Bidding as a Conversation: Share Information Efficiently

Bridge is a partnership game. It's almost always a good idea to treat bidding like a conversation. Don't just decide on your own, have a discussion about it. Consult partner, bring them into the decision making process.

This hand came up in the US team trials recently

At one table, the player decided to leave his partner out of the discussion and just bid 4♠. At the other table, the player started with 2♠, and when his partner showed support(!) and a good hand, a laydown slam was easily reached. 

With the void, and excellent cards, its fairly reasonable to imagine this hand being slam worthy opposite partner, with say good clubs and the Ace of spades. 

If the hand was average and uninteresting, for example 

Bidding 4♠ is reasonable, the hand has lots of spades and is nothing special (not great slam prospects), which is what you have shown. 

It is generally a good idea to treat bidding as a conversation, don’t shut your partner out of it. Jumping straight to game (and basically telling your partner that you don’t care what they have) is generally not appropriate, unless slam is very unlikely and you are sure the contract you are bidding is sensible.

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