[ArcLight]

IMPs Unfavorable

RHO opens 1 Club
You X with: (any complaints with the X?)
♠ A x x x
♥ x x x
♦ A K x x
♣ T x


Bidding goes:

1♣ X 2♦ 3♥
4♣

What do you do?


1♣ X 2♦ 3♥
4♣ p p 4♠
X p 5♣


Responder held:
♠ q 9 8 x
♥ a k t 9 x x x
♦ Q
♣x

How should the bididng go?

[Bende]

ArcLight, on Jun 17 2008, 10:40 PM, said:

IMPs  Unfavorable

RHO opens  1 Club
You X with:    (any complaints with the X?)
♠ A x x x
♥  x x x
♦  A K x x
♣ T x


Bidding goes:

1♣ X 2♦  3♥
4♣

What do you do?

Partner seems to have an invitational hand with a long heart suit. I bid 4♥.

[Sambolino]

x is fine, then pass over 4c, and x 5c

with pard's hand i'd bid 3d over 2d

[andy_h]

1) X seems automatic to me. Though some people don't like light-takeout-doubles...AAK is always a good feature. Get in now as you might not be able to get into the auction later with safety.
2) I would pass, I've bid my hand and have nothing further (extras) to tell.
3) Either (1C)-X-(2D)-3D; (4C)-P-(P)-4H; All Pass.
or (1C)-X-(2D)-4H; All Pass.

[ArtK78]

I would never settle for less than game on partner's hand. 3♥ is inadequate. And following up with 4♠ later in the auction is not only inconsistent but risks playing in an inadequate trump fit.

On a 7-4 hand, it might be right to play in the 4-4 fit, but you might run into a bad break. I would treat the hand as a one-suiter and just bid game in hearts.

Also, over 5♣ I would bid again.

[mikeh]

I agree with what Art wrote.

The north player revealed a lack of understanding of the game. 3♥ is a woeful underbid.. game has to have play (or be cold) opposite virtually all minimum takeout doubles.

The worst mistake, however, was 4♠. It is impossible to construct a hand on which 3♥, non-forcing, was correct and then it was correct to force partner to give preference, if he had 3=4 or 3=3 in the majors, at the 5-level.

The 'fact' that N's hand suggested that this might be ok is a sign that 3♥ was foolish, not that 4♠ was a good call

As for S, over 4♣ he has the clearest pass in the world. He has a minimum takeout double with the worst possible holding in the two important suits... hearts and clubs. He has NO reason to expect that 4♥ has a play.. in fact, if I were S I would expect that 3♥ would be failing much of the time: partner will have played me for MORE than I hold, not less.

[gwnn]

what should the hearts hand do after 5♣ comes back?

[effervesce]

3♥ was a massive underbid. Opposite alot of hands slam is a good spot-for example, just move the diamond king to the spade king- eg AKxx xxx Axxx xx.

Anyway back to the questions-

1) Pass - you've already shown your hand
2) 1♣-X-2♦ and responder is stuck for a bid. Responder really wants to RKC for spades, and be able to signoff in hearts. 4♥ happens to work out here on this particular hand but responder really should be investigating for slam, eg bidding 3♣/3♦ then bidding hearts (though what would such a sequence show? It's probably more useful for 3♣ and 3♦ to be stopper asks anyway).

It seems here that there are multiple calls that are not well defined - it would be useful in this situation if 4♣ to be slammy for hearts, and 4♦ as slammy for spades.