Competitive bidding, danger of misfit

[mck4711]

all vul, IMP, RHO dealer, no agreements with p

 

A10xx

AQ9xx

x

xxx

 

p - 1H - 1S - 2D

p - 2H - 2S - 3C

p - ?

 

What to bid? p, 3NT...? I have minimum, but nice shape, all HCP where they should be, but it smells misfit. On the other side p bids freely 3C what should show more than minimum.

 

P had J9x, J, QJxxx, AJxx

[Zelandakh]

Your hand is a very borderline opening with a BBO pick-up partner as the majority are quite conservative. Your partner has overbid their hand by around an ace. I see no alternative to 3NT now.

 

Incidentally, I do not think either of your threads is really suitable for A/E. Perhaps you might consider "Interesting Bridge Hands" for simple problems or "SAYC + 2/1" for analysing misbidding.

[Hanoi5]

You opened a very weak hand and your partner bid twice with quite a minimum. This would have been better:

 

P-1♥-1♠-X

P-1N-2♠-P (or X???)

P-P-(P?)

 

A second double by your partner would have been exaggerated, but your sequence was...

[Phil]

I agree with the opening bid and would close my eyes and bid 3N over 3♣.

 

Partner's 3♣ is terrible. I guess I could stomach 2♦ but I would probably make a negative double.

 

I don't think this is OK for the A/E but I've seen much worse.

[ArtK78]

The opening bid was very aggressive, especially with an unknown partner. Partner's bidding was wildly optimistic. A negative double would have been more than enough with his hand.

 

As it was, you have no real choice but to bid 3NT over 3♣.

 

Even if one believes that the opening bid was fine (and if you believe that, then at least you must concede that it is a minimum opening), you are going to get into these situations. If partner had KQxxx of diamonds instead of QJxxx, his bidding would have been reasonable. 3NT is still no bargain.