[antonylee]

How would you bid these hands?
Neither table found the top spot.

Our auction:

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3♣ suggests some extras (we play good-bad 2N).

The other table went
1♣[16+] (P) 1♦[0-8] (X)
P[19+] (3♦) 3♠ (P)
4♣ (P) 5♣ (AP)

so that was 5imps in.

[Jinksy]

3♣ looks like a good spot to me. In any major game you're likely to get forced in diamonds. In 3N they're just going to set the suit up and run a lot of tricks against you.

[steve2005]

Call me stupid but cant defense cash their 2 aces and exit a club. then u cant get to board for a finesse or to cash Q♠? so 5♣ shouldn't make.

[MrAce]

steve2005, on 2015-July-25, 19:39, said:

Call me stupid but cant defense cash their 2 aces and exit a club. then u cant get to board for a finesse or to cash Q♠? so 5♣ shouldn't make.

I think he meant 5♣ went down and 3♣ made +1 and they won 5 imps. But he thinks (i am guessing) we should be playing 4M.

[WesleyC]

NV at IMPs, 3C feels plenty high enough, you have a lot of work to do in 4M.

[MrAce]

4♠ suffers badly. Say E led a ♦ honor, then cashed ♣A and played 2nd ♦ honor forcing us to ruff with A or K. Now they always take another ♠ trick and since we lack entries they will also score ♥K even if it was onside. You can make if W has 4 spades + 3rd club by refusing to ruff 2nd ♦. (ironically you need 4-2 spades not 3-3 )

4♥ by S is slightly better. But far from being a decent contract. Even when everything is friendly (3-3 ♥ K onside, and 3-2 clubs E holding Ax , it can be made, but way too double dummy for my taste.

[rhelle]

Cathy and I bid the hands as they stood. 3S denies a 6th S, as we'd jump with that. Over 4C she could have temporised with 4D (already limited her hand to 6-8 with 3S) allowing me to bid 4H. Not much point with a doubleton. The game is aggressive, certainly. If Cathy holds the HK and DJ the bidding is the same, and the contract playable. Hard to stay out of game, IMPs scoring and 24+ points together.

[diana_eva]

rhelle, on 2015-July-26, 07:37, said:

Cathy and I bid the hands as they stood. 3S denies a 6th S, as we'd jump with that. Over 4C she could have temporised with 4D (already limited her hand to 6-8 with 3S) allowing me to bid 4H. Not much point with a doubleton. The game is aggressive, certainly. If Cathy holds the HK and DJ the bidding is the same, and the contract playable. Hard to stay out of game, IMPs scoring and 24+ points together.

Welcome, Rob

[aguahombre]

antonylee, on 2015-July-25, 15:46, said:

3♣ suggests some extras (we play good-bad 2N).

If 3C showed a hand which would have jump-shifted to 3C without the interference, North might still revalue his initial 6 count down to 4. So, we could still thank East for keeping us low.

With a Forcing Club opening and no interference, it would require some good judgement to stay out of a bad game.

[PhilKing]

rhelle, on 2015-July-26, 07:37, said:

Cathy and I bid the hands as they stood. 3S denies a 6th S, as we'd jump with that. Over 4C she could have temporised with 4D (already limited her hand to 6-8 with 3S) allowing me to bid 4H. Not much point with a doubleton. The game is aggressive, certainly. If Cathy holds the HK and DJ the bidding is the same, and the contract playable. Hard to stay out of game, IMPs scoring and 24+ points together.

I think with shapely hands, it is way more important to start showing our suits than it is to give a point count.

Here, I think it is folly to upgrade the hand to 19+ in order to not describe our shape. Just bid your suits in their natural order and let nature take its course.

[zillahandp]

3c is forcing pass not an option, 3d from north th suit 3hts from n or 3s now at teams bid either major game and pray or pass at three level at pairs

[nige1]

On the actual hands, game is poor.
If your bidding methods can find out why -- then good for you -- and you should stay out of it,
Otherwise, with 24 combined HCP, it seems pusillanimous to try to stop on a sixpence at the 3-level (which might not be safe, anyway).
I think you should struggle to game, preferably 4♥, and hope for the best.

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[aguahombre]

zillahandp, on 2015-July-26, 09:24, said:

3c is forcing pass not an option, 3d from north th suit 3hts from n or 3s now at teams bid either major game and pray or pass at three level at pairs

3C might have been treated as expecting North to bid again. But, North judged well not to bid again with those 3 queens -- one of which his LHO told him was worthless.