[dickiegera]

Dealer N Vl N/S

Bidding:
P-1♣-1♥-1♠
2♥-3♥

The 3Heart bid was intended to be splinter for Spades or forcing bid in support of Spades. West took it to be an asking bid for 3NT. Comments Please

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[Fluffy]

regardless of what you play west KNOWS that it doesn't ask for heart control, he is looking at the ♣A himself.

if 1♠ shows 5 then there is no need for support doubles, and you can use the double for strong balanced hands without stopper.

Having said that 3♥ was a bad bid, splinters are always a jump, east has a clear 3♠ bid.

[Tola18]

I suspect most would take it as a NT-stopper-question. Especielly as you can show splinter by 4H.


Here you were lucky for this misunderstanding, as 6sp is not home but 4 spade is safe and good.

[jmcw]

4♥ would be a splinter bid here not 3♥. Since partner holds the ♣A it is unlikely to be a stab for NT. Most likely, is a strong ♠ raise with vey good trumps AND a ♥ control. Here with very soft values, it looks no better that a 2♠ to me.

[aguahombre]

deleted due to brain gasses. (mine)

[Jlall]

3H is either:

A ) A GF spade raise based on power (18-19 bal, or a little less with 5422, or a hand with shortness that doesn't want to splinter)
B ) 18-19 balanced with no heart stopper and less than 3 spades (no supp X)
C ) A GF club one suiter (likely in need of a heart stopper)

If 3H can include B and C hand types it is not playable for invitational spade hands to be included since partner has to bid 3N with minimum hands with a stopper, so 3H is effectively a GF. If you have some other way to include B and C you can also include invitational spade hands. IMO it's better to just stretch to GF which is fine because partner has shown 5+ spades, and because partner has free bid (doesn't show much, but rules out total 0-2 HCP psyches). So I would splinter with many 16 counts that I would otherwise have just bid 3S with. This makes slam bidding a little harder when I have a true splinter.

You must be wondering, "what does a 3S bid show in this auction then?" IMO it is extremely important to bid 3S any time you have 4 spades and a stiff, even if you have 11 points. This is because if you bid 2S and they bid 4H and it goes p p you always want to bid 4S lol. The reason is you have not shown the offensive potential of your hand. Not only can you make some very light games (and many double game swings), you might have good saves available as well, but you don't want to do something unilateral so you have to tell partner what's up.

Similarly I would bid 4S on just about any 6-4 in this auction. It is both preemptive and helps partner judge at the 5 level.

These competitive considerations make it worth it for me to give up on some slam bidding accuracy and for me to force to game a little lighter than I would usually do so.

Anyways if you agree with what I wrote you have a perfect 3S bid over 2H, and then you can be done with the auction (obviously your partner would bid game).

[dickiegera]

We have been talking about Maximal doubles and I thought that partner would either consider it to be a splinter or preferably a Maximal double. Can someone tell us if this is even close to a Maximal double?

Thank you

[peachy]

3H is not a splinter. It can be many types of hands that want to force, one common one to ask for heart stopper with a strong hand. 3S would not be forcing nor showing any significant extras beyond 4-card spade support and a suitable hand for showing it.

If you DID play it as splinter, how will you bid several other types of hands that want to make a general strength-showing force or to look for 3NT?

[gordontd]

Fluffy, on Sep 13 2009, 04:27 PM, said:

regardless of what you play west KNOWS that it doesn't ask for heart control, he is looking at the ♣A himself.

Is it not permitted to ask for a control in the opponents' suit unless you have a solid suit yourself?

[P_Marlowe]

3H asks responder for further description, and one possible feature
of interest for opener is, do we have a stopper in their suit.

4H instead of 3H would be a splinter.

Opener can either bid 3S or 4H, I think I would go with 4H,
espesially if 1S showed 5.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[P_Marlowe]

dickiegera, on Sep 13 2009, 05:03 PM, said:

We have been talking about Maximal doubles and I thought that partner would either consider it to be a splinter or preferably a Maximal double. Can someone tell us if this is even close to a Maximal double?

Thank you

Maximal doubles are only on, if the fit was clearly established,
the main scenario would be, a suit was bid by one and raised by
the other.
In the current situation, responder did bid the suit, but opener did
not yet show spade support.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[Fluffy]

gordontd, on Sep 14 2009, 07:05 AM, said:

Fluffy, on Sep 13 2009, 04:27 PM, said:

regardless of what you play west KNOWS that it doesn't ask for heart control, he is looking at the ♣A himself.

Is it not permitted to ask for a control in the opponents' suit unless you have a solid suit yourself?

if you don't have a runnung minorr you should normally have a descriptive bid avaible, double or 3 diamonds.