[whereagles]

Mike, what you deem to be a "solitaire" call is actually what I saw a french standard textbook recommend:

1M 1x
4M = long, strong hearts with A or K on the side. A preempt hand with side values, that is.

In practice it does work more often than you'd like. I remember one hand where I held something like:

xx
xx
AQxx
xxxxx

pard me
1♠ 1NT
3♠

Pass or bid 4? I can't remember pard's hand, but he had like 7 strong spades and side stuff - the typical 1M-1x-4M hand that I mentioned - and the only way to bid game is to bid 4 now on what is close to a dead min 1NT

I actually guessed right and bid game, hoping that game was on the ♦finesse, which it was. Pard, who was quite the theoretician, wandered for like 2 mins why game turned out to be such good odds and whether he should have been the one to bid it.

On the original hand, since pard's negative dbl usually shows some extras as compared to a normal response to 1♥, game looks an even better shot. I just hope people one day start to realize bidding isn't just about showing your hand but also to make decisions when the time is right.

[awm]

Some examples of why I think south should take another call:

♠Jxx
♥AK8xxx
♦xxx
♣A

Is this a 3♥ rebid? Game on this hand is pretty good, especially given the location of the majority of the opponents' values.

♠Kxx
♥KQJxxx
♦xx
♣Ax

Is this 13-count a 3♥ rebid? Game on this hand depends only on a diamond guess.

Certainly there is a style where you open 1♥ with 6322 10-counts and maybe with this style the above hands are 3♥ rebids, but in this case you need to keep your negative doubles up to strength. Despite the claims that "negative double at the two-level shows a good hand" I see an awful lot of people double with:

♠Axxx
♥Jx
♦xxx
♣QJxx

[jdonn]

You ignore what a couple have hinted at. It's not even a certainty the 2♥ rebid has six hearts. I know I have seen Rodwell rebid his major on an auction like this with five, ignoring his four card minor on the side, because he thinks he is much less likely to be doubled on the two level in case of disaster. That would make inviting by south very dangerous.

[han]

I think north has a fairly clear 3H bid. Agree with wereagles, this is not tough.