[broze]

How should the bidding go on this hand after S opens 2♠?

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Looking at the EW hands it doesn't seem unreasonable to reach 6♥. If the auction starts (2S) - Dbl, North bids 4S.

[ggwhiz]

I hate double with the west hand.

2♠ - 3♣ - 3♠ - dbl (takeout)
4♥

ps. did I mention that I HATE double with the west hand?

[inquiry]

Liberal leaping michaels...


(2♠) - 4♣ - pass - 4♥
all pass


Although East should make a slam try.. and slam is clearly not bad.. .needs trumps 22 or singleton Queen, or club hook on, so percentage wise, I think I would want to be in slam unless I could see all four hands.

[Codo]

I would hate ANY bid with the West hand, so I would choose Bens 4♣ too, despite the fact that this PROMISES 5+ hearts to me. Unluckily, this would bring my score to 6 ♥ - 1, but what can I do

[Fluffy]

3♣ is obvious for me.
North having KJ9xx clubs has no reason to overpreempt and bids 3♠
East doubles obviously
West is close but I think he is worth 5♥
East has to make a dificult final decision.

[PhilKing]

Fluffy, on 2013-April-12, 04:58, said:

3♣ is obvious for me.
North having KJ9xx clubs has no reason to overpreempt and bids 3♠
East doubles obviously
West is close but I think he is worth 5♥
East has to make a dificult final decision.

This auction, but with East passing 5♥ for sure. West can't have more.

I don't hate double by West over 2♥. Over the nightmare sequence, I would adopt "operation scramble" - X-2N-3♣-3♦-3♥, should show this pattern and approximate point count. I am not putting this hand down in 3♦!

Double might get me to the bad 6♥:
X 4♥
5♥(asking East for spade control AND a decent hand) 6♥

[broze]

Fluffy, on 2013-April-12, 04:58, said:

North having KJ9xx clubs has no reason to overpreempt and bids 3♠

I don't really agree and to be honest I would always shoot 4♠ at these colours. The opps rate to have a 9 card ♥ fit and game values. Why do you want to give them room to find it? And if they bid to 4♥ you're not too confident of setting it - you might want to bid 4♠ and will feel silly for not bidding it immediately.

Anyway thanks for the replies. I am coming to like the idea of bidding 4♣ on this hand more and more - not only does it get my hand off my chest but it also ups the frequency of the bid if I can have 5-4.

I held the West cards on this deal and chose dbl worrying that after (2♠)-3♣-(4♠)-Pass-(Pass)-Double would not get my hand across. We had a disaster on this deal (below).

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Quite a corker - which was the worst call? This was pickup on BBO so be gentle!

[PhilKing]

To be fair, there was no "stand out" awful bid. I can sort of understand it all.

5♥ - I understand it. I would prefer 4NT followed by 5♦(reds) which would suggest to West his clubs were no use or 4NT followed by 5♥ as my weaker 5♥ bid (not available to pick up partnership).

6♥ - reasonable.

Pass - wrong, and definitely the worst call, but people feel impelled do this in order to show the spade control. However, if partner held ♥AKQ ♦A ♣AK he would have bid 5NT as a grand slam try lacking a spade control. I guess this was not available in a pick-up partnership of course.

7♣ - wrong, but not ridiculous. Grand is bound to have some play.

[Zelandakh]

I also think that 4NT over 4♠ by East in the X auction is considerably better. The problem is that West might think the opponents are lawful and imagine the ♠xxx opposite a void, which makes the hand look pretty good.

[Free]

Why didn't North Dbl 7♣?

[bigbenvic]

I think 7♣ is a bad call. You've agreed trumps, signed off in slam and when the opponents have sacrificed decided to be pushed to the grand.

At This point, you don't know if your slam was making, you don't know if your making grand but you can be very sure they are not making 6♠

Just double and take the plus, if they've found a good sacrifice, congratulate them and move on.

Effectively they've guessed with 6♠ and even if the forcing pass shows first round control, you just don't have enough info to reliably bid the grand.

[Zelandakh]

Free, on 2013-April-13, 05:24, said:

Why didn't North Dbl 7♣?

Perhaps they were hoping the opps would play there if they kept quiet?