[AL78]

♠AKQJ84
♥-
♦KT3
♣KJT6

1♠ - 1NT
?

1NT is 6-9 HCP. Your call?

[sfi]

2NT game forcing with no clear direction, in most of my 2/1 partnerships. Without any such agreements, 3C.

[LBengtsson]

What is the most likely contract? 4♠. Bid it now. You may miss 6m but that could be less than 50%. Any other bid than 3♣ forcing is just making complication. You want lead to come up to your hand and 4♠ looks a good bet. keep it simple

[Cyberyeti]

LBengtsson, on 2021-December-17, 15:25, said:

What is the most likely contract? 4♠. Bid it now. You may miss 6m but that could be less than 50%. Any other bid than 3♣ forcing is just making complication. You want lead to come up to your hand and 4♠ looks a good bet. keep it simple

I would bid 3♣, 7 could be excellent (xx, xxx, Ax, Axxxxx/xx, xxxxx, void, AQxxxx).

Unless you have 4♥ available as an autosplinter in which case that would also make sense.

[mikeh]

What is the form of scoring?

At mps in a weak field, bid 4S.

At imps or in a strong field, bid 3C

The downside of 3C is that partner may drive us to 5C, making 11 tricks, while 4S was making 10. That’s why I suggest 4S in a weak field at mps, since 3C will usually fail only in that scenario, and few pairs are bidding slam even when it’s good.

However, at imps we shouldn’t much care about 400/420 etc and should care a great deal about missing a slam.

Btw, has anyone here discussed the meaning of 1S 1N 3C 5C 5S?

1S 1N 3C 4C 4S is always an offer to play 4S, usually based on a very good 6 card suit….responder is expected to pass with a stiff or longer (unless thinking about slam)

[DavidKok]

mikeh, on 2021-December-17, 16:07, said:

Btw, has anyone here discussed the meaning of 1S 1N 3C 5C 5S?

In my partnership it would mean "I would really like to have a different partner before the start of the next session".

[morecharac]

AL78, on 2021-December-17, 15:13, said:

♠AKQJ84
♥-
♦KT3
♣KJT6

1♠ - 1NT
?

1NT is 6-9 HCP. Your call?

How cruel is BBO that day?

[AL78]

Thanks for the replies. I forgot to put the scoring, it was MP's and a fairly weak club field.

The full deal:

---

This was a friend of mine and her partner, East bid 3♠ which became the final contract, +2, 18%. I don't know whether or not North overcalled 2 or 3♥ (I don't think I would at red against white and flat shape), but if not, I was wondering if 4♠ or 3♣ would be suggested on here. It looks to me like even with a minimum response, there is a good chance one of the four losers will be covered, and it is hard luck if the 6-7 HCP are all in hearts, so I would have probably bid 4♠. 6♣ is there but you are unlikely to find that.

[Gilithin]

mikeh, on 2021-December-17, 16:07, said:

At mps in a weak field, bid 4S.
1S 1N 3C 4C 4S is always an offer to play 4S,

In that weak field, 4♠ is quite likely to be 2 aces rather than an offer to play there. 5♠ over 5♣ should presumably show the strong one-suited hand that faked a club suit to establish a game force; it helps to avoid that issue if you do not allow Responder to bid a direct 5♣ with only 4 card support.

[y66]

I have 4H available as an autosplinter so that's what I'll bid.

[ThomasRush]

y66, on 2021-December-24, 11:04, said:

I have 4H available as an autosplinter so that's what I'll bid.

But then what?

If you bid 4!H and partner bids 5!C or 5!D, you'll have no idea if you're on for 11 or 12 tricks.
Splinters use up a tremendous amount of space. Before you use one, make sure partner can use
the information, and that you know where to go next.

[Cyberyeti]

ThomasRush, on 2021-December-29, 09:24, said:

But then what?

If you bid 4!H and partner bids 5!C or 5!D, you'll have no idea if you're on for 11 or 12 tricks.
Splinters use up a tremendous amount of space. Before you use one, make sure partner can use
the information, and that you know where to go next.

This hand is not difficult, I didn't mention jumps as big as this are always voids not singletons for us, but other hands opposite may be less useful, most of the time the correct choice of 6m/♠ over 5N won't be much worse than a finesse (may need a 3-2 break also) opposite a non heart ace and Q, and may be cold.

[suemazur1]

AL78, on 2021-December-17, 15:13, said:

♠AKQJ84
♥-
♦KT3
♣KJT6

1♠ - 1NT
?

1NT is 6-9 HCP. Your call?