[NickB50014]

West as Dealer
Auction:
W 1♣
N 2♣ (Michaels 5/5 in majors per agreement)
E Pass
S ??

Your hand:
♠Q 10 8 6 3
♥A J 10 7 5
♦K J
♣10

You know you have a massive double fit, but then again so does the opponents in the minors. How do you discover your best safe contract? 2NT asking partner to bid their best suit? Or is there a better bid? Could 3♣ be construed as a "HELLO I AM 5/5 TOO!"?

Sorry if this is wrong forum? Not sure whether Michaels is considered Natural or not

[aguahombre]

I wouldn't try to do anything clever. We already got past responder, and we would be content to bid 4 of the highest one and let the opponents make any future decisions with no room to explore.

[Zelandakh]

If you want a bid to say "Hello I am 5-5 too" then it should probably be 4♣. For me, 3♣ just asks for the better major, while 2NT is more of a strength ask. To be honest though, I think your best bet is probably just to go directly to 4M.

[gwnn]

4♠ to reduce the chances of a major-suit ruff. We will look for slam next time.

Don't worry about finding the right subforum, except that if you want to be rude, don't do it in the Beginner's forum or if you want others to be rude to you, post in the Expert forum.

[NickB50014]

I ended up bidding 4♠ and as luck would have it 4♠ makes and 4 ♥ goes down 1 on a spade ruff.

[gnasher]

NickB50014, on 2013-February-20, 03:18, said:

I ended up bidding 4♠ and as luck would have it 4♠ makes and 4 ♥ goes down 1 on a spade ruff.

That's not luck: that's exactly the reason that you should bid 4♠ rather than 4♥.

[Free]

Creating a bid to show the exact same distribution is a bad idea. You're basically telling opps to sacrifice, because they have a double fit as well.

I've always wondered if a certain suit plays better in such situations. The impression I also have is that it's better to play in ♠ because we have ♥A, so yeah, I'd also bid 4♠. However, is it really that much better?

Suppose partner doesn't hold ♠A:
- when playing 4♥ there's a real chance opps will lead ♠ to the Ace, ♠ ruff. This requires an Ax-x split, or an A-xx split with a way to reach partner.
- when playing 4♠ there's a chance that opps will lead ♥s. When we play our first round of trumps, the Ace must be taken and then a ♥ ruff can occur. For this to work we have similar requirements like in our first case, except that a defender with 2 singletons will no longer be able to ruff due to us playing one round of trumps.

So yeah, it seems that 4♠ will play better than 4♥.

[mr1303]

I suggested 4C asking partner to pick a major and also showing the singleton club.

Not sure if that's what you want to do, as it might suggest that they save, but that would be the meaning I would expect.

[TWO4BRIDGE]

mr1303, on 2013-March-06, 06:01, said:

I suggested 4C asking partner to pick a major and also showing the singleton club.

Not sure if that's what you want to do, as it might suggest that they save, but that would be the meaning I would expect.

4C is pick-a-major [ I have (3/3)+..but does not promise ♣-shortness ] .

That said, I think the 4S bid for this hand is better for the reasons others have suggested.

[jdeegan]

If pard is 6-5 or 5-6 you probably will do better in the 5-5 fit. You can't find out anything about that, but you can prevent an opening lead thru the ♦ KJ. Best to bid 4♠. Later, you may want to bid 5♥, if opps compete.

[campboy]

Free, on 2013-March-06, 04:50, said:

Suppose partner doesn't hold ♠A:
- when playing 4♥ there's a real chance opps will lead ♠ to the Ace, ♠ ruff. This requires an Ax-x split, or an A-xx split with a way to reach partner.
- when playing 4♠ there's a chance that opps will lead ♥s. When we play our first round of trumps, the Ace must be taken and then a ♥ ruff can occur. For this to work we have similar requirements like in our first case, except that a defender with 2 singletons will no longer be able to ruff due to us playing one round of trumps.

Also if spades are 2-1 the singleton spade will be opposite the ace of spades 2/3 of the time whereas if hearts are 2-1 the singleton heart will be opposite the ace of spades less than half the time.

[mr1303]

What would 3C be then?

[Zelandakh]

mr1303, on 2013-March-11, 04:12, said:

What would 3C be then?

See post #3.

[aguahombre]

mr1303, on 2013-March-11, 04:12, said:

What would 3C be then?

Ill advised. We don't want to give the opponents any extra room when we know we want to get up there with 4S anyway.