Set Two 12 April 2017 Hand 15

Board 15 East Deals	♠ A K Q 10 8 6 5 ♥ 9 5 ♦ A ♣ Q 7 3
♠ 9 4 3 2 ♥ Q 4 ♦ 10 6 5 ♣ 10 6 4 2	N W E S	♠ 7 ♥ K J 8 7 6 2 ♦ J 4 3 ♣ J 9 8
	♠ J ♥ A 10 3 ♦ K Q 9 8 7 2 ♣ A K 5

NS 7N; NS 7♠; NS 7♦; NS 6♣; NS 3♥; Par +1520

West	North	East	South
		2 ♦	3 ♦
Pass	3 ♥	Pass	3 NT
Pass	5 ♠	Pass	5 NT
Pass	6 ♣	Pass	6 ♦
Pass	7 ♠	All pass

7 ♠ by North

Lead: ♠ 7

Made 7 — NS +1510

This is a problem hand for the methods. After a three of a minor overcall most often north will want to aim towards 3 NT. To this end it makes sense to use three of a major in response to ask for a stopper. This means we will sometimes have a problem when we have a long major and want to explore for a major suit game. 

Some of that ambiguity is overcome by using a jump to four of a major to show a good six card suit and game values. 

Here we have an even stronger hand. In this case we can "cue" 3 ♥ and then bid our spades. Since 3 ♦ shows 16-18 this hand can force to slam by jumping to 5 ♠. There is room for other subtleties. For example a repeat cue of 4 ♥ could show a heart control and therefore the jump to 5 ♠ deny a heart control. This would show our hand precisely. The 4 ♥ bid would have to be spades as with a diamond fit (or clubs) after 3 NT we can pull to 4 ♦ (or 4 ♣). 

Illustrated here is the use of 5 NT (one-level above 4 NT RKCB) when the auction has progressed to the five-level in a slam try auction without asking for key cards. Under those conditions we can use 5 NT to ask for key-cards in order to investigate a grand slam. So long as you have the clear agreement then the subsequent 6 ♦ and ask for the trump queen. This method works best if you use kickback so the key card ask is one step above five of the trump suit. 

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