Bidding Poll

[agh]

 You hold
KQxx
AT7xx
Qxx
x

You open and the auction goes, uncontested
1H      2N(1)
3C(2) 4C
4H      5H?

1 - Jacoby
2 - Shortness
? - What is this, and what do you do?

Comments

[nobleshore]

On paper, a voluntary raise to 5M asks for, in order, control of the opponents' suit, the unbid suit, or 2/3 top trumps. However, this cannot possibly be the case here.

First of all, we know partner doesn't have a void. (A) he might have splintered and (B) there is no void consistent with his bids after 2NT. So if he doesn't have a void, why didn't he bid RKC? This narrows it down to either (A2) he has a general invitation to slam or (B2) he wants you to bid 6 if you have some suit controlled. (A2) cannot possibly be the case since he would have bid more slowly over 3c -- such as 3h. Thus he has to be interested in a control. What suit? Spades of course, since he passed over 3s to bid 4c. And BTW, our failure to bid 4d does not deny the ace there since (A3) a lot of people play last train in this situation and (B3) even if they don't, I think "cuebids are mandatory" is not normal.

Since partner is asking for a spade control I would bid 6h. Obviously this is not a singleton since we already showed one in clubs and then tried to sign off!