[shyams]

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What do you do now? Pass, Dbl, raise to 5♥ or try for a ♥ slam?

I thought my chosen action (in isolation) was easy and obvious, but partner went ballistic when it turned out poorly! At the table, I said his hand did not match his bidding (I'll post full hand later)

[FrancesHinden]

I would bid 5H
- I am not going to pass, because that might well end the auction, and I have five card heart support. 5H is either making or a good save.
- I am not going to double because I have minimal defence
- I am not going to make a grand slam try (by bidding 6D, say) because my hand isn't good enough - I could have another ace and not have enough for a 2/1 in many systems

That leaves me with the choice of 5H or 6H
Partner could have AKxxx AKxxx xx x when I want to be in slam
But i don't want to punish him too much for bidding - I want him to bid 3H on rather less; and there is a reasonable chance he also has a singleton diamond which would be bad news.
But i think it's quite close.

[Fluffy]

I think 5♥ is quite clear, Frances explained why, to me the only option would be to pass 1♠.

[cherdano]

I also think 5♥ is quite clear. As usual, partner is minimum more often than he has extras, and KQJxxx AKxxx x x already has extras for a 3♥ bid - in fact that hand would probably bid 4♥.

[kriegel]

I think 5♥ is clear-cut. If there's a slam here... preempts work.

What was your action at the table?

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

Pass is out - we are not in a FP seq, I have 5 card support for p, and I dont want to let
them play 5D undoubled.

Trying for slam is also out, there is no bid, that will have this meaning, X is for penalty,
5H is to play, if I bypass 5H we will be playing 6H.

That leaves X or 5H - I would go with 5H, i have 5 card support, and only one sure trick.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[jillybean]

5♥ is crystal clear and partner could not fault you for the bid.

[shyams]

Like most posters, I thought the 5♥ bid was obvious. I visualized a hand like the one posted by Frances.

Sadly, partner had ♠AKxxxx ♥A8xx ♦x ♣Qx. Obviously, partner's 3♥ was stupid. But he blamed me for my raise. His argument was "If I passed and LHO raised to 5♦, how would we continue??" or some such crutch. In any case, I said I was 100% sure my action was sound and logical.

We agreed to revisit later, and I thought it may be worth posting on BBF to re-validate my understanding

Thank you all

[cherdano]

I would suggest to play double of 3♦ as takeout.