Gavin wrote:
It is important to be able to reason out what the bids mean on the fly. You will never memorizevthese auctions because there are too many of them and they come up infrequently. Your goal should be to understand them all as a whole and then be able to dissect an individual auction to reason out what the bids NEED to mean.

Response structure by Gavin Wolpert

Minor Suit Slam Auctions:
  • Partner has not promised 5-5 in the minors when they show both minors. You often will still want to end the auction in 4NT when you have most of your points in the majors.
  • With a good hand for partner, opener may not have room to express it to partner below game. Sometimes opener will have to go straight to slam. We should not be aggressive to show both minors and a slam try.
  • There is very limited room to sort things out. No one gets all of these auctions right. If you are having trouble with the auctions, know that even experts struggle with these auctions.
  • Don't be aggressive to look for slam. The money is in staying out of bad slams. If you are too pushy you will end up minus.
    • 3♦️ no 4-card major
      • 3♠️ Smolen, 4 spades and 5+ hearts, game forcing
        • 3NT no fit
          • 4♣️/♦️ responder's 3rd suit
          • 4❤️ six hearts
      • 4♦️ 5+ diamonds and 4 of a major, mild slam interest, e.g. ♠️KJ42 ❤️2 ♦️ADJ32 ♣️763
        • 4❤️ keycard for diamonds
        • 4♠️ control bid
        • 4NT to play
        • 5♣️ control bid
        • 5♦️ to play
    • 3❤️ 4+ hearts (may have 4 spades)
      • 3♠️ heart fit and slam interest, continue with control bidding
      • 4♣️ 5+ clubs and 4 spades, mild slam interest
        • 4♦️ good hand, flag bid for spades
        • 4❤️ good hand, flag bid for clubs
        • 4♠️ to play
        • 4NT to play
        • 5♣️ to play
      • 4❤️ to play
      • 4NT quantitative invite
    • 3♠️ 4+ spades
      • 4♣️ 4 hearts and 5+ clubs. This auction has a completely different structure because we cannot have a major suit fit. So the only suit opener can show a good hand in is partner’s minor. In this case we play one over keycard and control bids.
        • 4♦️ keycard for clubs
        • 4❤️ control bid
        • 4♠️ control bid
        • 4NT to play
        • 5♣️ to play
      • 4❤️ spade fit and slam interest, opener can sign-off in 4♠️ or continue with control bidding
      • 4♠️ to play
      • 4NT quantitative invite
    Requires 6+ card suit
    • 4♣️ Slam try in hearts
      • 4♦️ good hand, flag bid for hearts
      • 4❤️ to play
      • 4NT RCKB
    • 4♦️ Slam try in spades
      • 4❤️ good hand, flag bid for spades
      • 4♠️ to play
      • 4NT RCKB
    • 4❤️ Slam try in clubs. Gavin's approach looks better (2NT-3♠️-3NT-4♦️)
      • 4♠️ good hand, flag bid for clubs
      • 4NT to play
      • 5♣️ to play
    • 4♠️ Slam try in diamonds.
      • 4NT to play
      • 5♣️ good hand, flag bid for diamonds
      • 5♦️ to play

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