[daveharty]

---

Matchpoints.

[billw55]

I will try 4♥. I'm only one spot card short. I guess partner is more than 50% to have three hearts, and two may be workable anyway. If the opening diamond lead gets ruffed, that's life.

My main concern is that whoever holds the long spades, may also hold a weak hand, else they might have bid them. If it is partner, I won't do well. If it is RHO, I may miss slam. Oh well it's only matchpoints.

[Fluffy]

I hate it everytime my LHO preempts on the suit I have AKQJ

3♥ is a bid underbid, double is a suicide, this leaves 4♥ and 3NT.

It won't be easy to make 3NT when hearts don't break, but it is a trick shorter, avoids diamond ruff risks, and we have many clubs to pitch on the spades while we wait partner's slow stoppers.

On the other hand 3NT leaves us poorly placed if someone bids 4♠ next and is prone to be down from the start. So I would go for 4♥. I would prefer a non leaping michael's bid if avaible.

[Hanoi5]

Might the opponents have taken out the wrong card from the bidding box and meant to open 3♠? I vote for 4♥, too afraid of spades to double or bid 3NT.

[ArtK78]

I strongly suspect that 3NT is the right contract, but I am worried that my partner, with long spades and little else, will pull to 4♠ if I bid 3NT, expecting to find a somewhat more useful spade holding in my hand.

So I bid 4♥.

[ggwhiz]

100% with the other posters.

I'm deathly afraid of a 4♠ bid from pard.

[aguahombre]

With no diamond cards, LHO figures to have the stuff I would want partner to have. 3H is not an underbid, IMO. I might never get to Dummy; am mildly curious to see the actual layout, and how poorly a Pass-0ut at 3D would fare...either because it is the last plus, or because CHO's continuations lead to disaster.

[JLOGIC]

I like 4H also, despite the risk of diamond ruffs (or overruff).

[wyman]

No idea what's right, but 3N was my gut reaction with 3H as my second choice (can still bid 3N over 3S). Obviously it could be disastrous. Hopefully they have the agreement to lead a short major if they double, so we'll just be playing for 50s if it's really bad.

[cargobeep]

I'll try 3NT. I'm afraid of several diamond ruffs here, ESPECIALLY given that I have AKQJ♦

[gszes]

Now for the minority report:

3H

My leading question is how many times will p hold a hand
where 4h is exaclty the right place to be where they will not
raise 3h to 4h??? Even opposite a partner that could not
bid over 3d (thank goodness this problem is not rho opens
3d) the % of hands must be agonizingly small because let's
face it we need some help from p to make 4h.

3H

Allows p to bid 3s which in turn allows us to bid a 3n that
strongly suggests spade shortness/weakness since we
opened the festivities with 3h vs 3n. The biggest fear of
a partner with long spades gets that suit out of their
system at the 3 level and if they repeat spades at the 4
level we have good cause to let them play it. that means
3h brings 4s into the picture while 4h eliminates it.

3H

Allows us the possibility of clubs if p is 5/6 in the blacks
I mean seriously if p is holding something like
xxxxx A x Axxxxx where 7c is a lay down do we have even
the slightest prayer of bidding even 6c when we start with
4h?? its easy after we start with 3h.

3H

Will enable us to stay out of a lot of poor slams where p gets
overly excited when we bid 4h especially those where p has
less than stellar heart support thinking we must surely have
great hearts to bid 4h.

I will gladly take a rare + 170 when p has say xxxxxx Jx x QJTx
(are we sure they wont raise to 4h with that?) and greatly
increase the probabilty of acheiving a much better score on the
rest of the hands.

[Lord Molyb]

what gszes said

[bigbenvic]

Lord Molyb, on 2013-May-17, 20:28, said:

what gszes said

3♥ for me too, since 3♠ is forcing so I don't fear 4♠ from him. 3nt will almost certainly get 4♠ from pards and that's awful.

4♥ my second pick but it's kind of unilateral, also it's less likely they'll try 5♦ this way, if partner supports they just might try a sacrifice which I will have the axe ready for!

[the hog]

I will bid 3H. I would not be surprised to hear 3S from pd. This would allow me to bid 3NT. If I bid an immediate 3NT, would partner not bid 4S with 6 or so reasonable S and a hand not good enough to overcall? Probably. I realise 3H is an underbid, but I think it is practical.

[MrAce]

I am between 4♥ and 4♦ (strong 2 suiter)

Dunno which is better.

[JLOGIC]

MrAce, on 2013-May-21, 02:26, said:

I am between 4♥ and 4♦ (strong 2 suiter)

Dunno which is better.

I don't think we need to show our secondary diamonds

[MrAce]

JLOGIC, on 2013-May-21, 03:48, said:

I don't think we need to show our secondary diamonds

I think we have quite a good chance of finding pd with clubs but yea i ignored it is mps.

If pd can not bid 4♥ over 4♦ i think 4♥ bidders will not have a free run in that contract either. Could be interesting when i play slam club making when others go down in 4♥. I do not think it is as bad as it looks but what do i know.

[Zelandakh]

I suspect Justin was poking a little fun that 4♦ was NLM for diamonds and a major, given that most partners would bid their better major over it. There must be a decent chance that that would be spades, so you are pretty much committing to the 5 level on any hand where partner's spades are better than hearts.

[MrAce]

Zelandakh, on 2013-May-23, 03:50, said:

I suspect Justin was poking a little fun that 4♦ was NLM for diamonds and a major, given that most partners would bid their better major over it. There must be a decent chance that that would be spades, so you are pretty much committing to the 5 level on any hand where partner's spades are better than hearts.

I have no idea what NLM means, i am bidding 4♦ if it only means any strong 2 suiter except diamonds. ( i am not claiming this is a the best way to use 4♦ for the record) Thus pd can not skip hearts if he has 3 of them.

If he has less than 3♥ and knowing that he has 0-1-2 diamonds, we are very very likely to finds clubs.

As you mentioned this method may work well this hand, but may work very poorly when we make the same bid with majors and pd can not bid his stronger spades, i admit.

[Zelandakh]

NLM is Non-Leaping Michaels, where a non-jump overcall of 4m over a 3 level preempt shows a 2-suiter including the minor bid and an unbid major. If playing this over a 3♦ preempt, a 4♣ bid shows clubs and a major, while a 4♦ overcall asks for the better major. Even without agreeing NLM, I would assume this meaning for 4♦ without any agreement to the contrary.