[jillybean]

ArtK78, on 2011-October-13, 09:27, said:

I did not say that your 3♣ bid promised spade shortage. You stated that it showed a minimum with a shortage somewhere, and I stated that partner had a reasonable expectation that your shortage was in spades. I also stated that it didn't matter how many spades you had for purposes of playing in a heart contract.

If the scoring was not matchpoints (or board-a-match, which is another form of matchpoints), why would you ever consider bidding 7NT? Avoiding an opening ruff? Hardly likely.

As far as partner having a long running suit, that is certainly possible, but it is not necessary. AKxxxxx is certainly not a long "running" suit. Yet partner has a near 100% expectation of making 7♥ if you have the AK of hearts. Partner could also have AKQxxx with another heart, and 7♥ is still a virtual certainly, but 7NT is not very good.

Thanks.
Let's say it was MP, hopefully I would never bid 7N at IMPS. I was probably more influenced by the fact that this was a bidding contest rather than scoring.

[aguahombre]

Whether you use J2N or any other method of establishing trumps; whether your follow-ups are standard or not ----it is common for partner who wishes to take over to set trumps and then do so.

It is clear that is what he wanted to do here; it might not be an insult to go against his wishes, but it certainly makes a statement that your judgement trumps his. He asked what you had, and placed the contract. I doubt he had alternative methods available to discover you held the club Ace AND the spade Jack.

Yeh, 7NT worked on this hand; but partner will be living in dread next time.

Bidding contests often have a top-scoring result which is unlikely to be found, and I understand being influenced by that. But if it were a published heads-up battle, you would not like the ink of the commentary on 7NT. Nor would you like the result if pard held one of Fluffy's examples.

This post has been edited by aguahombre: 2011-October-13, 10:58

[vuroth]

Doesn't the fundamental question really boil down to: "If 7NT is on, why didn't partner try for it?"

Seems like we're trying to rescue partner from a bad decision here, which is never a good idea.

[gwnn]

Don't bid 7N if you can't count 13 tricks. A grand will be a good board in 99% of the fields in the world. Here you have some vague inferences on what your partner might hold but you can't count tricks (I mean you as responder, based on the auction to date).

[Free]

I don't understand the problem some people make about Jacoby with a void. If you're too strong to splinter, then Jacoby is definitely an option.

I would've bid the same, and pass 7♥. Perhaps partner could've bid 6♣ if he wanted to find 7NT, but that requires a lot of confidence.