Posted 2019-April-19, 06:45
Well I am sure there could be a number of "other"s. 4NT.
I wouldn't have started this way, as I'd open 1♥, but given the start, I would say there is little point in patterning unless you have a method/style of showing your aces to let partner make the slam decisions. This would be a good hand for that. Then after patterning, you bid a void 4♦ (if this is not ace asking) to tell responder to ask. It has to be a void, as why would you bid one of two known singletons? Perfect.
However, in the real world I can't do that, so as I am not patterning I am immediately ace asking. I can always stop in 5♣ if partner has nothing. For me 4♦ is normally "ace asking", and with a void an ace ask would be the void suit itself, but when the void suit is the asking suit, the void-showing ace ask is NT. So 4NT is my bid.
We play a non-standard ace reply, where there are 6 keycards which include the trump Q, and the replies are in modulus 4 steps, so normally step1 = 1 or 5 aces, step 2 = 2 or 6 etc, and bidding trumps is always 0 or 4. With 4NT as the void-showing ace ask, here step1 = trumps = 0 or 4, step 2 is 1 or 5, etc, ignoring the ace of diamonds as it is my void suit. With this hand I could stop in 5♣ if he bids that, but I would take a gamble on a spade K, a 4th club, or heart Q etc and bid 6. If he replies with step2 then I continue with a 5♠ king denial, and if he has that then he will show me whether 7 is there by the use of 5NT. He bids 5NT without any extras, and as he knows I have the heart K, the Q or a doubleton is gold dust. Extra spade tricks or top diamonds would do of course. Over 5NT denial I sign off in 6♣. With such an extra he bids another K denial if there was one, but we are out of kings, having them all, so he would bid 7♣.