The_Badger, on 2017-October-12, 16:10, said:
That's an interesting way of reaching the grand, Mike. Thanks for posting it. Personally I haven't seen this method over five level pre-empts. There again, the chance of holding a 9 card suit is about 1 in 2600 or thereabouts, I believe, and partner enquiring about slam remotely higher, so I'm bound to have forgotten it by the next time I need it. Just my luck
Probably not over five-level preempts, but it's really a logical extension of the more standard jump rebid control asks you've seen over 2, 3 and 4-level preempts. Most folks are familiar with auctions like
2M 4m
2h 3S
3m 4M
4H 4S (if not Kickback)
4M 5m
and the like as control asking bids. Over 2M, for example, a bid of 4m has no real use otherwise (you can bid 3m if forcing first, or 2NT first with the normal type of hand). Same with 2h 3S (can bid 2S if forcing or 2NT if not first). Same with 4M preempts.
The reason is that a preemptor (especially at the 3 level and above) has narrowly defined his hand. You don't want to show him what you have; you want to ask him to narrow his hand even more so you can basically see both hands. Indeed, if you are interested in a slam, you must have first round control of at least two of the three side suits to investigate a slam. If you have that, and if you clearly have the tricks for slam, what you generally want to do is ask about the preemptor's holding in the fourth suit. There are a number of ways to play responses, but you normally have to be able to show first round control, second round control, and no control, and then for a follow-up ask, you want to be able to distinguish the high card (A or K) from the distributional control (stiff or void). You probably also want some way to be sure your trumps are halfway solid.
There's no reason why this shouldn't extent to bids over 5-level preempts as well.
Cheers,
Mike
If you could establish that the opener had 2 keycards + the trump queen, then 7N would be reasonable (hoping opener has 2 ♣s or opponents fail to lead a ♣)
Perhaps, over a 5m pre-empt, you could agree that the cheapest new suit asks for half-keycards, by steps (1, 1+Q, 2, 2+Q), as in the auction on the left. Also, a 5N rebid by responder might be a sign-off.