A 2C auction

[Antrax]

Just had this auction with GIB:

2♣-2♦

2♥-3♥

4♥

 

2♥ shows 5+H, 19+ HCP, 23+ TP

3♥ shows 3+H, 5+ TP (stronger than a jump to 4♥ would've been)

4♥ limits GIB's hand to 23-26 TP

 

GIB's hand was this:

[hv=pc=n&n=sakqjhakj4da864c2]133|100[/hv]

The hand could've easily been a disaster if I really had 3 hearts and, say, some spade length. Note that GIB's positive response to 2♣ require some suit quality (6+ using the 8421 point count).

 

It's a difficult hand in standard, no doubt, but I don't feel GIB made the best choice among the alternatives. If it doesn't want to rebid 2NT with a small singleton, it could treat the spade suit as five cards so it could later show 5-4 in the majors, or open 1♦ and pray it won't get passed out.

 

For completeness' sake, my hand was

[hv=pc=n&s=s643hq8752d5cakq3]133|100[/hv]

So it wasn't really difficult to bid the grand, but GIB got lucky. Another day my majors would be reversed and we'd end up in a silly contract.