[Bbradley62]

I'm frequently puzzled by the modern style of cuebidding; mostly, I don't get when "first or second round control" applies. so that may be the problem here.

I also may have established unreasonable expectations with my first two bids, but none of my choices seemed to fit over 5♣:
5♦ was pre-explained as 8+ 8421HCP in ♦;
5♥ was pre-explained as 7- 8421HCP in ♦ and 8+ in ♥;
5♠ is explained as 3- HCP in each ♦ and ♥.

Was there supposed to be a way to show more than 3 but less than 8, or is the 5♠ explanation supposed to say "7-" instead of "3-"?

[barmar]

GIB doesn't use the "modern style" of cue bidding. It shows first round controls first, then kings on the next round of bidding. "8+" means that the bid shows the ace. When you skip over a suit, you deny the ace in that suit, which it represents as 7-.

I'm not sure why 5♠ would show 3- in both the other suits, unless it had already shown those aces, so now you're also denying the king. But maybe there's a glitch in the bidding rule. Can you show the full auction? Since when do you post a GIB problem without a hand?

[Bbradley62]

Oops... Sorry... How'd that happen?

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[barmar]

There are a bunch of support functions in the GIB code that try to figure out when you can cue bid, and what cue bids show in the suit bid, and deny in the suits that have been bypassed. There must be a bug in this case, making it think that you had an opportunity to cue the Kings (not true: if you bid 5♦ or 5♥, it shows the Ace), but it's going to take me a while to figure it out. GIB's source code is not a paragon of clarity.

[Bbradley62]

"It's now on my list" is good enough for me... Thanks.