[S2000magic]

Partner opened 1♦. With no warning of the impending doom, and looking at:

♠ K 10 8 4
♥ 8
♦ A 9 6
♣ A Q 10 8 4

I responded 1♠. Partner rebid 2♣, and, still blissfully ignorant, I forced with 2♥.

Then the fun began:

Partner bid 4♥, and I corrected to 5♣.

Partner persisted with 5♥, and I tried to get out with 5NT.

Partner wasn't to be deterred: 6♥. I bid 6NT and, mercifully, that ended the auction.

Our opponents mercifully let me out for down 1; I should have been down 4.

Partner held:

♠ ---
♥ A J 10 5
♦ K 8 5 4 3
♣ K J 5 3

Both 6♣ and 6♦ make.

[bigbenvic]

Why start with 1s, surely 2♣ is better and allows easier description of your hand. if he bids 2 of a red suit you can bid 2s and your hand is off yuor chest.

I'd recorrect to 6c not 5nt as partner may not work out that you are scrambling, he could think 5♣ was a cue and 5nt was looking for grand? 6c may still look like a cue but it rates better chances than 5nt should of stopping the auction.

[S2000magic]

 bigbenvic, on 2011-November-21, 19:43, said:

Why start with 1♠? Surely 2♣ is better and allows easier description of your hand. If he bids 2 of a red suit you can bid 2♠ and your hand is off your chest.

Good point. Although, this partner might never have believed that sequence would show 4 spades, even if they were rebid.

 bigbenvic, on 2011-November-21, 19:43, said:

I'd recorrect to 6♣ not 5NT as partner may not work out that you are scrambling, he could think 5♣ was a cue and 5NT was looking for grand? 6♣ may still look like a cue but it rates better chances than 5NT should of stopping the auction.

Actually, she thought that 5NT was asking for kings.

You're probably right that 6♣ might have been safer, but she also might have thought that it was a cue bid.

Later she said that over 6NT she was considering 7♥.

[gwnn]

Apparently this partner is more than open to the idea of natural bids so I'm afraid your objection will have to be overruled this time

[gwnn]

But yea you should bid 6C, not 5NT to try to clarify what would be high time to clarify

[aguahombre]

It is quite common for things to go sideways and get convoluted when the first bid by one of the two players was unprepared.

Nearly all systems and styles call for responder with game forcing values to start with his longer of two suits. In the posted case, 2C would have established the length of the clubs and the strength of the hand early. There are several common rebids by opener after 1D-2C. Most of them are quite natural with suit bids showing suits.

[Hanoi5]

 S2000magic, on 2011-November-21, 19:55, said:

Good point. Although, this partner might never have believed that sequence would show 4 spades, even if they were rebid.

As gwnn said partner would have supported spades if it had been bid on the second round with no problem.

[Flameous]

This is kind of funny auction to interpret, it means opps are silent with huge amounts of hearts.
I couldn't take 4H as anything else but a splinter with likely something along 3154 shape and some extras.
5C is a sign off after partner still tries with 5H, showing 3064 or maybe 3055. 5NT seems like a try for grand but can't quite get what 6H could be. Maybe it shows HA if we could play 7NT but it doesn't seem we could have enough strength for it after my 5C sign off.

Oh well, better make your partners know about 4th suit forcing

[S2000magic]

 aguahombre, on 2011-November-22, 00:53, said:

It is quite common for things to go sideways and get convoluted when the first bid by one of the two players was unprepared.

Nearly all systems and styles call for responder with game forcing values to start with his longer of two suits. In the posted case, 2C would have established the length of the clubs and the strength of the hand early. There are several common rebids by opener after 1D-2C. Most of them are quite natural with suit bids showing suits.

While I agree in retrospect that starting with 2♣ instead of 1♠ is correct (on this hand), it doesn't really get to the crux of the issue. Surely things wouldn't have fared much differently if I'd been dealt:

♠ K 10 8 4 2
♥ 8
♦ A 9 6
♣ A Q 10 8

instead of my actual hand.

