[gnasher]

I don't think you should let your judgement be influenced by what happened on this hand. 4441 shapes are rare, and 4441s with a singleton ace are even rarer.

[paulg]

 Fluffy, on 2012-April-18, 02:54, said:

Unless something odd happens I think the par contract at this point is 3♥ doubled.

Sorry, you are right. Par is actually 2♠ + 1 as three hearts does fail by a trick.

[phil_20686]

 paulg, on 2012-April-18, 03:58, said:

Sorry, you are right. Par is actually 2♠ + 1 as three hearts does fail by a trick.

Although I was pretty nervous when your brother was thinking holding xx AQT9xx Q987 J.

Not exactly a classic red vs white preempt.

[han]

I didn't understand the comment about 3S being impossible to reach. Doesn't partner have an obvious pass of 3S?

[paulg]

 han, on 2012-April-18, 07:51, said:

I didn't understand the comment about 3S being impossible to reach. Doesn't partner have an obvious pass of 3S?

I'm not sure it's completely obvious when you hold three aces and a useful king.

[gwnn]

 paulg, on 2012-April-18, 09:33, said:

I'm not sure it's completely obvious when you hold three aces and a useful king.

In 3NT you have no obvious tricks, in 4♠ you probably have too many losers.

[han]

I thought that it was clear to pass, but maybe not. I certainly disagree with it being impossible to stop at 3S. It's true that partner has nice honors, but he (she?) also has a singleton spade. I know some Scottish women always bid more than I do, so maybe in practice it was impossible to stop in 3S.

What would you bid?

I don't think 3NT is a good bid with this hand, you have only a single heart stopper so you'll need partner's spades to be solid with your ace, plus an entry to his hand. That's a lot to ask of a NF 3S bid.

In 4S your heart king may not be that useful.

[paulg]

 han, on 2012-April-18, 09:45, said:

I thought that it was clear to pass, but maybe not. I certainly disagree with it being impossible to stop at 3S. It's true that partner has nice honors, but he (she?) also has a singleton spade. I know some Scottish women always bid more than I do, so maybe in practice it was impossible to stop in 3S.

What would you bid?

I don't think 3NT is a good bid with this hand, you have only a single heart stopper so you'll need partner's spades to be solid with your ace, plus an entry to his hand. That's a lot to ask of a NF 3S bid.

In 4S your heart king may not be that useful.

I agree with the arguments against bidding, but still think partner would have thought for a while before making a decision and I expect he'd have bid 4♠ more often than not. Rightly or wrongly

[Benoit35]

Takeout X. Give partner a chance to convert it to +500.

[AyunuS]

You need to bid something. Your opponents appear to be weak if all they made was a weak bid, and if hearts are where most of their points are then you could easily have a game here, so you don't want to pass. I'd go for 4♦ and see what your partner bids.