[Orla]

This situation came up at our table tonight.
I opened 1♦ in third seat. LHO doubles.
He is holding:
♠ A K Q 5 3
♥ K T 9 4
♦  -
♣  A Q T 7

His Partner bids 1♥ holding:
♠ T 7
♥ J 7 6 5 3
♦ K Q 9 8 4
♣ 3

I bid 2♦(had 6) and LHO now bids 2♠, which his partner passes. Mr X had nothing better to do than to berate his partner, telling him that "pass" was not an option. I disagree. I would have understood that we had a misfit.

What I am really getting at is this:
Why not "support" partner('s bid) (instead of "berating" him)?
If he really really really wanted to force his partner to bid, why not bid ♦ after the ♥ bid - implying the suit fit?
What did he want his partner to bid?
Repeat his scrawny ♥s?
3♠, with his doubleton? (How will Mr "Advanced" know that his partner has a 2 5 distribution and not a 3 4 distribution?) (declarer made 2♠+1)

I think Mr "Advanced" should have either shown the ♥ support, or cuebid ♦.

Also, I think Mr "Advanced" should not leave the table in a huff after the hand, because, IMHO, his intermediate partner was not to blame.

End of rant.

rla

[ArcLight]

1. 1♥ was an underbid, I'd have bid 2♥

2. The 2♠ bid showed a BIG hand, pard should not have passed.

3. With that good a hand, and pard bididng 1♥ I would bid 4♥, not 2♠, since the 1♥ was limited to 0-8. It takes little to make slam, assuming the Club finesse in on side. 5 hearts to the Ace, or 4 hearts to the QA. Slam takes so little. But maybe pard is broke. If I bid 4♥ he will know I have a montsre and will hopefully act.


If one suffers a bidding disaster, I think its sufficient to say "pard DBL, followed by a new suit shows a very strong hand" and leave it at that. Then quietly leave after the hand, without yelling at anyone.

[hrothgar]

I think that its a mistake to let this one hand shape your opinion about passing 2♠

I'm happy to discuss the merits of a 2♠ bid - I like it. However, even if you think that there is a better bid available on this hand, you can't pass

[awm]

The 2♠ bid is not forcing. It shows a very strong hand, however. While passing 2♠ is a possibility, it shows a minimum of around 17 hcp and can be quite a bit stronger, so with 6 points I don't think passing it was reasonable. Advancer should try 2NT with those diamond honors. On the other hand, if responder's ♦KQ were small diamonds then pass is correct, and a game could easily be missed.

I would prefer to raise partner's hearts with the strong hand, both because 2♠ is not forcing and because a 4-4 heart fit is going to be tough to find after a 2♠ advance. Yes, it's possible partner bid 1♥ on three but I'm not going to base my bidding on such a worst case scenario.

[han]

1H was not an underbid, it was correct.

2S was misguided with 4 hearts. It is not forcing.

With 6 HCP and a stiff club east should probably not pass 2S.

advice which you can take or leave: You should be careful bidding 2D here on a so-so 6-card diamond suit. This is not the same as when partner responds to 1D. You don't have to bid here, only do it when you have a good reason.

[helene_t]

This story is quite typical. One p of mine calls it the Howler Monkey convention. The Howler Monkey is most likely the source of the bidding problem himself since if he didn't sub-consciously realize that he would not be howling.

That said, passing 2♠ with such a good hand was ill-judged, although it's not quite clear what to bid. I would have tried 2NT.

[matmat]

seems pretty normal behavior. wtp?

[Gerben42]

LHO committed the sin of not SUPPORTING PARTNER. 2♠ is not a bad bid, it is a terrible bid.

RHO committed the lesser sin of underbidding, I would have bid 3♦ in this position.

RHO needs to work on the post-mortem strategy if he lost.

[kfay]

Passing 2♠ is a mistake.

But 2♠ isn't the right bid on this hand, imo.

[Cascade]

Comments on the bidding:

1. I would have bid 2♥ not 1♥. I usually play this as showing a five-card suit and a bit lighter than standard but this 5-5 hand is easily worth the 8 or 9 points that are standard;

2. While on the surface 2♠ denies the heart fit on this auction it is not 100% certain that we have a heart fit. Partner sometimes will be 3=3=4=3 and have to bid a 3-card suit over the double. We are though supermaximum for 2♠ which can be passed as we want to be in game with very little opposite;

3. While 2♠ was not forcing, Pass is not an option with this hand. We have six high-card points and have so far shown none in the bidding and we have two five-card suits and a doubleton for partner. This hand has lots of potential.

Having said all of that it is not entirely clear how the auction should develop. Maybe 2NT over 2♠ showing the diamond stopper and some values and hoping that partner can cover our singleton club. The 2♠ bidder will probably bid 4♥ next as showing values now and a diamond stopper will confirm that we had four hearts as with some values and only three hearts we would have preferred 1NT on the previous round.

Maybe there is some alternative to this flawed 2NT but I can't think of anything that allows the flexibility of easily getting to 3NT or 4♥ if partner has three (or four as we see) hearts or 4♠ if partner has extra length there.

[vuroth]

I'm not sure what RHO's correct bid is, but I'm at least sympathetic to Pass. 2♠ was not good news for him. He now knows that partner is pretty much empty in ♦s. With no sure fit an possible as few as 18 points outside of diamonds betwen the pair, bidding any higher might not be all that safe. Partner rates to have a ton of black cards. It's not impossible that our hand would only take 1 trick in a ♠ contract.

Yes, partner has a huge hand. From the bidding, it looks like the hands are a big misfit.

0.02. If I'm way off base, hopefully someone can explain it to me....

V

[Echognome]

I would have overcalled 1♠ and doubled 2♦ personally.