Answers: (More advanced material in blue - as if some of this isn't advanced
)
1.
Hint: What would possess partner to pass over 1H with the strength to bid Blackwood?
Answer: North has long, strong hearts, and West is psyching. Partner bid 7H not knowing about your CK and apparently doesn't need it, BUT partner needs an entry to his hand and you don't have any hearts. You should pass 7H.
Partner had ten solid hearts and three singletons!
2.
Hint: Why didn't partner just bid 6C the first time?
Answer: If partner jumped to 6C the first time, you would assume he was bidding it to make opposite nothing, and you would raise to 7C with the
♣A or
♣K. On this particular auction, your partner must have significant high card strength and yet your opponents are not only both bidding, but are trying for game. Your partner should expect you to have nothing. While partner could have jumped to 6C the first time, I believe the double followed by 6C shows some hearts (probably a four-card suit.) This is not a typical double and correct situation; partner must have some reason for his original double. Of course, you may deduce from the opponents' bidding that partner has hearts, but the responder could have five and the opener could have four, so it's possible that partner has a singleton ace of hearts - but partner would just jump to 6C the first time with a one-loser hand with only one heart.
Partner expects to make 6C without the
♥K so he should be able to make 7C with that card. Bid 7C.
3.
This hand is IMP scoring.
Hint: How can partner double with an opening preempt when you might not even have a good hand?
Answer: I was afraid that stating that this problem was iMPs might give the solution away.
First, let's figure out what partner is doing. We have a pretty good hand, but our side rates to have at most one heart trick, and it's possible we don't take that many clubs. Partner's hearts aren't that good, can partner really have enough defense to set 4H? Does partner have a spade stack and is he doubling to stop us from bidding 5H?
Partner shouldn't have that hand. With four good spades and seven hearts, 4H is a better opening bid than 3H. Pass is even a better bid than 3H (as 3H risks missing game or playing in the wrong suit when preemptor has so few losers.)
So partner has little defense and is doubling 4S. Why is he doing that?
The most rational reason is that partner has a void and expects to beat 4S with a couple of ruffs if you find his void with the opening lead. He is suggesting that you lead a non-heart
(and probably a suit preference card for the return.)
So if partner's void is in clubs and you lead clubs, you can take three or four club tricks and maybe a heart. If you lead diamonds, OOPS! If partner's void is in diamonds, neither hearts nor clubs are going very far but you'd better get a couple of diamond ruffs and a couple of rounded suit tricks. So if you guess the wrong void, tough luck.
You could bid 5H. If partner's void is in diamonds, you make two overtricks. If partner's void is in clubs and the opponents lead diamonds, you're probably down one, but you might survive a different lead.
As long as we have to guess partner's void to get the hand right, let's go for the huge IMP gain, let's guess that the void is in diamonds and bid 7H! The suggested bid is 7H, which will make when partner's void is in diamonds. If partner's void is in clubs, and the opponents double and lead a diamond, your score won't be far different than if you had defended 4S doubled and guessed wrong on the lead.
4.
Hint: Why didn't partner make a negative double?
Answer: I forgot to ask the question "Do you agree with your bidding so far?". Answer here:
You have given partner a choice between clubs and diamonds and partner ignored your choice and bid 2H, knowing that you don't have heart support (if you had three hearts with your clubs and diamonds, you would have reopened with a double.) However, with long hearts and about 6 points, partner can make a negative double, intending to correct to hearts. So partner has long hearts and less than 6 points. You don't have a game, and partner's hand isn't likely to produce tricks if hearts aren't trump. Pass 2H.
Partner's hand is S-842 H-QJ86532 D-3 C-75. Partner could even be weaker.
I had said that a similar hand was used in an "intermediate" class. The class hand was easier because the bidding went 1D - pass -
PASS - 1S.... so that the responder had already denied six points, and there was no reason for the opener to even consider a jump shift since game was totally out of the question.
5.
East's 2NT showed at least five clubs and five diamonds and is usually weak.
Hint: Whose hand is it? Why couldn't partner double 5D?
Answer: Whether you are familiar with forcing passes or not, you should be aware that your side has the majority of strength and you don't want the opponents to play the hand undoubled. So what's going on? Partner doubled 5C and you have four clubs and RHO has five clubs. LHO is clearly playing around - he has no intention on playing in clubs unless you let him play there undoubled. He just threw that 5C stinker bid on a short club suit in the auction to try to confuse your side.
Don't be confused. Partner doubled 5C and has some clubs. Partner has heart support. Partner has at least five spades. Partner couldn't double five diamonds so partner is probably also short in diamonds and West likely has five or six diamonds and is hoping that you let him buy the hand for 5D. However, if partner has no wasted values in diamonds, your hand should play quite well in hearts. Bid at least five hearts. I would probably bid 5H but I would give full credit for 6H as it's not unlikely that partner has the
♥AK,
♠K and
♣A, and even the
♥AJ might be enough since the
♥K would likely be with West.
6.
Hint: Do you know partner's exact distribution? You should! Eliminate the impossible distributions.
Answer: Partner would have rebid 1S with four, so partner has three spades. Partner is giving you an option of playing 2S in case you have four. You should have six hearts for your 2H bid, so with a singleton heart, partner would play the 6-1 heart fit rather than try for an unknown 4-3 spade fit. Also, you can assume that if you don't have four spades (which you usually won't), partner has a fallback, probably clubs. So assume that partner wants you to pass 2S with four, but go back to 3C otherwise. Would partner do this with seven clubs? No, partner would probably just bid 3C with seven clubs rather than give you an option to play a 4-3 spade fit. So partner has exactly three spades, exactly zero hearts, and exactly six clubs, so partner must have exactly four diamonds! Bid 3D and play your 4-4 fit.
While this wasn't hard to figure out logically, I have to give very much credit to my partner who figured out during the auction that by bidding 2S, she would be telling me her entire distribution! It's one thing to hear a really strange bid and figure out what it must mean. It's a whole different level of difficulty to think of the bid yourself and realize that partner can work everything out. While I was able to bid 3D with my hand, I think it's pretty unlikely that I would have thought to bid 2S with her hand (something like QJx, ---, Qxxx, AKJxxx.)