[Walddk]

Scoring: IMP

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RHO annoyingly opens 1♦ and you double. Pass by LHO and 1♥ response from partner. East passes, and now it's you. What is the best way to show this powerhouse?

Roland

[pbleighton]

I'm sorry to be so simple-minded, but pd could have a yarborough and won't have 10/good 9 points, and I am 4432 with 22 points. I bid 4H here, as I would at the table

If pd has the right hand for slam, he will know what to do.

Peter

[whereagles]

2NT wtp?

[temp3600]

3♥

[joker_gib]

2♦ cue automatic !

Partner will now respond his HCP's by step (2NT still natural with a stopper)

2♥ : 0-3
2♠ : 4-5
3♣ : 6-7

Alain

[hrothgar]

pbleighton, on Dec 23 2005, 02:45 PM, said:

I'm sorry to be so simple-minded, but pd could have a yarborough and won't have 10/good 9 points, and I am 4432 with 22 points. I bid 4H here, as I would at the table 

If pd has the right hand for slam, he will know what to do.

Peter

You're right: Partner will KNOW exactly what to do after 4♥. He's going to pass almost regardless of hand type because there isn't enough bidding space to make any kind of intelligent decision.

How is partner supposed to devine that

♠ 93
♥ Q832
♦ 9873
♣ QJ3

Is golden

But

♠ 763
♥ J873
♦ A72
♣ K74

doesn't offer good play for 6

Mark me down for 2♦ Please note: I don't consider step responses showing HCP remotely standard (or particularly useful)

[ArcLight]

3♥

With a little bit of help, say 5 hearts to the Q, or 4 hearts to the Q, with hearts 3-2, and some fillers in Spades (J 10) 4 ♥ can make. There will be no way for pard to know the J 10 of Spades are important, but the trump Q and J and length will be obvious.

I don't think 4♥ opposite a Yarborough with 4 hearts will make.
You have a club loser, a dimaond loser, and will need 3 leads from pards hand to pick up the KQ of diamonds for no loss plus take the Spade finesse.

RHO probably has at least 12 HCP. There are at most 6 HCP outstanding.
Pard may very well have only 4 Hearts and 3 HCP( maybe the Queen of Clubs, ouch).

Pard is showing around 0-7 HCP and 4+ hearts.

Its not uncommon to overbid with monster hands, only to go down when pard doesn't have enough.

[joker_gib]

hrothgar, on Dec 23 2005, 02:44 PM, said:

I don't consider step responses showing HCP remotely standard (or particularly useful)

I agree Richard and 2♦ is the only way to show this monster and any kind of ♥ fit is wrong cause partner may have only 3 cards for his 1♥ bid

Alain

[pbleighton]

Richard:

1. What is your auction for finding a slam with
♠ 93
♥ Q832
♦ 9873
♣ QJ3
after a 2D response? I'm sure you have one,
I'm just curious.

Peter

[joker_gib]

ArcLight, on Dec 23 2005, 02:51 PM, said:

Pard is showing around 0-7 HCP and 4+ hearts.

0-7 is OK but can be 3 cards in my book !

Alain

[joker_gib]

pbleighton, on Dec 23 2005, 03:09 PM, said:

Richard:

1. What is your auction for finding a slam with
♠ 93
♥ Q832
♦ 9873
♣ QJ3
after a 2D response? I'm sure you have one,
I'm just curious.

Peter

Euh ?

With that I think game is clearly enough !

Which slam do you want to play with that ?

[hrothgar]

pbleighton, on Dec 23 2005, 05:09 PM, said:

Richard:

1. What is your auction for finding a slam with
♠ 93
♥ Q832
♦ 9873
♣ QJ3
after a 2D response? I'm sure you have one,
I'm just curious.

Peter

I doubt that I can come up with a good auction to find slam with the hand in question. I'm not even sure that I want to be in slam with these two hands...

Myy main intention was to dispute your assertion that partner is well positioned to make an intelligent decision after a blast to 4♥

[Blofeld]

I'm going with 2♦. If partner insists, I might leave this in 3♥, but on the other hand slam isn't out of the picture.

[MickyB]

This feels marginal between 3♥ and 4♥. Not sure I like 2♦ - is it still possible to show 4♥ but a hand not worth forcing to game on?

[Walddk]

MickyB, on Dec 23 2005, 04:18 PM, said:

... is it still possible to show 4♥ but a hand not worth forcing to game on?

Certainly, 2♥.

Roland

[MickyB]

I'm finding myself too easily persuaded here...I had one person tell me that 4♥ was an underbid, so I decided I would definitely bid 4♥ and not 3; Now Roland has told me he would bid 2♥, so I've decided that 4♥ is insane and 3♥ is just right

Whether 2♥ is reasonable depends upon its lower limit, which in turn depends on the range for 1♥. For me 2♥ would be a definite underbid, but I can imagine a style in which it is normal.

[Al_U_Card]

Seems to me with a 2C opener that you double and q-bid to show it and then pard knows what you have generally and there is room to explore for specifics.

[Al_U_Card]

btw, is a dbl then jump q-bid looking for a stopper and denying 3 card support for pard or what?

[arrows]

2♦, let partner make another descriptive bid if possible.

Over partner's 2♥, I will try 2NT.

To this point, partner should know I have a strong balanced hand
a little below game-forcing, definitely with ♥ support.

[awm]

A practical 4♥ for me. Might this go down? Yeah, sure. But 4♥ has play opposite Qxxx of heart and out, or five small hearts and out. I'm not going to stop short of game on this hand.

Could we have slam? Well, it's possible. And I don't really expect partner to bid slam over 4♥. But there are plenty of fairly decent hands for partner that don't make slam (say xxx QJxxx xxx Kx or Kxx QJxxx xx xxx). Partner didn't jump over the double and I'm going to assume RHO has something resembling a first-seat opening bid, so the only hands that really make slam seem to include doubleton spade for partner. It's going to be hard to get partner to make the right decision here, and the more aggressively I push the more likely we end up too high on six-counts with five hearts like those examples.