[jocdelevat]

Scoring: IMP

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West North East South

 Pass  Pass  Pass  1♠
 2♣    4♠    Dbl   Pass
 5♥    5♠    6♥    Dbl
 Pass  Pass  Pass  

[TylerE]

North needs to take a strong action than 4♠.

[han]

I am not going to give blame but instead comment on some of the choices:

West's initial pass: It certainly wouldn't be my choice. This hand has enormous potential.

Pass by north is normal.

East's pass: Yes, I would bid something white in third seat but maybe I shouldn't say so in the B/I forum...

1S by south is normal.

2C by west is really bad. The general rule is that with two suits of equal length (5-5 or 6-6), you should bid the higher ranking first. I would have made a 2-suited bid. What you cannot do is bid clubs.

4S by north.. I would prefer a 4H splinter. The hand is quite good in support of spades.

Double by east is what?? Makes no sense to me.

Pass by south is normal.

5H by west: yes of course we have to bid hearts now.

5S by north: I guess so.

I didn't understand the double by east so it is hard to evaluate this raise. Was double takeout? Then partner hasn't shown that much heart length and perhaps we should pass. We certainly can't expect the 6-6 hand opposite.

Final double by south: North has shown a weak hand with long spades. That means it is very likely that one of the opponents has a spade void. On the other hand, both opponents are passed hand and they are bidding at the 6-level, how likely is it that they will make it (especially since it looks like they don't have a clue!). And passing still leads to a bad score.

To summarize: every player at this table made some poor choices. When the smoke cleared up EW had a good score but they didn't deserve it.

[neilkaz]

Very nice post here by han which I agree with completely.

[hotShot]

There is no reason for NS to bid slam. East will ruff the ♣ lead and return a ♥ for -1.

You did not mention your agreements, so I have to guess.

North jump to game, denied slam interest and shows a hand that is unsuitable for defense. It is often done with extra trump length and less HCP.
This together with the knowledge about Wests 2-suited hand should keep South from his final dbl.
Since 6♥ is mostly a sacrifice, but given the combined ♠ length of NS, it's remotely possible that it can be made.

[Flameous]

Indeed, why to assign blame if you are in optimum contract? Although the bidding could and should have been a lot better but Han already said all that.

[ArtK78]

Flameous, on Oct 11 2008, 04:07 AM, said:

Indeed, why to assign blame if you are in optimum contract? Although the bidding could and should have been a lot better but Han already said all that.

Clearly not the optimum contract. Par is 6♠x down 1.

It seems that what happened at the table was that East West were spinning the wheel of chance, and when the wheel stopped spinning, they were the winners. It is hard to come up with a more confusing and irrational auction than that produced by East West. Under the circumstances, it is hard for North South not to double 6♥. I am sure that North South were quite impressed with the result.

The best explanation that I can come up with for the East-West bidding is that they looked at each other's cards prior to the bidding, and came up with the most deceptive bidding sequence possible to convince North-South that they had no idea what they had. It worked.