[ruotal]

I am playing South with :♠ Q3 ♥ Q73 ♦ J102 ♣ AKJ109

My partner has : ♠ 5 ♥ 9862 ♦ AKQ5 ♣ Q432


Auctions goes : S W N E

1♣ 3♠ ?


What should be North's bid and the rest assuming they pass the rest ?

[helene_t]

Playing five-card majors, North should certainly double.

I think south bids 4♣ and North 5♣, This is not a good contract of course. Bad luck.

[P_Marlowe]

North should certainly make a neg.,
he has the classic 4-4-4-1 shape, and
11HCP, any other bid is out.

Now South will have a problem, but
most likely East will raise 3S to 4S,
which South can pass.
If East passes as well, ... well I may
Pass with the South hand, not a success.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[cf_John0]

helene_t, on Jul 2 2006, 11:58 PM, said:

Playing five-card majors, North should certainly double.

Yes,I think so,too.

[kenrexford]

Interesting hand and problem. I would in practice probably end up in 5C down one, or even a horrible 4H contract. But...

A double of 3♠ is a pressure bid. It shows values without any options, and it might be based upon a number of hands, sometimes without four hearts. If Opener respects that problem, he should strain to bid 3NT. Qx provides a bolster for 3NT, but it is a horrible feature for any other contract. Thus 3NT seems plausible.

If Responder respects the problem also, he may very well justify removal of a 3NT call to the assured club fit, at 4♣. This should not be forcing. Although 4♣ is probably set, it has hope. Give Ax or Kx to the 3♠ bidder, and 4♣ will often score up 130 in practice.

[On this last point. Assume a spade lead and no heart switch. You lose a spade, of course, and then ruff out the last spade, pull trumps, and strip diamonds, in the right order to end up on dummy. A small heart is played from both hands. If Declarer's LHO holds Ax or Kx, there is no resolution to the problem when trumps were 2-2.]

[Codo]

kenrexford, on Jul 3 2006, 11:39 PM, said:

Interesting hand and problem. I would in practice probably end up in 5C down one, or even a horrible 4H contract. But...

A double of 3♠ is a pressure bid. It shows values without any options, and it might be based upon a number of hands, sometimes without four hearts. If Opener respects that problem, he should strain to bid 3NT. Qx provides a bolster for 3NT, but it is a horrible feature for any other contract. Thus 3NT seems plausible.

If Responder respects the problem also, he may very well justify removal of a 3NT call to the assured club fit, at 4♣. This should not be forcing. Although 4♣ is probably set, it has hope. Give Ax or Kx to the 3♠ bidder, and 4♣ will often score up 130 in practice.

[On this last point. Assume a spade lead and no heart switch. You lose a spade, of course, and then ruff out the last spade, pull trumps, and strip diamonds, in the right order to end up on dummy. A small heart is played from both hands. If Declarer's LHO holds Ax or Kx, there is no resolution to the problem when trumps were 2-2.]

To bid 3 NT with the south hand is a possible gamble.
But it surely is impossible to bid 4 ♣ nonforcing from North after this.
Pd wants to play 3 NT opposite mine 1444 hand with about 10 HCPS? Now I have a 1444 hand with 11 HCPS and should correct 3 NT to 4 Club? Silly idea ihmo...

But at this actual hand, I had have an even worse result then the rest, because I had passed 3 Spade X or bid 3 NT. Both had been nice for the opponents.
But I had disliked to rebid my 5 card minor and I had no good other bid avaiable and believe in the statement, that it is winning bridge to pass quite often with a balanced hand opposite a take out double with no clear fit. Obviously this is no winning bridge in this hand.

sh

It happens

[EricK]

The bidding should proceed with a double followed by 4♣ from opener. Then responder has to decide between a cautious pass and an aggressive raise.

Maybe the pass is right playing strong NT (where the example hand is a lively possibility) and 5♣ is right playing a Weak NT (where opener will have either more strength or more distribution than the actual hand). But maybe my judhgement is being affected by seeing both hands.

[mikestar]

EricK, on Jul 3 2006, 08:06 PM, said:

The bidding should proceed with a double followed by 4♣ from opener. Then responder has to decide between a cautious pass and an aggressive raise.

Maybe the pass is right playing strong NT (where the example hand is a lively possibility) and 5♣ is right playing a Weak NT (where opener will have either more strength or more distribution than the actual hand). But maybe my judhgement is being affected by seeing both hands.

I agree with this analysis. I don't care for 3nt on Qx--partner would be straining to bid 3NT himself with a spade card, so likely he doesn't have one.

[neilkaz]

I like and agree with EricK's analysis.

Often when they preempt, you end up guessing, and if you guess wrong, there's a bad result. This is just bridge. Of course, sometimes they get a bad result for preempting.

[whereagles]

I'll just be practical and bid 3NT... I really think anything else is biased from having seen pard's hand.