[Antrax]

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I'm guessing the methods we play were probably at fault. Our partnership style is "by the book" preempts, so W knows E certainly doesn't have four spades, a side void or two aces (then again, holding three aces also helps with this inference). We don't preempt with complete trash suits, either.
Do you get to 6♥ here? Do you have any special methods to help? One thing we're considering is 4♣ here as special KC ask, where the step responses are more oriented towards weak hands (so it's something like 0 without Q, 0 with Q, 1 without, 1 with, etc). On this hand, any KC asking method shows E has either the club ace or the heart king. Is it enough to raise to 6 on? W stated he was worried if I'm 7-2-2-2 with no outside strength, we're down one. Is there a way to find such things out?

[Cyberyeti]

The slam is only on because partner has 3 clubs, otherwise he needs K♠ or Q♦. Preemption works on the opponents because it removes space, sometimes it messes up partner. The only way you're going to bid this is if you have the agreement that 5♣ is a splinter (with a good hand with clubs you bid 4♣ then 5♣), but not many people do.

[Antrax]

Not sure how E can use the information that W is short in clubs. Could you post a bidding sequence?

[Cyberyeti]

Antrax, on 2011-August-29, 00:47, said:

Not sure how E can use the information that W is short in clubs. Could you post a bidding sequence?

3♥-5♣-6♥

Partner will only splinter (rather than try for slam a different way) on this sort of hand where he's short of cover cards and needs to ruff clubs to get to 12, holding 3 clubs is gold dust here.

[Mbodell]

Antrax, on 2011-August-29, 00:36, said:

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Do you get to 6♥ here? Do you have any special methods to help? One thing we're considering is 4♣ here as special KC ask, where the step responses are more oriented towards weak hands (so it's something like 0 without Q, 0 with Q, 1 without, 1 with, etc). On this hand, any KC asking method shows E has either the club ace or the heart king. Is it enough to raise to 6 on? W stated he was worried if I'm 7-2-2-2 with no outside strength, we're down one.

Yes, I play 4♣ is preempt keycard with some partners. For us the steps are 0, 1 w/o Q, 1 w/ Q, 2 w/o Q, and 2 w/ Q (and in theory it continues with 3 etc.). So one this hand you hear 3♥-4♣-4♥ and you could then guess 6♥ on the theory that without the heart A or Q partner needs something more then a worthless 7222, and to make you just need diamond Q, or spade K, or club AK, or 3 clubs, or some finesse or squeeze chance is likely enough to be a good gamble.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

you have no real wastage, and you need both singletons
and the doubleton spade.

So I would not worry to much about missing this one.

I guess, if you play shortage asks after the preempt
opening, you may have a chance to find out, that the
slam is on.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[han]

I think responder should just bite the bullet. He can't find out if partner has the diamond queen, and whether he has 2 or 3 clubs. I'd say slam is likely a favorite, but on a bad day it may be hopeless. Such is life. Missing a good slam is about as bad as getting to a bad slam.

1 keycard and no queen is good news. The queen would be wasted, and partner not having the queen makes it more likely that he will have something else that's useful.