[HeartA]

---

South opened 1S:
South - West - North - East
1♠ - PASS - 2♥ - 3♦
3NT - PASS - 4♦ - PASS
5♣ - PASS - 5NT - PASS
6NT - PASS - 7♠ - DBL
PPP.

[flytoox]

Hard to pick when all bids seem so wrong to me. 1S is wrong, 2H is not very meaningful imo. 3N is wrong, 5C/5N are wrong...

[mr1303]

Call me old fashioned, but I really prefer North to bid spades at some point in the auction below the 7 level.....

[Chamaco]

I think 3NT was the worse, close to the 5C bid.

However, had North raised immediately spades (with, say, jacoby 2NT or whatever forcing raise) despite his strong/long hearts, we would discover we are off 2 aces, hopefully making use of Exclusion RKCB or using some other voidshowing gadgets.

Another textbook example of *why* the priorities in bidding are: a. finding/showing early a fit; b. limiting early the hand.

[42]

I don't like already the opening bid. With 55 in the black suits some open ♣ first , but with 65 the longer suit has priority. When the opening is not "kosher", it is nearly unimpossible to show the hand correctly later.
Ok, the opening WAS 1♠ here. I cannot see any reason why it should be useful to introduce the ♥s rather than showing immediately the strong ♠-support since we have also gf sequences available with support and the 2/1 argument is not so important (mo ). The ♥s will be working well in a ♠-contract. Ok, a ruff might threaten should we have a ♥-fit as well, but they must find it
So I don't pick a bid of the list, both players chose the most difficult path and fell into the gorge instead of going for an easy walk.
Caren

[kgr]

Chamaco, on Oct 31 2005, 10:50 AM, said:

However, had North raised immediately spades (with, say, jacoby 2NT or whatever forcing raise) despite his strong/long hearts, we would discover we are off 2 aces, hopefully making use of Exclusion RKCB or using some other voidshowing gadgets.

Another textbook example of *why* the priorities in bidding are: a. finding/showing early a fit; b. limiting early the hand.

I play fit showing bids with my partner, but if we have a long good suit - minimal KQTxx - then we will first bid that suit and support later. If partner has an honour in my long suit then slem is possible even without a lot of points.
eg:
1S-2H
2NT-3S...
This would show responder has good hearts and a fit spades. Opener will bid 3NT (serious) if he is excited about this, bid 4S if he really is subminimal and will cue otherwise.
Do you think that this is a bad idea?

[kgr]

kgr, on Oct 31 2005, 12:21 PM, said:

Chamaco, on Oct 31 2005, 10:50 AM, said:

However, had North raised immediately spades (with, say, jacoby 2NT or whatever forcing raise) despite his strong/long hearts, we would discover we are off 2 aces, hopefully making use of Exclusion RKCB or using some other voidshowing gadgets.

Another textbook example of *why* the priorities in bidding are: a. finding/showing early a fit; b. limiting early the hand.

I play fit showing bids with my partner, but if we have a long good suit - minimal KQTxx - then we will first bid that suit and support later. If partner has an honour in my long suit then slem is possible even without a lot of points.
eg:
1S-2H
2NT-3S...
This would show responder has good hearts and a fit spades. Opener will bid 3NT (serious) if he is excited about this, bid 4S if he really is subminimal and will cue otherwise.
Do you think that this is a bad idea?

At the other hand your ♥'s are so good/long here and you have good ♠ support. Why not bid:
1S-5D voidwood
or
1S-2H (3D)
3NT-5D voidwood

[Free]

I can understand 1♠: poor on controls. But the real problem bid imo is 3NT.

[Chamaco]

kgr, on Oct 31 2005, 10:32 AM, said:

  Why not bid:
1S-5D voidwood

If your pard does not get confused, sounds ok to me.
However, *I* would be confused :-)

Quote

or
1S-2H (3D)
3NT-5D voidwood

If I were opener, I would be very much confused by this sequence.

However, I think the main idea is that, IMO, there is little point in making a fitshowing bid.

I like to use a fitshowing bid when I want to describe my hand to pard and leave him the choice of the contract, relinquishing control.
In this case, I want to be the one to place the contract, so I'll try to take control of the auction by means of a forcing raise followed by EKB.

[FrancesHinden]

Hmmm. The prize for worst bid of the auction goes to 3NT. The prize for best call of the auction goes to the player that doubled 7S. Other than that:

i) 1♠ I don't agree with this (why not open 1♣?) but it's probably South's best call of the auction.

ii) 2♥ - not unreasonable, it's a very difficult hand to bid. How about 3♥ strong jump shift?

iii) 3NT. Horrible. Honestly. You can't possibly believe 3NT is where you want to play?

iv) 4♦ Not going well for North, as he hasn't agreed spades.

v) 5♣ doesn't really show clubs, sounds like a cuebid for hearts or spades. You can't bid clubs now, should have bid 4♣ over 3♦

vi) 5NT probably meant as grand slam force in spades, sounds to me like grand slam force in hearts

vii) 6NT confused

viii) 7♠ Probably correct that 6NT isn't a good contract.

[Al_U_Card]

As wrong as 1S is, 2H was a total no-no. They have a huge fit somewhere, ya gotta splinter in C and when you can start q-bidding, you won't care if they double for leads etc., you will get to the right contract.....

[Al_U_Card]

With 2 keys and a working void, a 5NT response to Pard's 4NT will solve the puzzle.

[han]

So many bad bids to choose from....... I'll pick 3NT.

[Kalvan14]

Most of the bids were horrible
OTOH, I am going against the tide: 3N was a theoretically horrible bid, but in practice helped N, pinpointing the real problem (40% of S HCP are in ♦).
Probably, best bid after this is 5♠ (ok, you can have a slam in ♠ with A♣ and Axxxx or QJxxx in ♠; OTOH, in practice N has lost too many levels, and has not yet communicated the ♠ fit).
Best is to renounce the Grand (which is unlikely after the 3N, in any case), and assume a bad split in ♠

[HeartA]

This is a board my friend, who sat North, asked me to judge. I agree that it is a mess from the very beginning, since I would open 1♣. But I think 1♠ and 2♥ were not the worst. While my friend insisted that his pd was to blame for the entire mess, I said he was partially responsible. I could accept 3NT bid since it might be the last chance to bid 3NT, given that two majors were "misfit" (pd didn't show support for ♠ and South was void in ♥). 4♦ was still OK as North wanted to investigate slam but not sure which level would be good. South might think 4♦ showed slam interest in ♥ (as Justin also mentioned the same), and therefore tried to show and ♣ fit. So I think 5NT was the worst (pick a slam), because South was completely in dark. I would bid 6♠ instead of 5NT.