[han]

Scoring: MP

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1C - (p) - 1H* - (1S)
2C - (2S) - ??

1H showed spades, 1S is natural. Your call?

[Rossoneri]

What would 3♣ show here?

[han]

3C now would be natural.

[helene_t]

If G/B 2NT applies here, I make a constructive 3♣. Otherwise I guess I bid 3♣ anyway.

Not sure what dbl would mean but with this nice club support I like to bid clubs.

[gnasher]

Would 4♠ be a Bluhmer?

Edit: This seems to be a rather different evaluation from the previous two posters'. Are they confident that partner is going to bid again over 3♣ with void AKx xxxx AJxxxx ?

[Sambolino]

on my way to 6c i'd bid 3d for start, something good might happen (i doubt they will bid spades again tho; pd may have a reverse that he didn't want to bid because of s void so we may even play grand). if i play 0314 i might bang 6c immediately. my estimation is that over my spades they wouldn't bid with 4 or raise with 2 cards

[han]

I agree with gnasher that the votes for 3C are highly surprising.

Whether 4S is a bluhmer is indeed the question that made me post this hand.

[nige1]

han, on Jun 10 2008, 08:36 AM, said:

Scoring: MP

1C - (p) - 1H* - (1S)
2C - (2S) - ??
1H showed spades, 1S is natural. Your call?

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IMO 4♥ = 10, 4♣ = 9, 3♦ = 6, 3♣ = 5, 2N = 2
Assuming opponents are honest this hand is enormous Even if opponents are conmen, prospects aren't bad

[MFA]

4♠ Bluhmer.
Surely partner will understand , otherwise we must hope for a Fredin double (sorry Peter ).

I think that this hand should make a clear slam try. Other bids than 4♠ are possible of course, as long as we get our intentions across.

[helene_t]

han, on Jun 10 2008, 02:55 PM, said:

I agree with gnasher that the votes for 3C are highly surprising.

Right, I was just counting points as usual. There is probably no hand p can have that doesn't have play for at least 5♣.

[the hog]

4D cue. 3C is really surprising as I'm looking for 6.

[pclayton]

I would ask myself what different bids mean here.

Double should be clearly penalty. After, we've bid spades. This should be akin to an auction we discussed on here a few months ago:

1♦ (pass) 1♥ (2♥)
Double

Where the sage posters (and I think Michael Rosenberg who made the call) thought double is penalty.

That leaves 3♠ and 4♠. Obviously they are both some form of cuebid supporting clubs. I think 3♠ is plenty. Over 4♠, how is pard supposed to know that void, Kxxx, Qxx, AJxxxx sucks, but void, xxxx, KQx AJxxxx is the subnuts.

I think 4♥ is possible too. Undoubtedly pard will be excited to cue his void, but with crappy trump, he can't be expected to drive to slam.

3♣? Maybe if we had 40 on.....

[gnasher]

If I bid 4♠ it would be because I've never bid a Bluhmer before, but I think 3♠ is more sensible from a bridge perspective, partly because 4♠ uses up so much space and partly because our red suits aren't equal. ♥AK are much more useful than ♥A and ♦K.

[inquiry]

ZAR Fit points suggest bidding slam now... on misfit points, you can "count" on partner having a void in spades (although stiff is possible). In addition, partner has at least six club (superfit), and probably 7. I am guessing partner is something like 0-4-3-6 or similiar. So I think our misfit points are 5+3+0, partner could have a spade more than 0, but then a diamond less, so our misfit points would be 4+3+1. Either way, "misfit points" are 8. So we count our zar points for clubs (10 hcp, 3 control points, 14 distibutional points, minus one for singleton Q = 26). Next we add the misfit points (8) to come to 26+8 = 34.

Next we try to figure out how many ZAR points partner has. He free bid 2C, so lets assume he has a touch more than a minimum, which is 26. If he has 30, we have a combined 64. Zar suggest for slam, you need 62+, for grand slam you need 67+. But if partner does have a minimum of 26, you have only a combined 60, not quite enough for slam.

So Zar point people would know that game must be bid (no chance they would bid only 3♣), and that slam is possible (there is a chance you are off two aces even with more than 62+ zars). So a strong slam invite seems just about right. That is why I think I like the Bluhmer bid of 4♠. If partners 2♣ bid promised EXTRA values, I would go with a forcing 4♣ bid planning on not stopping short of slam (surely partner has the club ace, and the odds are long a spade void).

[han]

Partner has - Kxxxx AJ AJxxxx, slam is quite good and I imagine you get there no matter what try you make. The hand came up in bidding practice.

[Vilgan]

I call the director, since declarer and dummy both have the A of diamonds!

[jillybean]

If anyone else is wondering what a Bluhmer is..
http://www.bridgehan...m/B/Bluhmer.htm

[han]

Partner has the diamond KJ.