[Fluffy]

I also find double obvious with partner's hand, it might lead to 3NT, or to a cold 5♣.

[Cascade]

On the bidding, I think slam in diamonds is more likely that game in hearts. If partner has six hearts they don't have to be very good and it may still be the clear option.

An advantage of 5♦ is that partner will sometimes be able to bid slam now knowing you have a good suit rather than some balanced rubbish that you might have had.

[dave_beer]

Fluffy, on 2015-February-11, 16:03, said:

I also find double obvious with partner's hand, it might lead to 3NT, or to a cold 5♣.

Or even 3♥X, since I think that PASS is the correct action at equal or favorable vulnerability opposite what could be a relatively balanced hand with at least 9 HCP. Yes it would be nice if all of partner's stuff was in ♣ but he is a strong favorite to have wasted values in ♥.

[daffydoc]

5D seems automatic to me - while it could be wrong - preempts do that to you and pard could have bid 4H on something as putrid as xx aKJxx xxx axx he is under pressure as well. daffydoc take my bad result and remember that Geir has done this to me before - what else is new?

[PLimprove]

Your partner must have general 16pts or weak hand with long hearts so you two may be weak at clubs. You must bid 4NT to ask for keycards to check how strong your partner is. If he is weak you can stop at 5H and find a slam if he is strong or he has 2+ keycards.

[Dinarius]

Fundamental problem with this hand is duplication.

For example, swap opener's 4 rag Clubs for 4 rag Hearts and 7 Hearts/Diamonds are almost certainly laydown. As it stands, two 5 loser hands can only just about make game.

Opener doesn't know this (duplication) after partner bids 4 Hearts.

For me, the fault lies with partner. North's 3 Spade bid should alert East to the fact that all is almost certainly not well with the various distributions. Thus, opener is almost certainly 5+ in Diamonds and not holding a bare 4. This makes East's Q,x,x in Diamonds pure gold. And to hide them by bidding a negative double would be wrong in my view.

East knows what he has, and he knows that his side must be in game or a slam. The question is where.

The fact that 5 Diamonds doesn't make and 4 Hearts does is a freak of Nature. More often than not, the 8 Hearts will be 5/3 or 6/2 with (based on the bidding) South holding the length over declarer. Not good. 5 Diamonds will make most of the time.

I think that 4 Hearts is a poor bid. I bid an immediate 5 Diamonds.

I still think that 5 Diamonds is the correct rebid opposite East's 4 Hearts. It's just bad luck, NOT bad judgement. That lay with East, IMHO. 1D, Pass, 1H, would be fine. But, introducing Hearts at the 4 level and ignoring everything else seems wrong.

My vote is an immediate 5 Diamonds.

Second choice is negative double.

D.

Ps. Was 4 Spades by East possible? e.g. Unassuming cue bid.

[gszes]

jvage, on 2015-February-11, 12:03, said:

I definitely made bigger mistakes during the weekend

Sorry I cut off a large amount of your quote but the fact that your 5d bid did not work on that
particular hand does not make it a "mistake". Note that your p was probably relieved you were not
playing in 4h after they found out (your 5d bid) that you were extremely short in hearts and they
were just as wrong as you were for not pulling to 5h. You made a sound bid that did not work due to
the vagaries of luck that's life. Keep up the good work and eliminate those other "mistakes" but do
not concern yourself with this one.

[Fluffy]

dave_beer, on 2015-February-11, 18:35, said:

Or even 3♥X, since I think that PASS is the correct action at equal or favorable vulnerability opposite what could be a relatively balanced hand with at least 9 HCP. Yes it would be nice if all of partner's stuff was in ♣ but he is a strong favorite to have wasted values in ♥.

Pass is a bit of a gamble, and I had a very bad experience passing a partscore doubled with AKx. However here I think you are right, there is no great way to describe our hand anyway.

[jdgalt]

Maybe I'm not getting it since I'm not a world-level player, but the only calls I would consider are pass and 5D. I prefer pass because if partner's hearts aren't better than my diamonds he should not have bid. (Of course what I really want to see is the opponents playing 4S or higher, which I will X in a heartbeat. I've seen a few of the hands Helgemo will bluff on.)