[mgoetze]

♠- ♥AQJxxxx ♦xxx ♣AKx

Partner deals and passes, RHO opens 1♠ (playing Precision and thus limited to 11-15). You bid 2♥, LHO jumps to 4♠ (wide-ranging of course), and partner after a bit of thought finds 5♥. Pass, pass, LHO raises to 5♠, pass, pass, back to you.

[jillybean]

double

[gwnn]

6♥ last round.

Please don't tell us how much partner thought before, it is inappropriate.

[mgoetze]

gwnn, on Apr 30 2010, 12:11 AM, said:

6♥ last round.

To make, or to stop them from finding 6♠?

[jdonn]

I bid 6♥ last round too, although I might feel constrained to pass after the hesitation. I still think 6♥ is right now, but at least double definitely don't pass.

[mgoetze]

jdonn, on Apr 30 2010, 12:20 AM, said:

I bid 6♥ last round too, although I might feel constrained to pass after the hesitation. I still think 6♥ is right now, but at least double definitely don't pass.

I'd like to add that it wasn't a real hesitation - if LHO had kept the stop card out as long as she is supposed to it wouldn't have been noticable. Maybe gwnn is right and I shouldn't have mentioned it.

[gwnn]

mgoetze, on Apr 29 2010, 11:14 PM, said:

gwnn, on Apr 30 2010, 12:11 AM, said:

6♥ last round.

To make, or to stop them from finding 6♠?

I don't think they make 6S. I am not sure how many hearts we can make but 6 should make enough times and opps are welcome to bid 1 more if we wouldn't have made.

[mgoetze]

I don't know, I just can't see partner covering 3 of my 4 minor suit losers with a passed hand. Seems optimistic to me.

[jdonn]

He has xxx Kxxx - Qxxxxx, he covers all 4.

In fact if he has xxx xxxx - xxxxxx you make 7 on a good day...

[Jlall]

I would have overcalled 4H for sure.

Now who knows but I bid 6

[mgoetze]

Thanks for the replies. In case anyone cares, I'll post what actually happened:

I bid 6♥, doubled by righty, and on the ♠ lead, dummy came down with ♠Qxx ♥Txxx ♦Qx ♣QTxx. I ruffed. crossed to ♣Q and ran the ♥6 for -1.

It turns out LHO had a heart void and RHO a singleton club, so that 6♠ was makeable with an antipercentage play in diamonds. Teammates were allowed to play 5♠=, 11 IMPs for us.

[kgr]

I would have started with 4♥. I'm very surprised that 2 posters would have started with 6♥.

[gwnn]

lol kgr nobody is starting with 6H

jdonn and gwnn would have bid

1S-2H-4S-5H
p-6H

[kgr]

gwnn, on Apr 30 2010, 10:42 AM, said:

lol kgr nobody is starting with 6H

jdonn and gwnn would have bid

1S-2H-4S-5H
p-6H

Ok, 6♥ last round was some kind of joke then.

[gwnn]

no

Suppose I give you 4 letters

a
b
c
d

the first letter is a
the last letter is d

In our case, we were given the auction

1S-2H-4S-5H
p-p-5S-p
p-?

Now we have three rounds of bidding basically.

the first
the second
the third

Last round is not considered to be the third since it has not really passed. Instead we exclude the rounds that have not passed and are left with twoooooo:

The first (where we bid 2H)
the second (where we passed)

The first round is conventionally known as the first round or as you quite accurately referred to it as "started with".

The second round in this case is known as the last round.

This is natural English language usage, universal, they use it in South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, Wales, Connecticut, we do not to prealert it, it is not a joke, you can Google it.

Other instances of this extremely weird concept:

"last week"=18-24 April 2010, not the seven days God created the world
"last century"=1900-2000 (roughly), not 1-100.
"Liverpool scored in the last minute"=in the stoppage time, not right after kick-off.

[kgr]

gwnn, on Apr 30 2010, 11:18 AM, said:

1S-2H-4S-5H
p-p-5S-p
p-?

Thanks for the explanation, but the above would have been enough
The bidding explanation in the OP is ok, but I think the following should always be added for clarity:
(1♠)-2♥-(4♠)-5♥
(Pass)-Pass-(5♠)-Pass
(Pass)-??

[whereagles]

6♥ for me too. Pard's bid was clearly a save, so I'm taking insurance. Maybe 5♠ goes down, but if it doesn't we missed a cheap save.