[Codo]

Scoring: IMP

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You play your Championship against very good opponents.
The bidding started with:
1 ♥ pass 4 ♥ ??

no last pass, ty Frances!

It is your turn, what do you bid?

If you ask about the 4 Heart bid: 8-10 HCPs, at most one outside ace.
The opps play 5 card major, quite natural system.

OF course, the 3. Choice is 4 NT, not 5 NT... just in case, somebody cares...

[FrancesHinden]

I assume that the last pass hasn't happened: it's gone 1H P 4H to us?
Last time I bid 4S in this sequence I went for 800 against nothing. But I still think it's right in the long term.

[whereagles]

It's a guess, but I'll guess opps can make game more often than not, so I'll try 4♠. If this gets doubled, I might consider 5♣ later on.

[Winstonm]

This is always a brutal sequence, and I think the last two times I butted in I went off for 800. Maybe I'm learning something; maybe not, LoL, but I'm more prone nowadays to have better consolidation to step in - the heart Q and diamond K have little value it seems, so the question I ask myself is would I bid with:
AJ10xx
x,
x,
J10xxxx.

Although 6/5 hands are great, I'd be more comfortable if the 6 were in spades or if the KQ were in my suits instead of singletons...maybe even just one of them.

AQJ10x
x
K
J10xxxx

would look a lot better to me.

I'm passing this one due to the poor holdings in hearts/diamonds.

Winston

[Codo]

I found dummy in 4 Spade doubled with 9x,qxxx,xxx,AQxx and was not to pleased that we played our 7 Card fit and not the 10 card fit.
But I was lucky, Spades 4-2 with KQ onside, Club finesse worked, Club ruff from the hand with the long spades gave me 9 tricks and -100 bet -650 by far.
Had been 1400 in other layouts...

[inquiry]

Six-Five, come alive!

We are not vul, they are,
We are 6-5

We have to bid. Our options are 4♠ and 4NT. With 4NT being any 2 suiter, and partner will bid ♣ with even longer ♦ unless he can't stand ♣. The downside is that you might have to play 5♠. 4♠ is spades, and does not promise nor deny a second suit. You got to make one of those bids. I think I will bid a confident 4♠ although if I bid 4NT, and partner can't stand ♣, we are better off in 5♠ than when I bid 4♠ and he can't stand spades (in the first case, I can ruff ♣ in partners hand, in the second case, partner passes 4♠ and there I am stuck).

[mike777]

4S loudly.

I could have less.

[pclayton]

This hand, with the useless red honors is worse than : AJTxx, x, x, JT9xxx.

I will pass and I don't think its close. They haven't made 4♥ yet.

[pclayton]

Codo, on May 12 2006, 05:03 AM, said:

I found dummy in 4 Spade doubled with 9x,qxxx,xxx,AQxx and was not to pleased that we played our 7 Card fit and not the 10 card fit.
But I was lucky, Spades 4-2 with KQ onside, Club finesse worked, Club ruff from the hand with the long spades gave me 9 tricks and -100 bet -650 by far.
Had been 1400 in other layouts...

Move the ♣AQxx to ♦AJxx and do you still feel good about 4♠? I suppose there is reason to hope for a fit, but its too much to ask for a double fit. And what makes you think we can find the right strain? If LHO doubles will you pull ( it loos like you didn't). And will pard pull with a stiff spade?

[pbleighton]

4S is arguable, but I pass.

Peter

[mikeh]

pclayton, on May 12 2006, 12:54 PM, said:

This hand, with the useless red honors is worse than : AJTxx, x, x, JT9xxx.

I agree.

Stiff honours (or other short honours) in the opps suits are not merely 'worthless': they are negative values.

They are cards that the opps do not have.

Thus, if you were AJxxx x x Jxxxxx, you could realistically hope that the opps 10+ ♥ fit included the AKQJ.... .and there would be more room in partner's hand for helpful cards... As it is, you know that the opps high card strength is now more likely to include high black suit honours: which will be more useful to them on defence.

However, I would still bid 4♠: I agree with Frances that this is a long-term winner. Bear in mind that bidding 4♠ on this hand type will often give the opps a chance to go wrong. It is not just that 4♠ may be a paying save (or a freaky make): sometimes the opps bid again and go down.

If I knew that 4♠ would always be doubled when it is 'wrong', I'd pass... but that's not the way the world works.

[han]

4S seems the percentage call, I agree with many of the previous comments.