I am dealer and hold:

♠ AKJ10876
♥ Q
♦ KQxxx
♣ void

Partner’s hand is:

♠ 9
♥ Jxx
♦ AJxx
♣ KQJ109

Playing 2 over 1, what is the best way to bid this hand?

Hi Rena,

Wild hands aren’t always easy to bid and sometimes do require guesswork! On this hand however, you can get quite lucky.

The auction I would propose to bid the slam scientifically is (playing 2 over 1):

1♠ – 2♣
2♦ – 3♦
5♣ – 5x
6♦ – Pass

When responder can raise to 3♦, opener can now just jump to 5♣ as Exclusion Key Card Blackwood, asking for keycards outside of clubs. When responder just shows one (5x depends on your agreement that shows 1 key card), opener can now stop at a small slam.

If you don’t have Exclusion Key Card Blackwood available (it is a very useful convention when it comes up), then over 3♦, opener can probably just raise to 4♦ (absolutely setting diamonds, spades cannot be a place to play anymore), responder can cuebid 4♠ and now opener knows of no heart cuebid and bid 4NT Key Card ask. If you can’t cuebid a singleton in opener’s suit, then South will probably have to cuebid with 5♣ and now opener will have to guess, though I think responder rates to hold the ♦A if she cannot cuebid with 4♥.

Having said that, it does get tricky if responder does have a heart cuebid, say she has the ♥K. Now responder will cuebid with 4♥, and opener will now be guessing – this is why Exclusion Key Card Blackwood can be very useful when it comes up!

Hope that helps,
Andy