[FrancesHinden]

You are playing a 10x20 board total imps teams-of-four round robin against expert opposition (on this board, anyway).

Scoring: IMP

1♥ 1♠ 4♦ 4♠
?

---

4♦ was "fit" showing a raise to 4♥ with a diamond suit. Doesn't have to be very strong, something like xx Qxxx AQ10xx xx would be considered down the middle. Partner will have 5 (or more) diamonds about 80% of the time, but could just have 5 hearts and 4 diamonds.

A bit of context for you: LHO definitely considered bidding something other than 1♠, though only briefly. He could have bid 3♣ showing a constructive hand with the blacks (non-forcing); he could also have make a weak jump in spades. You don't know how fast the 4♠ bid came as it was on the other side of the screen, but there were certainly no long pauses.

What do you bid now?
If your call doesn't end the auction, what is your strategy? (if this call doesn't end the auction, it's always possible the next one doesn't either.)

(if you bid any number of hearts or diamonds, or pass, you do not set up a forcing pass; if you cue bid a black suit or bid 4NT RKCB for hearts, pass will then be forcing.)

There will be a play or defensive problem after we've finished the auction...

[whereagles]

Technically, you can try 5♦, hoping pard can contribute to slam if he has club control. Psychologically there are a couple of moves you can try, like 5♥ followed by 6♥, hoping to lure opps away from the good sacrifice they have.

Another 'joker' move is to bid 7♦. If RHO takes this seriously, he might very well try for a phantom save in ♠, on which we capitalize. Must be diams, not hearts, because in hearts LHO is leading and he probably has the club ace

[FrancesHinden]

You've said some of the possibilities are. What are you doing?

[Chamaco]

FrancesHinden, on Sep 12 2005, 08:49 AM, said:

4♦ was "fit" showing a raise to 4♥ with a diamond suit. Doesn't have to be very strong, something like xx Qxxx AQ10xx xx would be considered down the middle. Partner will have 5 (or more) diamonds about 80% of the time, but could just have 5 hearts and 4 diamonds.

Two questions here:

1. does the FJS deny side honors ? (some people would not FJS with side wasted honors)

2. does it deny shortness in clubs ?

[FrancesHinden]

Chamaco, on Sep 12 2005, 04:42 AM, said:

1. does the FJS deny side honors ? (some people would not FJS with side wasted honors)

2. does it deny shortness in clubs ?

1. No, but a lot of side honours would either make the hand too good for a fit jump, or make it seriously unsuitable. Partner won't have KJxx in a black suit, for example, but could have a high card in either.

2. No. You might consider club shortness to be reasonably probable on this auction, though it depends exactly on the size of their spade fit.

If you play a FJS as denying side honours _and_ denying shortness, you can't make them very often....

[whereagles]

FrancesHinden, on Sep 12 2005, 09:35 AM, said:

You've said some of the possibilities are. What are you doing?

That depends on what I had for dinner Under normal circumstances I usually try the technical bid.

In Zia's heat 1 (euphoric), I'd try 7D.
In heat 2 (normal), I'd try 5D.
In heat 3 (bad mood), I'd try 5H, trying to see if it's enough to steal the pot.

Maybe this is not what you wanted to hear, but rest assured I hardly ever try funny things, so for practical purposes I guess I'd bid 5D

[joker_gib]

I bid 5♦ which should show a slam try without ♣ control imho.

Alain

PS : Whereagles said : Another 'joker' move is to bid 7♦. Pls do not use half of my nickname to qualify such a bid ! LOLLLLLL

[Chamaco]

FrancesHinden, on Sep 12 2005, 09:57 AM, said:

If you play a FJS as denying side honours _and_ denying shortness, you can't make them very often....

Sure.

Robson Segal argue for avoid as much as possible side-honors of any kind in FJS (using 2NT for these hands if wasted honors).

As for the jumps denyng side controls, no matter if honors or shortness.
I agree with you; nonetheless, some people do play these kind of picture jumps (e.g. Fred in his 2/1 structure advocates the use of picture jump denying any sort of sidesuit controls, no matter if shortness or honors).
Sure enough, in competition, it pays off more to be flexible.

=======================================

If FJS does not deny club shortness, I'll bid EKB (4NT if using 4S kickback, or 4S if using 4NT RKCB).

[Free]

depending on the possibility of side suit honours, I'd bid either 5♠ exclusion bw (want to play grand), or 5♦...

[pbleighton]

5D.

Peter

[hrothgar]

Interesting hand...

I'm going to bid an immediate 6♥ playing partner for (approximately)

♠ xxx
♥ Qxxx
♦ KQxxx
♣ x

Theres certainly no guarantee that partner will table this hand, however, I'm willing to gamble that partner's expect Spade holding will give him a distributional Club control.

If partner tables a miracle hand we could have a grand. Partner could easily table a stronger - though less suitable - hand) where we can't even make 6. Preempts work. Such is life... As usual, I prefer to make the bid that I think will place the opponents under the most pressure. 6 Diamonds is also a reasonable choice.

5 Spades as exclusion is a reasonable alternative if you have this agreement. However, ideally you'd want Diamonds as trump so you can ask about both the Ace of Clubs and the King of Diamonds. 5 Spades lets you find out about Clubs but leaves you guessing about an equally vital King...

Unlike Free, I consider it reasonable to trot this out even if the fit jump denies a club honor...

[Gerben42]

I'm going to jump to 6♦, hoping for a ♣ control or ♠ lead
After that, double anything that moves.

[FrancesHinden]

I suppose I can give you a bit of an update on the auction, as not everybody has given full details of their strategy...

I'm afraid you don't play exclusion here (only in very rare uncontested auctions). But I'm putting the 5S exclusion bidders down as 5S cue-bidders, which in practice will have much the same effect.

So, in ascending order...

If you bid 5D, LHO bids 5S, partner bids 6H passed round (I assume) to LHO who bids 6S passed (forcing) round to you.

If you bid 5H, LHO bids 5S, passed (non-forcing) round to you

If you bid 5S, LHO bids 6S passed (forcing) round to you

If you bid 6D or 6H, LHO bids 6S passed (non-forcing) round to you.

(My choice at the table was 6H, hoping for exactly the hand hrothgar suggests so I had the last problem).

[hrothgar]

FrancesHinden, on Sep 12 2005, 03:30 PM, said:

(My choice at the table was 6H, hoping for exactly the hand hrothgar suggests so I had the last problem).

Sigh...

I was torn between 6♦ and 6♥. I figured that 6♦ would work better if the opps competed to 6♠. Partner would know about the double fit and be better positioned when I doubled. I chose 6♥ because I was hoping that supressing the double fit would make it less likely that the opps bid 6♠...

I'm smacking 6♠. I hope that my notriously bad defense will compensate for their double fit...

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

I will bid 5D, hoping to buy
the contract, if 5S comes back
to me I will double whithout
great confidence.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[Fluffy]

I wanna play 6♦, vulnerability suggest we don't need to be very fishy, 6♠ might be a great mistake, so I'll just bid the contract.

[pbleighton]

After 6S, I double, and hope.

Peter

[mike777]

I have never played fit jumps. What is the advantage of playing them here over playing splinters?

Here I make a complete guess by bidding 4nt RKC, if LHO bids 5s and pard bids D=0=P=1? That will force me to bid 6H and not 6D to hide their double fit in c and spades from opp. Only guessing here.