[deep]

5°Major diamond 4°

1° Question

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Now South what bid? Better bid DBL or 5♥


2° question

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North have good colors 5-5 ♠♥ Now South better bid 4♦cuebid or close 4♥?

3° Question

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what better bid South?

These questions are test data from my teacher. Thanks to everyone for the advice that you will give me

Best regards
deep

[helene_t]

1: Presumably double is penalty so that's what I would do. You have two aces and no singletons so your hand is good for defence. By the way, I wouldn't have bid 4♠, I think the hand has too much defensive strength. Better to start with a bid in one of their suits. I would be worried that after I made the preemptive 4♠ bid, partner won't take my double as penalty.

2: 4♦ is the only bid available to show a good heart raise so in my opinion it doesn't show a diamond control, just a slam invite in hearts. I would just bid 4♥. I don't think my diamond honors are very useful in a heart slam and my hearts are bad.

3: I think a direct 3NT bid shows this hand quite well. It's not perfect, I would like to have a full diamond stopper. But double followed by 3NT probably won't make it any clearer for partner.

[ahydra]

On the first one, I think we might be in with a good chance of making 5S. Give partner AK spades (he has overcalled vul) and either a rounded K or a diamond void (not too unlikely if East is supporting on the 5-level). I don't expect to get more than 500 on a good day in 5DX, so I think I would bid 5S.

Second one is horrible. There's something to be said for blasting 6NT and praying it works. Failing that a wimpish 4H, or perhaps 4D planning on supporting hearts next look like the only options.

And on the third one I agree with helene_t that this is a pretty clear 3NT. Only other thing I would consider is pass, hoping partner reopens with an X, but that's rather risky at these colours - if partner's opened light, he'll just pass out 1S and you get 300 (or less) instead of 400.

ahydra

[fromageGB]

Q1 : 5♥. The hand is looking very good in spades, and I would not discourage partner from attempting 6, unlikely though that may be. 3♥ initially may have been better, to give partner a chance to show strength.

Q2 : I think you are saying North has a good, strong hand. Definitely 4♦.

Q3 : with the others, 3NT.

[1eyedjack]

I don't know how others feel but I am not entirely happy with the earlier 4♠ bid on hand 1, which choice I think contributes to your problems at the 5 level. I think a cue raise is more appropriate in the first place.

[fromageGB]

These are interesting problems, if you look at the replies. So far we have had
Q1 One vote each for X, 5♠, 5♥
Q2 One vote each for 4♥, 6NT, 4♦

!!!

We need more votes to get a consensus.

[Zelandakh]

fromageGB, on 2013-November-20, 05:22, said:

Q2 One vote each for 4♥, 6NT, 4♦

Let me add 2 further possibilties for Q2 - 3♠ and 5NT. The latter seems like a better punt than 6NT, since we do not know partner's major suit lengths. The former is a typical grope and should not promise spade support. If partner bids 3NT now we can go 6; if they set spades instead we can go slamming at a slower tempo. As has already been pointed out, 4♦ here is not a cue bid but rather just a slam try agreeing hearts.

On Hand 1, we presumably decided what we were going to do over 5 of a red suit before responding 4♠. If we were not sure then it was the wrong call. A side point of interest to me - fromage would bid 3♥ as the good raise here whereas I was taught that to use the cue of LHO's suit in such a spot. Which would the rest of you prefer?

Finally Hand 3 is a book 3NT call worthy of any teacher's practise questions. The only alternative would be double if you were playing that as support (so something like ♥Hx is perfect). In that case you would start with a double and follow up with 3NT.

[fromageGB]

Zelandakh, on 2013-November-20, 09:20, said:

A side point of interest to me - fromage would bid 3♥ as the good raise here whereas I was taught that to use the cue of LHO's suit in such a spot. Which would the rest of you prefer?

It's not that left or right has the significance, but the Ace. I would bid 3♥ also if the bidding was 1♥ 1♠ 2♦ as I prefer (given a choice) to bid a suit with a control rather than one without. If the bidding had gone Pass 1♠ 2♦, then I bid 3♦.

[NickRW]

I was never taught anything about preference over which opponent's suit to cue. Quite what the difference between a 3♦ and a 3♥ cue would be I don't know. Nor do I know what a return cue of 3♥ from P would be if we chose the former. Never the less, the cheaper cue seems, in principle, the better option on the grounds that it is cheaper.

Anyway, ignoring the fine points of that, I vote for the options that fromage said.

Nick

[JLOGIC]

1eyedjack, on 2013-November-19, 14:07, said:

I don't know how others feel but I am not entirely happy with the earlier 4♠ bid on hand 1, which choice I think contributes to your problems at the 5 level. I think a cue raise is more appropriate in the first place.

I view this differently, I'm absolutely thrilled to have induced them to bid at the 5 level so that I can now double them. I mean I have 2 aces and T9xx of trumps and my partner overcalled vul, let's start tapping them lol. It is unlikely they would have gotten so high if I had started with some kind of cuebid, and I probably would have ended up bidding 4S anyways.

[JLOGIC]

And I'm certainly trapping white against red with AQJT of spades. Even if partner does have 3 spades or something and can't reopen it's not a huge disaster, I probably get something like +300 instead of +430 or w/e. Maybe I will even get 400. Certainly worth the small risk to get a number at these colors imo.