Post by s***@gmail.comPlaying a simple standard american system, you hold (2nd seat, vul vs non, IMPs)
♠ 7
♥ A84
♦ AK8654
♣ AK8
Partner has
♠ T9632
♥ K7
♦ Q7
♣ QJT7
Six diamonds and six clubs are excellent contracts (mainly because
partner has no wasted values in spades). Do you get to slam?
Let's see what information you need from your partner to be able to bid
the slam:
- Q of diamonds
- K of hearts
- 4 clubs, including the Queen (and the Jack raises the chance a lot,
but it's probably worth trying even with just the 10)
- ability to ruff one of your losers (in this hand it's the 4 of hearts
that gets ruffed)
Getting all that information without going too high is going to be very
hard in simple methods. For example, most systems I know that aren't
heavily slam-focused will put a "what are your hearts like?" query at
the 5 or even 6 level, meaning that you can't ask it unless you're
already committed to slam (and are just choosing between small and
grand). If your partner had diamond support then you might be able to
find out about the hearts with a weak-suit game try (which subsequently
turns out to be a slam try), but as it is you're unlikely to even find
the correct strain to play in at a low level, leaving very little room
to look for slams.
I can see a relay system getting to slam here if the opponents didn't
intervene (a typical relay system would know about the 5224 shape
and enough points to make slam viable some time during the 3 level;
then assuming you don't bail out to 3NT, you'll have enough room to
discover that the points are in clubs and not spades before reaching
the 5 level). However, you have 18 points, your partner has 8, leaving
14 points for the opponents, and as they have an 8-card fit in hearts,
there's a decent chance they'll overcall at some point. Oddly, an
overcall might make things easier, as many systems have some way to
show an honour in the opponents' suit.
I've been focusing on the situation with the hearts because many of the
other things you need are easier to show in standard methods. Most
systems will have some way to ask for the Queen of trumps, if they're at
all interested in slam-going. You'll know that the partner has 8-ish
points fairly quickly in almost any system. However, knowing that those
points are in clubs and not spades is very difficult, probably even
harder than knowing that the hearts are under control.
For what it's worth, I tried working out what would happen in some
systems I played. 3NT is possible and likely even probable in more
natural systems, as they're unlikely to identify the spade weakness
(as it happens, it's likely to make; the opponents are fairly likely
to get four spades and nothing else, although quickly winning five
spade tricks is far from impossible as all their finesses will become
certain once you show out of spades).
Trying a (non-relay) system full of slam conventions, the opener (by the
time they had to choose between 5D and 6D) knew that the responder had
8+ HCP (but not much more), 2 or 3 diamonds, 4+ spades (the exact
number wasn't asked for due to the misfit), the Queen of Diamonds, no
Aces, and not the King of Spades. Is that enough information to make
the slam worth bidding? Perhaps you'd do it at matchpoints on the basis
that 5D is unlikely to make more points than 3NT (if 3NT goes down then
5D probably is too), so 6D is unlikely to do worse than 5D and might do
much better. It doesn't seem like a very sound bid, though, because
you're probably assuming your partner has the Queen of Spades, in which
case there's a pretty high chance of a loser in either hearts or clubs
(especially if your partner has only four spades, and thus more
chance of a 4:3 split in the rounded suits). Perhaps the uncertainty
over the number of diamonds might lead to the slam being bid; it's
pretty good if your partner actually has three of them.
--
ais523