[Antrax]

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Matchpoints. Partner's redouble was support, showing exactly three spades.

If you disagree with 1♠, please let me know. Jumps in a new suit would've been weak, 1NT semi-forcing, 2♣ game forcing.
What do you bid now?

[Scarabin]

I don't know your partner or your system but I would bid 3♦,asking partner for a further feature (hopefully clubs). Second choice would be 2♠, hoping to buy the contract at the lowest possible level.

[Antrax]

The general approach is 2/1 GF, 5 card majors. 3♦ would've forced to game and partner's first obligation would've been to bid NT with a ♦ stopper (this being matchpoints and all). Without a stopper he can bid 3♥ to show extra length or 3♠ to say "nothing to show". He will probably bid 4♣ if he is 3=5=1=4 or 3=5=0=5.

[Scarabin]

I am only interested in 2 things: how many clubs does partner hold & who has the ♠A & ♣A? Would partner cue-bid the ♣A if I had jumped to 3♠?

I want to buy the contract and am happy to play 4♠. I just dont want to miss a slam. Of course I'll be happy to double clubs at any level.

My guess: West is 5-4 in minors, North 5-3-3-2. Aces & queens in spades & clubs are the only important cards.

Over 3NT I'll bid 4♣, over 4♦ 5♣, anything else 4♠.

[Fluffy]

But you said you might want to bid a non forcing 2♠? I supose the chances to play there are almost non existant, but partner won't react very well after you make a weak bid and then start to jump around.


I would bid 3♦. bidding my hand on a strong way, looking to buy it at 4♠, 5♠ might not be safe, and 6♠ looks very hard

[Trinidad]

Partner probably has some vague hand. And now we want to gain more information from that vague hand by bidding 3♦? What information is partner going to give? Right, the information that we need if we have a vague hand. Partner will typically tell us whether from his point of view 3NT would be a good contract.

But do we have a vague hand? NO! We know where we want to go. Let us bid our suits a couple of times first and then later we can cue diamonds to show the void.

If you bid 3♦ here, you are assuming that partner cannot bid other than answering your questions. If you trust partner to be able to evaluate his hand, you are just bidding your suits, starting with a simple 3♣.

Rik

[Cyberyeti]

3♣, let partner know you've got a lot of black cards, they're going to bid more diamonds next, on a really good day only 3 of them and you can bid 4♣ next.

[Scarabin]

If I bid 2♠,my second choice, then I repeat ♠at minimum level and suppress clubs,unless partner comes to life in a big way. ♣seem to be our weakness.
Probably partner has ♠A and West top ♦& ♣.

[rmnka447]

With this 7-6 player, I'm not stopping short of 4 ♠ now that I know there is a 10 card spade fit.

But what's needed is to elicit more information from partner about his hand. So immediately I'm bidding 3 ♣ which since I'm an unpassed hand is absolutely forcing.

Unless partner does something really exciting, next round I'm bidding at least 4 ♠. Partner can never know that I'm 7-6, but at least he'll know that I'm at least 6-4 in the black suits which may allow him to carry on toward slam with the right cards.

[JLOGIC]

I'd just bid 4S, LHO showed club length

[cherdano]

I understand why you could be worried about this hand. Give partner something like Jxx AKxxx Kxx xx, LHO the expected spade void and the club honours, and you might not make 2♠ on a diamond lead. Nevertheless, I will take all my courage to bid 4♠.

[Trinidad]

JLOGIC, on 2013-February-10, 18:09, said:

I'd just bid 4S, LHO showed club length

That's a good point. My wife said just the same thing about 4 hours ago. When she wakes up tomorrow morning, I'll tell her you agree with her.

Rik

[Antrax]

At the table I bid 4♠ - a question to 3♦ bidders (and 3♣, to a lesser extent): what is your plan if it goes 3♦/3♣-(5♦)-X-(p)?

[Scarabin]

I think the question then becomes: what do you bid over 5♦?

Sorry this crossed with Antrax's post.

This post has been edited by Scarabin: 2013-February-10, 23:12

[Scarabin]

I pass the double, and this also applies if I had bid 4♠.

I see the hands as something like this (although I'll probably look stupid when you show the actual hands), J & under should be "x's" :

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[Antrax]

If this is the layout, wouldn't you rather be in 6♠?

[Scarabin]

Only if this is the exact layout. Give East one more spade and have West lead the ace of clubs. I think the slam is too fragile and the penalty more robust. But to go for slam I need to know North has a club control, preferably void.

[Antrax]

Both hands:

Spoiler

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I bid 4♠, AP, and made 15 tricks on the ♦A lead and two revokes. Not sure if it's good or bad.

[Scarabin]

Sorry for the poor joke but 2 revokes are definitely bad! How was the MP result?

Would like to see the East-West hands - I am still plugging away at my program and presently working on reconstructing the hidden hands.

Thanks for the topic I really enjoyed it.

[Antrax]

Unfortunately I don't have the hand records. The MP result was second only to the pair who got doubled in 4♠.
And yeah, I guess the abundance of voids makes people more likely to revoke
Glad you enjoyed it, I thought it was a good problem.