No good bid available

[TheoKole]

I don't think that there is much to think about here.

 

Double and lead a trump.

 

If partner does not lead a trump when he gets in, he better not have one to lead, then play accordingly when you see the dummy.

 

If his partner corrects to spades, do the same thing on defense.

 

Once you have gotten as many trumps out of the hands as possible, try to tap the declarer, for the rest of his trumps. Declarer will be trying to score as many tricks as he can on a crossruff on this hand and you must stop him.

 

It is a real wonder why so many people are unwilling to double low level contracts like this with a trump stack and defensive tricks.

 

If your partner takes out your double he better have a damn fine hand, and I would explore slam in clubs.

 

Just my thoughts,

 

Theo

[Flameous]

I'm not quite sure how the auction can make much sense, but opener must have something like 5440, 5350, maybe 5251 and that's pretty long shot as I assume responder strains to bid something with seven card hearts. Of course partner might have some lousy 4 hearts and six clubs.

 

Anyways I'm counting on 6 club tricks and that responder always leads his partner's suit :D 3NT.

[Lobowolf]

I already had a bid over 1S to deny interest in hearts (that would be T/O dbl) ...

Partner did not double to get hearts in consideration

Your takeout doubles deny the unbid major in the direct seat and show it in the balancing seat?

[Viren169]

2N is usually redundant in competitive sequences, and I have played 2N as as showing a good raise to 3 with 4 card support. It has worked like a treat for me for many years.

[Hennen]

Where are the hearts?? Between them W and N seem to have 9 hearts, possibly even 10. Partner presumably has 4 hearts, so for his bid of 2 clubs (as opposed to X) I take the clubs to be 6 cards long. (We don't double with xx Jxxx x AKJxxx, or do we? 2♦ by pard would fix us as bidding 3♣ next would imply a bigger hand.)

With a 10-card fit I will not contemplate defending. Even if partner has as little as ♥Qxx(x) and ♣AJxxxx (and I expect him to be better than that) 3NT looks a good contract because W has no entry to his heart suit and there is ample time to develop tricks. If N has clubs good enough to be played for no loser, 3NT is cold. Also with ♥Kx or Qx in E 3NT is cold even with no more than ♥Jxxx in N.

Against all this, if N has running clubs and no ♥ honour we would be better off in 5♣ , losing just two Aces, although there is concern for a ♠ ruff.

So can we find out about partner's ♥ stopper? After eg. 2♠ , he might bid a 4-card ♥ irrespective of quality, or rebid clubs that are not solid while holding ♥ Kxx or Qxx . We cannot really expect him to distinguish between ♥Qxxx and ♥109xx.

Partner needs ♣AKJxxx or better to guarantee no loser. This combined with a possible ♠ ruff makes bidding 5♣ too risky. Cashing 2 aces is too easy.

3NT is what i will bid because it seems to give the most practical chances, one of them being that W - who has no entry - does not automatically lead a ♥ : his pard did bid two other suits...

Slam seems unlikely as E rates to have 2 Aces for his bidding. (E could conceivably bid 2 times with AJ9xx KQx J9xxx - . If N has solid clubs + an Ace he might continue anyway.)

 

Of course, the post mortem will be unpleasant if partner's hand turns out to be xx 87x xx AKQxxx.

Also, if 1) E appears with a 5440 distribution and 2) W happens to lead a killing ♥ , I will fully take the blame. <_<

[Cyberyeti]

I love double, partner will take it as take out, bid his hearts and take my later club bids as cuebids.

Correct, X is 4441 not 4144 certainly the way we play. I'd probably have borrowed a point and made a revolting 1N overcall to avoid this problem, but now I have to bid 2♠ as a good club raise.

 

Btw I disagree with the initial assertion that the ♠/♦ bidder needs both aces, it's possible he has AJ9xx, KQx, J9xxx, void or similar (maybe even 5260), and partner has x, Jxxx, Ax, AKJxxx.