[Apollo81]

In case anyone was confused, the "5+" means that partner could have more than 5 clubs and the lack of parenthesis around the y and the 5+ means that partner's long suit is clubs. Most people seemed to understand this.

Pard's actual hand was x J8xx KQx AKQ10x. What contract would you like to be in here? There are a lot of reasonable contracts. Unfortunately, 5♥, reached by both tables (the other playing normal 2/1) is not in that list.

As someone (too lazy to check) noted, a forcing 2♠ bid over the 2♥ would work quite nicely here, if that was available. It's also too bad that we weren't playing a natural 3NT over the 3♥ bid, as that would nicely describe opener's hand and probably slow responder down some. Anyone who suggests that responder should bid something other than 3♥ is probably resulting, given the available options.

4♦ last train would undoubtedly draw 4♥ from partner, but with what exactly is partner supposed to bypass 4♥? He has told you his HCP to within a two-point range and then told you that he has a minimum for that. I think he would just bid 4♥ on any hand. Some people are going to say "clearly it asks for good trumps" but this is also resulting IMO and far from clear sans agreements. Nevertheless, 4♦ may be the right bid if you are otherwise on a completely random 50-50 guess as to whether to bid 4♥ or not.

[whereagles]

Apollo81, on Apr 12 2007, 05:16 PM, said:

4♦ last train would undoubtedly draw 4♥ from partner, but with what exactly is partner supposed to bypass 4♥? He has told you his HCP to within a two-point range and then told you that he has a minimum for that. I think he would just bid 4♥ on any hand.

Pard is expected to bypass 4♥ with ANY hand except perhaps something like

x
KQJx
KQJxx
QJx

Pard is limited and weakish so doesn't have the right to mastermind what responder is trying for. He just bids what he has, period.

[Edmunte1]

Useful board. I think using serious 3NT here should be a matter of trumps quality and controls. So bypassing 3NT should mean: i have bad trumps (good trumps means 2 out of 3 top honours) or i don't have enough controls (max 3).