but if he does then his shape will be without a 4M. If partner is 3343 shape and v. weak, 3NT may be the only making game.

Funnily enough, one pair did concede -780 for 2♦X+3. I take your point about consuming bidding space but I wanted to be sure we were firmly in a GF auction, and that was the simplest way to do it.

No-one else found the slam so bidding it would have only got us an extra 11% on the board, but I still wish we could have found it.