What's going on?

[han]

[hv=d=w&v=n&s=sxhak10xdajxxxxxcx]133|100|Scoring: IMP

(p) - 1H - (2H) - 2S

(Dbl) - Rdbl - (3C) - 3D

(Dbl) - 4C - (p) - 4D

(Dbl) - Rdbl - (p) - ??[/hv]

 

What is going on here? Can you live with your previous bids? What now?

[Fluffy]

parter's got ♠A, ♦ void, but I am not sure of ♣A.

 

I don't like the 7-0 diamonds when RHO has a 2 suiter, it is not vey good evn for playing in hearts, I try 5♦ but that's my last try, hope not too high already.

[kenrexford]

I'm not so cerain that I'll take the XX of 4♦ as a void.

 

Partner opened 1♥, overcalled with presumably Michaels for spades and an unknown minor. I bid 2♠ as some variety of heart raise, although I am not certain what this shows (3-card+, 4-card+, limit+, or GF) in your techniques.

 

My LHO doubled 2♠, allowing partner to show first-round spade control. My RHO bid 3♣, presumably natural.

 

This allowed me to bid 3♦. I'm not sure what the style is here. I'll assume natural and forward-going, as that meaning fits this hand. That asusmption may be wrong.

 

3♦ is doubled, which is a strange development. I suppose that this must be penalty or lead-directive. Partner could have sent this back, so I presume diamond shortness, or relative shortness. This would seem to be a REALLY good time to send 3♦ back, BTW.

 

Partner instead bid 4♣. I'm not sure what 3♠ would have meant in the context of a prior XX. This is a somewhat strange problem to resolve. For, bypassing 3♠ means that partner could not cue 3♠, forcing me to figure out what he does not have. Maybe he does not know either, which is probably the right answer. Note to self...

 

Anyway, 4♣ must show a club control. RHO now passes (wondering what his partner is up to) and I bid 4♦. This seems to scream Last Train and seems right.

 

This is again doubled. This guy to the left is quite a talker. I cannot really imagine why he would double this. That seems to just give us another two options (pass and XX) for no apparent reason.

 

So, what is this XX from my partner? Having agreements about bids in auctions that don't seem like they should occur is unlikely. GP alone is difficult to work out. A void (or maybe even a stiff) makes sense, as my usual GP default is for an early cue to show cards in partner's suit but a slow cue after denying cards to show shortness. So, I suppose partner's XX is a sort of LTTC bid showing a stiff or void in diamonds. But, what the heck is partner bidding so much on?

 

Maybe partner has something like ♠Axx(x) ♥QJxxxx ♦x ♣Ax(x)? I'm guessing that he has ♠Axxx ♥QJxxxx ♦x ♣Ax. If he gets a diamond lead, he wins the Ace, spade to Ace, spade ruff, club to Ace, club ruff, for five tricks. He needs another ruff, so he will ruff a diamond. However, he cashes the heart Ace to see if anything interesting happens.

 

If my RHO shows out, he can ruff the diamonds low and will have no problems. However, he will usually see two hearts, IMO, and will have to ruff diamonds high if my LHO doubling diamonds twice is real.

 

So, he ruffs a diamond high, ruffs a spade with the King of hearts. He ruffs another diamond high to get back to his hand. He has a spade loser left, and thus he must pull one remaining heart, or two remaining hearts (if they split 3-0 with my RHO having three!!!) with the top pip(s) in his hand.

 

On some 2-1's, the dropping pip from the short side might help his pip position.

 

In any event, if I am right, partner seems to need QJ9xxx to make this seem good.

 

Willies.

 

F'it. 4NT. Probably an idiot bid, but I feel lucky.

[mikeh]

weird auction

 

I am going to place LHO with either Kxx or Kx in spades, probably the former. With more length he would, I assume, have bounced in spades.

 

Partner should hold the black Aces and LHO has KQ10x(x) in diamonds, with partner holding a stiff for the redouble.

 

Partner may have real communication problems since I wouldn't be surprised to see rho with 5=2=0=6 shape.... I am not predicting he holds that, but I am saying that it sounds quite possible... he bid 3♣, rather than raise spades... the suit his partner doubled.

 

Now, partner has made slam tries here... several of them, so he has a good hand in addition to the black Aces.. I'm not sure that he should be bidding this way with, for example, Axx QJxxxx x Axx... I think he should have another card. But he may disagree.

