[Antrax]

Matchpoints, N/S vul

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At this stage, I felt I bid my hand enough, and chose to retreat to 4♠. After the hand partner mentioned he didn't think I'm allowed or expected to express judgment in this situation, if I have an ace I have to show it. I'm wondering if this is right.
(We don't play serious/frivolous slam tries yet)

[inquiry]

A general answer is no, you don't have too. You should not participate when you can be certain from the auction to that point that no slam is possible. The answer on this hand is it would be criminal not to cue-bid the diamond ace. Exception would be if you play something like precision so partner's 1♠ was limited, and even then I would be worried because if partner could hold a hand like this on this auction: ♠AKxxxx ♥- ♦xx ♣AKxxx (assumption 4♣ was "cue-bid") you have grand slam if clubs behave.

Note on this hand, your partner's four club cue-bid was not made because you might have a good hand. He knows you passed initially. He clearly has slam ambitions. This is why on this auction, it would be criminal if you refused to cue-bid in response.

[Antrax]

Interesting, thanks. I was sure I read somewhere cue-bidding in response shows not only a control but also some interest in slam.

[P_Marlowe]

Antrax, on 2011-September-12, 00:10, said:

Interesting, thanks. I was sure I read somewhere cue-bidding in response shows not only a control but also some interest in slam.

Well - the question is, what does "some interest in slam" mean, inquiry's response phrased differently:

You should cue bid, if you cant be certain, that slam is impossible.
So you make a cue, if slam is still a valid possibility, and if you think slam is still a valid
possibility, you have some interest in slam.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[farrnbach]

We play it as

"partner asks" -> "I answer honestly"

So here definitely a 4D cue bid, a real issue comes up if I must advance over the 4M border with a extremly marginal hand

[the hog]

Antrax, on 2011-September-11, 23:14, said:

Matchpoints, N/S vul

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At this stage, I felt I bid my hand enough, and chose to retreat to 4♠. After the hand partner mentioned he didn't think I'm allowed or expected to express judgment in this situation, if I have an ace I have to show it. I'm wondering if this is right.
(We don't play serious/frivolous slam tries yet)

Absolutely cue 4D on this hand. Your partner has seen the bidding as well; don't you trust her?

[paulg]

It is a common misjudgement for B/I players (plus some advanced and expert players) to overbid good hands and underbid weak ones. It is all about bidding the hand in context.

As others have said, this is not a great hand and is probably minimum for the two clubs response. If partner had followed up with natural three clubs then I think three spades would have been a good call.

But partner has shown distinct slam interest with four clubs and, in this context, an ace is an important card. So four diamonds is clear.

[campboy]

Basically if partner is unlimited and you can co-operate without going above game you should.

[Antrax]

Partner didn't show four clubs, but he did show SI and A/K clubs.

[helene_t]

Antrax, on 2011-September-12, 00:10, said:

Interesting, thanks. I was sure I read somewhere cue-bidding in response shows not only a control but also some interest in slam.

Depends. You will never cuebid if you have no interest in slam at all - in that case you just sign off in game.

Here, you have indicated your range quite accurately by not opening and then showing a maximum pass by using Drury. So in this case partner must have slam interest, knowing that you don't have opening values. This means you have to cooperate.

But if you were not a passed hand you might wonder if partner, by his cuebid, was saying:
- that he has slam interest in case you have substantial extras (so he only wants you to cooperate in that case), or
- that he has slam interest even if you are minimum so you must cooperate regardless.

This makes slam bidding difficult in situation where the bidding reaches the 4-level while both partners have a wide range. There are conventions such as Last Train and (non)Serious 3NT that can help but they are prone to misunderstanding and also claim bids that you might want to use for other purposes.

So try to avoid situations in which both partners have a wide range at the 4-level:
- make agreements about what strengths are shown by jumps
- when your main concern is partner's general strength rather than whether he can cue a particular suit and has enough keycards, consider a quantitative slam try instead of cuebidding and RKC.