[jillybean]

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How do you evaluate this hand and what is your bid?

[1eyedjack]

The only reasonable choices are bidding 4H or a game try in H

I would just bid 4H, which I know could work out bad. It is a 7 LTC hand without allowing for the fact that you have a likely (albeit not certain, in my style) 9 card trump fit.

I suppose that if you have the mechanism to show a game try with short diamonds, then that is a tempting route, which probably is the more disciplined. But lacking that mechanism I would definitely favour 4H over a non-descript game try over which opener will not know when to accept.

Having a 9 card trump fit makes a big difference to hands like this, and if your partner is not one of those who is inclined to raise on 3, it argues more forcefully for bidding 4 now.

[JLOGIC]

Yeah I'd just try 4H

[VM1973]

It's a little shy of a 4♥ bid. I'll bid 2♠ for several reasons.

1. It will put my LHO off from leading spades.
2. It could result in a superior spade contract.
3. It will let me find out more about my partner's hand.

Assuming this is IMPs (why do people never put the form of scoring in their posts?!!?) most people will just bid to 4♥ because even though it's not assured the benefits of being right vastly outweigh the cost of being wrong.

As for evaluating the hand, ZPs puts it at 24, which is a queen less than an opening bid.
My own system, which is called Deductive Points (DPs) puts it at 16 where 18 is an opening bid, so a queen less.
NLTC puts the hand at 14 half-losers and recommends a 4♥ bid. This assumes, of course, that there are no wasted values in diamonds opposite your void. I think there are likely to be wasted values in diamonds.

In conclusion: 4♥ at IMPs, something else at matchpoints (depending on your system).

[JLOGIC]

#2 is true only if you raise with 4 spades and 3 hearts sometimes (I presume you are going to play 4H if partner is 4-4 in the majors).

#1 is true, bidding 2S might be best even if you are always bidding game in order to try and stop the spade lead.

[pooltuna]

I vote for the 2♠ game try as it dumps the decision on partner but I really want to hear 3♥ if partner has 3 small ♠

[ggwhiz]

It's usually right to blast game and give the opps a guess on lead but I like the idea of 2♠ to try to blow off that lead.

My pard hardly ever rejects my game tries unless it's an emergency and will rebound with 3 of a minor to show location of values and a "maybe" accept. Glass 1/2 full type.

[VM1973]

JLOGIC, on 2011-September-24, 07:13, said:

#2 is true only if you raise with 4 spades and 3 hearts sometimes (I presume you are going to play 4H if partner is 4-4 in the majors).

#1 is true, bidding 2S might be best even if you are always bidding game in order to try and stop the spade lead.

If you held:

♠Kxxx
♥Axxx
♦AJx
♣Qx

And the auction went (opps passing throughout):
1♦ you
1♥
2♥
2♠
what would you bid? I'm assuming 4♥ (although maybe you'll bid 4♠) but either way, the choice is out of my hands and firmly in the hands of my partner. Accordingly the question, posed to me, about whether I would play in the 5-4 heart fit or the 4-4 spade fit is moot as the decision is not mine to make.

[Siegmund]

Only a game try for me, thank you. I like 7 loser hands as much as the next guy but this is one time when I really care which suit my partner's non-heart values are in: 3D or 3H from partner and I stop, anything else I go.

No chance of a "superior spade contract" being found IMO - opener might be 4-4, but even if he is, the 2S try doesn't promise 4 nor does accepting the try. (I suppose you could play 1d-1h-2h-2s-3s as accepting with 4-4 majors if you really wanted; but I play it as a concentration in case responder's 2S was the start of a game-or-slam query rather than a partscore-or-game one.)