 

If we have to draw two rounds of trump, and the diamonds cannot be coming home, then we need partner to hold a black AK (or the spade AQ and the K onside)

and 6 trumps... we score two ruffs in our hand, 6 hearts in his, 3 top blacks and a top diamond.

 

My problem is that I don't see any way to find out whether he has what we need.

 

I will do the best I think I can...cue spades, bid slam if he recues clubs, but pass a 5♥ call. I will get there opposite Axx Qxxxxx x AKx but not opposite AQx QJxxxx x Axx, in all likelihood... altho he may be able to bid anyway.

[jtfanclub]

parter's got ♠A, ♦ void, but I am not sure of ♣A.

 

I don't like the 7-0 diamonds when RHO has a 2 suiter, it is not vey good evn for playing in hearts, I try 5♦ but that's my last try, hope not too high already.

I don't understand.

 

What is it that 5♦ tells partner that you have not already shown?

[inquiry]

[hv=d=w&v=n&s=sxhak10xdajxxxxxcx]133|100|Scoring: IMP

(p) - 1H - (2H) - 2S

(Dbl) - Rdbl - (3C) - 3D

(Dbl) - 4C - (p) - 4D

(Dbl) - Rdbl - (p) - ?? [/hv]

 

Do i agree with the bidding? No, I would like to have bid 4♦ over 2♥ as a fit jump.

 

(p) - 1H - (2H) - 2S

 

West has less than an opening hand (p), partner has hearts. I am going to assume 2S showed a heart fit, not diamonds (do you have a firm agreement on this when the minor is not specified). I understand unusual versus unusual, but we are not sure what their minor might be. If 2S clearly showed diamonds and forcing, you should have told us. So at this point.. we know EAST has black suits, but north and west don't know if East has diamonds or clubs for his minor

 

(Dbl) - Rdbl - (3C) - 3D

 

DBL of spades shows EW have a spade fit. Partner's redbl shows first round spade control and I assume extra values. 3C now tells EW about clubs as the minor to clue WEST in as to rather to take a sacrafice or not. We bid 3D, forcing, since we showed heart fit earlier. The question becomes is 3D a "cue bid" or is 3D showing a suit. I hope it is showing a suit.

 

(Dbl) - 4C - (p) - 4D

 

The double of 3D was lead directing, giving WEST some good stuff in diamonds, like KQTx or so... Over 3Dx, partner bid 4C, I take this as a cue-bid.

 

(Dbl) - Rdbl - (p) - ??

 

4Dx has to be penalty (odd.. they do know we are playing in hearts, right?). And partner redoubles 4D doubled. I am not ready to believe this is showing a void, but partner can have at most 1♦. Partner is doing a lot of bidding missing AKT of hearts, the redouble showed better than minimum by my way of thinking (3H directly over 2Sx weakest bid). So partner must be distributional, but he needs a fair number of spades since WEST didn't blast to 4♠ as he would with five, and maybe with four. So partner rates to be 3-6-1-3 or 4-6-1-2, or something similiar (he can be void in diamonds, he can have seven hearts).

 

I think we have an EAST who was just kidding with his 2H bid (based soley on shape and colors), West who has good diamonds and some spades, and partner who has a fairly big hand. Axx QJxxxx x Axx doesn't look strong enough for his sequence of bids, with this hand i think he would pass 4♦x rather than XX. So he will have another black suit honor, probably a king. I believe i would bid 4NT and then 5N over 5S response, as i have not given up on grand slam yet. A possible "fear" is that partner have a doubleton small diamond and meant 4Dxx to play, but 6H is better if he has that hand.

[Fluffy]

parter's got ♠A, ♦ void, but I am not sure of ♣A.

 

I don't like the 7-0 diamonds when RHO has a 2 suiter, it is not vey good evn for playing in hearts, I try 5♦ but that's my last try, hope not too high already.

I don't understand.

 

What is it that 5♦ tells partner that you have not already shown?

It makes crystal clear that we have a good heart fit and slam interest. Given that many of us don't know what is going on now, I guess clarifying the situation to partner is not a bad idea.

[han]

Ben, I think that 2S as a limit raise or better is standard.

 

Other options at my first turn were 3S (splinter) and 4D (fit jump, I think partner would take it as such). I think that neither of these bids does justice to the hand, if partner signs off I will have to take another call.

 

I agree with most of what people are saying. LHO probably has 5 diamonds, and this is bad news. On the upside, partner is doing quite a bit of bidding and should have more than a minimum and he knows minor honors in the black suits are probably useless. This strongly suggests that partner has extra trump length which is really good news.

 

I'll wait a little before posting the hand.