[Coelacanth]

Matchpoints with your side vulnerable against not you encounter

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Feel free to comment on the previous bidding. Would you have opened this balanced 10-count in first chair? What do you think of the 4♠ call; if you don't choose that, what instead?

Anyway, now you're in the passout seat after LHO has bid 5♣ and then 6♣ in response to RHO's unusual NT.

What's your call? Was partner's pass of 6♣ forcing?

[Fluffy]

pass is forcing cos a passed hand went to the 6 level.

If I knew ♣A was working I'd bid 6 cos 2 aces is a lot for a preempt, but since I have no idea if it is, and partner made no try over 5♣ with a 5 red seems to me he is not very interested in slam and I'll just double.

I would had bid 3m instead on 4♠, wich minor depends on agreements.

[ArtK78]

Would I have opened this hand? No. And it is not close.

What do I think of the bidding so far? I would not have bid 4♠ over 2NT. It does not allow partner to participate intelligently in the auction. I would have bid 3♦ - unusual over unusual - to show an invitational spade raise. You have no idea how good partner's 1♠ opening is, so you don't even know if you belong in game.

Now that I have a decision over 6♣, what do I do? Double. Partner's pass of 6♣ is forcing. I have no reason to believe that we are making 6♠ (I don't even know that we were making 5♠) and I have every reason to believe that they are going down in 6♣. I take my plus. Hopefully, they are sacrificing one level higher than the rest of the field.

[gwnn]

double sorry but this is kind of obvious. even though we will never pass out this 6 level madness, it is equally true that we will never bid 4 then 5 then 6. partner had two different slam tries available, namely 5♦ and 5♥, and he didn't try at all.

[Coelacanth]

gwnn, on 2011-February-01, 09:43, said:

double sorry but this is kind of obvious.

This was my thought at the table and is why I chose to double.

Appreciate the thoughts on the auction. Not sure why I upgraded to a 4♠ bid instead of making a limit raise. Had I bid 3♦, LHO would likely have bid 5♣ and partner would still bid 5♠.

On the actual hand, doubling 6♣ leads to -1090. Partner has a reasonably sound (in the context of a 3rd-seat opener) but aceless 5440 hand. The opponents are 4216 opposite 0355 so you make only the trump ace. 6♠ would get doubled and go for at least 1700.

This was the very first board of the session. -1090 scored 1.5 matchpoints on a 25 top. Lovely.

[gwnn]

And if you pass it out?

[manudude03]

Nuts comes to mind, completely obvious double, and where does partner think he's getting 10 tricks (or 11 if opps are not making) from if you haven't shown a good hand. You can use the actual hand as evidence, 4 card support, 2 aces and you still don't even get 7 tricks, albeit slightly unlucky.

ps. 4♠ doesn't show this good a hand, so you actually downgraded, not upgraded. I might bid it with a pickup however just to make sure there are no understandings though. FWIW If I was bidding 6S here, it would have been with the intention of making!

[gnasher]

Coelacanth, on 2011-February-01, 11:01, said:

Partner has a reasonably sound (in the context of a 3rd-seat opener) but aceless 5440 hand. The opponents are 4216 opposite 0355 so you make only the trump ace.

What were partner's red-suit honours?

[ArtK78]

From the auction and the result, it appears that partner's actions on this hand were what led to the poor score. I suspect that the 5♠ bid was very poor if you can't make more than 6 tricks in spades.

[gwnn]

yes partner's 5♠ bid is complete lunacy, no disrespect intended. 5044??? aceless?? opps showed? the minors??? ugh...

[manudude03]

gwnn, on 2011-February-01, 14:12, said:

yes partner's 5♠ bid is complete lunacy, no disrespect intended. 5044??? aceless?? opps showed? the minors??? ugh...

5440- club void, not that it makes it any better.

[gwnn]

oh yes. my insanity added to the bid's, and it was a true case of arithmetic overflow.

[Coelacanth]

I may as well post the whole hand.

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Edited to add: I just looked up the results for this board. It was played 26 times and EW went plus at every single table.

1090 (6♣X= ) x4
650 (5♣X +1) x16
500 x1
300 x1
200 x3
100 x1

With a cold slam their way, none of the EW pairs who sold out scored as many as 3 undertricks (unless that 500 is someone down 5 undoubled). At least 4 EW pairs failed to double. My opponents at the table earned their shared top, at least against this field.

[manudude03]

Well, one thing's for certain, your partner is insane, KJTx is not a good holding in a minor when LHO has shown length in both minors, and the hearts (if needed) would be finessed into the other hand!

ps. your double only cost you 1.5 MPs, not much to worry about. If the slam failed, you would probably still be -1100 or -1400 which would have been a cold bottom anyway.

[whereagles]

Our hand is very defensive, so it seems like an easy dbl.

Too bad they make it lol. Oh well... at least you can nag pard for not having opened 2♠.

I don't particularly like 4♠, even though that's not they cause of the problem.