[Bbradley62]

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[ahydra]

Half tempting to open 4NT (specific aces) and jump to 7D if partner has the HA... For a more sane auction perhaps start with 2C and bid diamonds, followed by diamonds, more diamonds and even more diamonds.

ahydra

[Fluffy]

neither sayc nor 2/1 cover this shape very well.

2♣ then 4♦ will force partner to cuebid ♥A, that´s what I´d try

[r_prah]

I would do what ahydra suggested, bid 4NT asking for specific aces, and bid 7♦ if partner admits to the ♥A.

[whereagles]

Do the forcing opener. If nothing is learned in a couple of rounds, shoot 6D.

[billw55]

For those bashing 7♦ opposite the ♥A: isn't there another loser here? Are you just guessing that partner can cover the 3rd club? The chances may be fairly good (♣Q, ♥K, ♠A, doubleton club + a trump and a decent break) but I would hate to have to explain to partner or teammates if I went down.

[FrancesHinden]

I would also open 4NT and hope for the best opposite the ace of hearts.
The only situation I wouldn't do that is playing against a much weaker team.

I'm not sure what the problem is with partner/teammates. The explanation is 'I couldn't think of a way to find out if we had a club loser or not, so I decided to take what I thought was the best approach to bidding the hand'.

[Statto]

whereagles, on 2012-January-03, 14:56, said:

Do the forcing opener. If nothing is learned in a couple of rounds, shoot 6D.

Agree 6♦ seems to be the a priori best punt (needs ♣Q, ♥A, ♠A+♦J, or some others = >61%), though I'm half expecting nothing to be learned because opps bid up to 4M before my next bid, I still start with the system bid.

billw55, on 2012-January-03, 15:12, said:

For those bashing 7♦ opposite the ♥A: isn't there another loser here? Are you just guessing that partner can cover the 3rd club? The chances may be fairly good (♣Q, ♥K, ♠A, doubleton club + a trump and a decent break) but I would hate to have to explain to partner or teammates if I went down.

Assuming 4NT-5♥ also denies ♠A, it needs either ♣Q, ♥K or something good in ♣. 56% for the 1st two, don't think ♣ ruff or dropping is making up the gap tho...

FrancesHinden, on 2012-January-03, 15:22, said:

The explanation is 'I couldn't think of a way to find out if we had a club loser or not, so I decided to take what I thought was the best approach to bidding the hand'.

I thought you have a method whereby you would later be able to bid 6♣ to ask about ♣Q for a grand...?

[Flameous]

Funny that ♥Q makes our hand worse. (Partner can't hold that card and we need ♦J in addition to ♥J for finesse)

Only sensible opening to me is 4NT, sometimes I hit the jackpot and partner has two aces. Most of the time I won't get the ♥A and try 6.
When partner holds the ♥A, it's really close between 6 and 7. I'm tempted to think that holding ♥Q and ♣T might give us enough extra squeeze chances for 7 to be good bet but that is assuming defense never leads ♥ against this sequence. Thinking of it, the heart lead seems clearly best so...

One last note, even if I had some other methods for bidding the hand (strong club and relays for everything) I wouldn't do that and hope opps won't interfere. I'm really afraid of giving them any bids below 5 lvl to point towards a really good sacrifice.

[Statto]

Flameous, on 2012-January-03, 19:25, said:

Funny that ♥Q makes our hand worse. (Partner can't hold that card and we need ♦J in addition to ♥J for finesse)

Surely makes no difference in that respect. Partner is just as likely to hold ♥Q when we have x as they are to hold ♥J when we have Q. It does however improve 2♣, for one thing opps are less likely to compete in ♥.

[Flameous]

Partner holding J won't help if he doesn't hold outside entry. Compared to we holding x or J and partner holding the Q.
But as I mentioned, holding Q does increase our squeeze chances a bit.

[Trinidad]

whereagles, on 2012-January-03, 14:56, said:

Do the forcing opener. If nothing is learned in a couple of rounds, shoot 6D.

The danger of starting with a forcing opener is that the only thing you will learn is that the opps are in 6♠.

When we are talking about explaining things to team mates. I don't like to explain how they found a cheap NV save and we had to guess whether to defend or bid 7 while our team mates had to deal with a plain simple 6♦ opening.

Rik

[CSGibson]

4N. If partner admits to the ace of hearts, 7 diamonds. Even if partner doesn't have the third round of clubs covered, the opponents still have to keep the right things when I run diamonds.

[Statto]

Flameous, on 2012-January-03, 20:21, said:

Partner holding J won't help if he doesn't hold outside entry. Compared to we holding x or J and partner holding the Q.

D'oh. Yes of course. I overlooked a ♥ finesse due to not wanting to be in grand on a finesse. But the chance has to be counted, and may take us past the magic 66%, but may also depend on whether we get a trump lead (e.g. stiff ♦J in dummy).

[Yu18772]

I am with Fluffy on this one. Does everyone play 4NT as asking specific aces?

[RMB1]

Yu18772, on 2012-January-07, 00:58, said:

Does everyone play 4NT as asking specific aces?

Most probably play it as "no agreement" - to the extent that they wouldn't risk bidding it.

"Specific aces" is what I regard as standard in England, based on 1970s books on Acol.

I am sure some play it as Blackwood, and some as "both minors", and some as a good 5m bid.

[the hog]

Yu18772, on 2012-January-07, 00:58, said:

I am with Fluffy on this one. Does everyone play 4NT as asking specific aces?

N0. We play 3NT as a specific Ace ask.