[navit]

Opponents passed thru the bidding. I opened with 3H with 7 D and 9 HCP. my partner responded 4 C. The contract ended up in 4 NT wcich we made with 1 overtrick. My partner's hand showed only 2 C , A and J. Please expalin his bid.

[skjaeran]

navit, on Sep 29 2007, 07:47 AM, said:

Opponents passed thru the bidding. I opened with 3H with 7 D and 9 HCP. my partner responded 4 C. The contract ended up in 4 NT wcich we made with 1 overtrick. My partner's hand showed only 2 C , A and J. Please expalin his bid.

I assume you held 7 hearts, not diamonds for a 3♥ opening.

It's fairly normal that 4♣ is a cuebid agreeing ♥'s. Some even play 4♣ as ace asking. I'd not expect anyone doing the latter without agreements.

4♣ as a cuebid without agreements wouldn't surprise me though. I know a lot who'd never expect that bid to be natural.

[Quantumcat]

3C would be a forcing bid, 4C some cue or other (splinter or normal cue is up to agreement I guess)

[skjaeran]

Quantumcat, on Sep 29 2007, 02:24 PM, said:

3C would be a forcing bid,

Forcing a TD call you mean? - it's insufficient...

[Quantumcat]

oops! I thought it was 2♥. Silly me. So 4♣ would never be a suit, always a cue agreeing hearts?

[han]

For me 4C would be RKC for hearts (which is fairly standard, see for example the excellent book "preempts from A to Z" by Anderson and Auken" (then her last name wasn't Auken)). A cuebid is also reasonable.

Something you could discuss with your regular partner.