[barsikb]

---

Not sure if 1♠ is a right opening bid here. But if I did open 1♠, what should I do after 2♠ response?

[ArtK78]

Open 1♠. Bid 4♠ over 2♠.

I suppose that partner could have both aces and 4 small spades for his 2♠ response (or AQ Q in the minors along with 4 small spades). So it is not unreasonable to cue bid 3♥ over 2♠. Partner will take it as a game try, but should still cue bid a minor suit ace if accepting. Then you might decide to bid on, but slam may still be marginal. Partner rarely has the right cards when you start these exploratory sequences. So, 4♠ is probably the practical bid over 2♠. It gives little away to the opps and may result in your getting a favorable lead.

There is no guarantee that you will be safe at the 5 level on these cards.

There is a rule of thumb - if partner has a perfect minimum which will make the contract you are thinking about cold, then your hand is worth an invite. This rule of thumb is usually used in game bidding situations, but it can be analogized to slam bidding. Here, there is no perfect minimum that will make 6♠ cold. So you should just bid game.

[Codo]

In 2/1 or sayc open 1 ♠
In stone age Acol open 2 ♠
In precision or polish club or similar open 1 ♣.

Over 1 ♠ 2 ♠ 4 ♠ is usually enough. Yes sometimes you make slam, sometimes slam would be worth bidding. But I doupt that you and your partner have developed the right methods already to find these slams... So just bid game.

[Antrax]

♠xxxx ♥xxxxx ♦Ax ♣Qx is not a perfect minimum?

[ArtK78]

Antrax, on 2013-July-22, 10:43, said:

♠xxxx ♥xxxxx ♦Ax ♣Qx is not a perfect minimum?

Yes. Good luck trying to determine if partner has a minor suit Q.

[Codo]

Antrax, on 2013-July-22, 10:43, said:

♠xxxx ♥xxxxx ♦Ax ♣Qx is not a perfect minimum?

And if so? You need trumps to come in and you must find the missing minor suit queen....

Yes there are hands which take 12 tricks quite easily, but maybe not enough to justify bidding on.

[gwnn]

Antrax, on 2013-July-22, 10:43, said:

♠xxxx ♥xxxxx ♦Ax ♣Qx is not a perfect minimum?

No, I expect most people would still bid 2S on xxxx xxxxx Ax xx.

[Cyberyeti]

If you play long suit game tries, bidding 3m on the way is not stupid. It also depends partially on your raise structure, whether you can outlaw things like xxxx, xx, xx, AQxxx.

A short suit game try of 3♥ should get partner to value most things correctly too.

The danger is that partner has something like xxx, xxxx, AQxxx, Q and thinks he has gold dust, but it's not the worst slam in the world.

[Free]

Codo, on 2013-July-23, 01:18, said:

And if so? You need trumps to come in and you must find the missing minor suit queen....

- Trumps can come in quite easily, we have 10 of them and we have the opportunity to finesse against East. The only holding where we lose a trump is Qxx in West, which is rather rare.
- We don't need to find any minor Queen, we hold ♣Q ourselves and the 3rd ♦ can be ruffed.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

If you can stop in 2S, after a 2C opening 2C is not terrible, assuming american style
systems, this is very hard, so 1S.
In those cases it helps, that partner should stretch to raise with fit and an Ace, this prevents
you from missing game.

Regaring slam: You need either the two aces, or 1 ace and 2 out of 3 Queens, to make the
slam mor or less 50%.
Not having the Queen of trumps requires at least 4 card trump support from partner.
Sure with 9 cards, the drop is percentage, but the 2-2 split still only ..., so add. missing an
Ace and a minor suit Queen, you are below 50%.

Partner said, he has 6-10HCP, but you need quite specific cards.

An option would be to bid 2NT, see, if partner has min / max, and if he showes heart values.
If he showes a min / heart values, slam wont be a sensible bet most of the time.

And it is important to remember, missing a 50% slam is not the end of the world.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[blackshoe]

Hugh Kelsey said "if you don't go down in half the slams you bid, you aren't bidding enough slams". Nonetheless, the likelihood of slam on this hand is probably well under 50%, so no. Just take your game score and move on to the next board.

[the hog]

barsikb, on 2013-July-22, 08:23, said:

---

Not sure if 1♠ is a right opening bid here. But if I did open 1♠, what should I do after 2♠ response?

Bid 4.

[barsikb]

Blackshoe: "Hugh Kelsey said "if you don't go down in half the slams you bid, you aren't bidding enough slams". "

Like this

Thank you for all the answers!

[Fluffy]

the perfect minimum finds partner with AQxxx in a minor, a 2NT forcing relay would be the best way to continue with this hand.