Anyway, I'm certainly not trying to defend all (or even any) of my bids; it was simply a funny auction.

At least the opponents were amused.

[S2000magic]

 Flameous, on 2011-November-22, 04:33, said:

This is kind of funny auction to interpret, it means opps are silent with huge amounts of hearts.
I couldn't take 4H as anything else but a splinter with likely something along 3154 shape and some extras.

I was pretty sure that she intended it as showing 4-card heart support. It became clearer as the auction progressed.

[gwnn]

We were amused too

[gwnn]

To actually write something useful for a change: yes, obviously the main person to blame is your partner who has never heard of 4SF apparently. However, it is a sad fact of life that your partners will make mistakes no matter what happens and it is usually better to think about what you could have done differently and whether it had helped or not. If you had held that 5s 4c hand, then the answer to this latter question would have been "no, i couldnt have done anything differently."

[S2000magic]

 gwnn, on 2011-November-22, 08:43, said:

To actually write something useful for a change: yes, obviously the main person to blame is your partner who has never heard of 4SF apparently. However, it is a sad fact of life that your partners will make mistakes no matter what happens and it is usually better to think about what you could have done differently and whether it had helped or not. If you had held that 5s 4c hand, then the answer to this latter question would have been "no, i couldnt have done anything differently."

I agree completely. As bigbenvic pointed out - and I agreed - starting with a 2♣ response would have been better.

I will say this about my partner: she is one of the nicest partners I've ever had, and we've generally done well together (having met in August and only played together maybe half-a-dozen times). She's eager to learn, and doesn't tend to make the same mistakes again and again. (On our first outing she passed my 5♥ cuebid after this auction: 1♠ - (3♣) - 4♠ - Pass - 5♥ - Pass. She has since learned about cuebids.) We came in fourth overall in a local Swiss teams a couple of months ago, and probably would have finished 1^st or 2^nd if I hadn't blown the play in a pretty (and relatively straightforward) dummy reversal.

I didn't find this auction upsetting; I, too, found it amusing. ("OK, we're here; how do we get get there?")

[BunnyGo]

Out of curiosity, how would she have taken 3 or 4 hearts? Could you have splintered over 2C?

[S2000magic]

 BunnyGo, on 2011-November-22, 09:47, said:

Out of curiosity, how would she have taken 3 or 4 hearts? Could you have splintered over 2C?

That's a good question. Although we agreed on splinters, I'm not sure that she would have taken such a bid as a splinter.

She has recently learned 2/1 and wants to play it at every opportunity. It's not my favorite, but I agreed. We had one hand on which I opened 1♦ and she responded 2♠, believing that that was a 2/1 - hence, game-forcing - response. Oh, she does play preemptive jump shift responses.

There's still a lot to learn. (For both of us.)

[TWO4BRIDGE]

 S2000magic, on 2011-November-21, 19:55, said:

Good point. Although, this partner might never have believed that sequence would show 4 spades, even if they were rebid.

I'll show Max Hardy style ( as I have so often before ... and often "poo-pooed" ) which adds simple clarity to the discovery ( or not ) of a 4-4 Major fit: :

1D - 2C! ( 2/1 GF w/4+clubs...does not deny a 4 card Major )
2D ( first obligation is to rebid a 5+ ♦ suit .. and does not deny a 4 card Major; Bidding 2M would show 4 cards M and only 4 cards ♦)

Now the entire 2-level is available to find a 4-4 Major fit...and you ONLY bid the Major w/4 cards .
continuing:
2D - 2S ( 4s, denies 4h )
3C ( at least 4c ) - 3D ( cue or double fit )
3H ( cue ) - 4C! ( Minorwood for ♣; 4D! would be Minorwwod for ♦ )
??
.. 4D = 0/3
.. 4H = 1/4
.. 4S = 2 - cQ
.. 4NT = 2 + cQ
.. 5C ( 5th step ) = 2 + void somewhere ( has to be Sp )

After:
5C - 6C