I was only joking, but...

Insanity sometimes leads to interesting ideas.

A deal was posted on the Bridge Base Forums where East-West bid like lunatics and paid heavily. The short version is that E-W ended up in 7♣X with stiff Q opposite 9xxxx instead of 7D with AQ10xxxx opposite xxx. Strange.

However, in looking at the North-South hands, it occurred to me that N-S had a chance at 7♥, so long as SOUTH declared 7♥. A club lead happens to beat 7♥, but it makes on any other lead.

The auction was 1♠-P-2NT-5D-5♥-P-6♠-7♣-X-P(!!!)-P-P.

So, how to get to 6♥ by South?

Well, an idea to consider. If Opener's RHO blasts up into the stratosphere, he seems reasonably likely to have a void. If Opener has a void in RHO's suit, and sufficient values for the six-level, maybe he should be allowed to use transfers into alternative strains.

Had our Opener held a better hand or been frisky (he held a nice collection of QJ108x-KQJxx-void-KJx), perhaps a 6D transfer/choice would have been better than a 6♥ natural choice. With tactical reasons to play it himself, Opener could bid 5♥ and then 6♥ if needed.

This idea of transfers may be useful in other sequences. Suppose, for instance, that you play simple Jacoby 2NT. You open 1♠, partner bids 2NT, and you are planning to show a source of tricks in diamonds. RHO, however, bids 3♣.

Now, what if you play transfers to show side trick sources? If Responder has diamonds and spades, with a positional diamond stopper (Kx), then the contract can be right-sided. The auction would be 1♠-P-2NT-3♣-4♣-P-4D...

So, it seems that one nice treatment might be to determine in what situations you might make use of transfers when the anticipated declarer hears interference or a lead director by his RHO.