[andy_h]

There might be several parts to this.

Scoring: IMP

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You're sitting South as dealer, playing 2/1 and open 1♠. Partner is an intermediate player. Auction continues with LHO preempting 3♦ and partner doubles. RHO passes and now it's your bid.

[hrothgar]

3♥...

Yes, I'd prefer a 4th heat, but anything else looks worse

[han]

4C seems the smallest lie.

[maggieb]

3n

[jdonn]

I'll try 3♥.

[mike777]

andy_h, on Nov 23 2008, 02:42 PM, said:

There might be several parts to this.

Scoring: IMP

---

You're sitting South as dealer, playing 2/1 and open 1♠. Partner is an intermediate player. Auction continues with LHO preempting 3♦ and partner doubles. RHO passes and now it's your bid.

I will try 4c.

I think I avoid bidding on 3 card suits, esp. the other major, much more often after neg x than many other posters in the Forum.

[the hog]

3H also. If pd raises at least it is my hand taking the force.

[inquiry]

3♥

[andy_h]

Ok. I also bid 3♥ and felt like I didn't like it that much because although percentage wise 3♥ might be best (not sure?) but that partner won't be expecting only 3 of them.
Anyway, the auction proceeds as follows:

1♠ -   3♦   -  X - Pass
3♥ - Pass - 4♦ - Pass

4♦ is presumably slam try in hearts, and I'm going to assume you will now bid 4♥. However, partner is not finished and now bids 5♣.

What's your bid?

(Note: I think it is very likely that if you decide to go for a slam you will be playing in hearts as partner believes we have 4-4 fit)

[hrothgar]

I'd bid 5♥ after 5♣

Partner asked my opinion... I don't think that I can have much worse a hand and still have an opening bid.

I'll be interested to see whether there is any consensus regarding what 5N would show.

[gwnn]

Ben nice to have the big letters back!

I'd bid 4♣, not that big of a lie methinks..

[jdonn]

Yes 3♥ pretty much committed me to hearts. Over 4♦ I bid 4♥. But when partner bids 5♣ now things are different. I have already shown a minimum, and then shown that my minimum is bad for slam. In that context I actually have a really good hand, so I'll raise to 6♣ in case partner decides to pass it. I'm not that worried about a misunderstanding since if he doesn't pass I'm pretty much certain he will bid 6♥.

[hrothgar]

jdonn, on Nov 24 2008, 05:24 PM, said:

Yes 3♥ pretty much committed me to hearts. Over 4♦ I bid 4♥. But when partner bids 5♣ now things are different. I have already shown a minimum, and then shown that my minimum is bad for slam. In that context I actually have a really good hand, so I'll raise to 6♣ in case partner decides to pass it. I'm not that worried about a misunderstanding since if he doesn't pass I'm pretty much certain he will bid 6♥.

Josh has touched on an interesting question:

What should 5N and 6♣ mean in this auction?
Its unclear to me which of the following is better:

1. 5N = Slam looks good, but I'm uncertain about strain
6♣ = cooperating witha slam try in hearts with Club values

2. 6♣ = Slam looks good, but I'm offering Club as an alternative strain
5N = Willing to commit to the 6 level, but something extra to say...

[jdonn]

To me there is no pick-a-slam type bid since only one suit has been under consideration the entire time, so to offer another suit one must bid it. My point about 6♣ was partner will either take it as an offer to play in clubs and in that case might pass or might bid 6♥, or he will take it as a cuebid which doesn't worry me anyway since I don't expect him to ever go bidding a grand. I expect my intermediate partner to take 5NT as GSF even though it would make no sense at all on this auction, so I avoid it. Of course it wouldn't be dangerous since partner can't be bidding a grand, but it would kill the chance I think I have of playing in clubs.

Maybe I should even be considering a grand and bid 5♠ or something, but I will be happy enough to find any making slam after bidding 3♥ (a bid I would certainly not make if I knew partner had slam interest.)

[Hanoi5]

I'd bid 5♥ now. Not sure about bidding 3♥ before, though.

[han]

I'm not sure that my 4C was right. The upside is that it keeps all strains open (well, at least spades, hearts and clubs) whle if we bid 3H then it is unlikely that we'll play anything but hearts. I'm assuming that the auction

1S - (3D) - Dbl
4C - 4D

is not necessarily a slam try but could be a gameforcing hand that doesn't know where to play.

So I think that if partner will act again over 4C, it will often work out fine.

Of course 3H will get us to 4H in a 4-3 more often and this may be good (ruffs in our hand, etc.) but it may also be bad (bad splits more likely because of the preempt). A disadvantage of 4C is that we are often 5-5 for that call so we might end up playing in a bad 4-3 in 5C rather than a good 4-3 in 4H!

Another disadvantage of 4C is that we can't get back to 3NT. It isn't impossible that partner bids 3NT over 3H with a so-so stopper and 4 hearts, and then we're happy to pass I think.

After 3H and 4D, 5C by partner I bid 5D. If partner wanted to suggest clubs as alternative strain he could have bid 4C over 3H (which I think is clearly forcing) so 5C is just a cue. Partner might have 4 clubs and 6C would clearly be understood as a suggestion to play there by partner, but I'm not at all sure that I want to go to slam. However I do have first round control in spades and seond round control in diamonds and my hand could be worse so I feel obliged to cooperate. I think 6C is better than 5H.

[skjaeran]

Agree with 3♥ and 4♥. Now I'll try 6♣, hopefully partner can pass, if not we'll play in 6♥. I like my hand in context.