What next?

[Hilver]

Teams

W / all white

 

Sitting West You hold:

♠ A K Q 7 5 3 2

♥ 7

♦ K 7

♣ 10 7 2

 

The bidding, opponents don't interfere,:

 

1♠ - 2♥

2♠ - 3♥

3♠ - 4♥

?

 

1♠ = 12- 15 HCP, 5+-card ♠

2♥ = 5+-card ♥, game forcing

 

What will be Your bid?

[eagles123]

you've bid your hand - pass

[Hanoi5]

Why only two options? 4♥ should be forward going, I'd say, so why not show my diamond control?

 

Also, what would 4♥ be at each step of the way? If that's all partner wanted to play s/he could have bid it earlier.

[Kungsgeten]

Also, what would 4♥ be at each step of the way? If that's all partner wanted to play s/he could have bid it earlier.

 

To me (playing that 1S is 11--16 and 2H GF with 5+H):

 

1S--4H = Void splinter. With a hand wanting to play 4H no matter what, we bid forcing 1NT first.

1S--2H; 2S--4H = Solid heart suit.

1S--2H; 2S--4S = Picture bid. Typically 4-5-2-2 minimum opener without controls in the minors.

1S--2H; 2S--2NT; 3X--4H = Strong suggestion to play.

 

4H should be forward going, what else can partner do with solid hearts and slam interest? Chances are that I'd still pass 4H out of doubt, but that's probably wrong with sensible agreements. We play that responder usually bids 2NT after 1S--2H; 2S unless responder has extras.

 

Playing limited 1M I think 2S is the wrong rebid as opener. What does 2S mean? What would 2NT, 3S or 3NT mean? We play the following:

 

1S--2H;

2S = Catch-all. Most minimum hands without heart support bids this. Even some hands with extras bids this.

2NT = 3+ hearts and extras. Responder can ask for shortness with 3C.

3m = 5 card minor and some extras.

3H = 3+ hearts, minimum.

3S = Good suit and some extras.

3NT = Solid major, singleton heart, something in both minors.

4m = Splinter, minimum.

4S = Sub-minimum opener with long suit but did not want to open with a preempt. About 9--11 hcp.

 

With opener's hand I would bid 3S or 3NT. The problem with 3NT is the club suit, but at least we show our excellent spade suit. By jumping to 3S instead partner might think we're stronger and that we have more scattered values.

[Hilver]

@Hanoi5

 

I gave only these two options because according to our system agreements that are the only two options for opener in this biddingsequence.

Otherwise the 4♥bidder would have made a different bid then 4♥.

[WesleyC]

Especially in the context of a limited opening system, you would've done much better to start describing your hand on the previous round of the auction.

 

Assuming you play relatively natural continuations, then after 1S - 2H this hand should fall into the range of either 3S or 4S. After one of those bids partner will be in a great position to place the final contract.

[billw55]

I would have bid 4♠ on the third round. This suit can play opposite a void.

 

edit: just now seeing that 1♠ is 12-15. In that case, 3♠ on the second round gives the same message.

 

 

 

 

[rmnka447]

4 ♠

 

If your hand were something like ♠ Axxxxx ♥ x ♦ AKx ♣ xxx, would you bid it any differently? Looking at a 5 loser hand, I think you've got to do something more sooner in the auction. My choice would be to bid 3 ♠ as my initial rebid, then repeat spades to show the hand based on a long strong ♠ suit. If that's too rich for you, then jumping to 4 ♠ on the 3rd round of bidding would seem reasonable.

 

Given the actual auction, it could be that partner has a mirror hand in ♥ -- ♠ x ♥ AKQxxxx ♦ xxx ♣ Kx. But you can't know that for sure. It's also possible that partner has 6 fairly solid ♥, a stiff ♠ and concerns that ♠ won't play as well as ♥, especially if you don't have good ♠. It might be something like ♠ x ♥ AKJ10xx ♦ xxx ♣ Axx. If the former hand, either major is OK, but if the latter, 4 ♠ is preferable.

[Jinksy]

Especially in the context of a limited opening system, you would've done much better to start describing your hand on the previous round of the auction.

 

Assuming you play relatively natural continuations, then after 1S - 2H this hand should fall into the range of either 3S or 4S. After one of those bids partner will be in a great position to place the final contract.

 

What would you actually need for 4♠? Is that supposed to be a picture bid? I've read about them in the context of you having bid two suits, showing values in just those suits, but what would it show when you've only bid one? If just values in that one, doesn't it misdescribe a hand with the K♦? If it can have some random outside king, isn't it a fairly useless bid?

 

For me 3♠ permanently sets the suit, which is uncomfortable with such bad pips, but I think I'd bid it here with such bad heart tolerance, since I have a lot of sympathy with rmnka's point that you could be endplayed into having no other options than rebidding your suit with a much worse holding.

[aguahombre]

The question is what to do now, not what should I have done...but, I will offer the same gratuitous sentiment as the others did --- you should have bid 3♠ over 2♥.

 

My answer: Pass, having already screwed it up. My success rate in trying to fix what I have broken is not high.

[Zelandakh]

I gave only these two options because according to our system agreements that are the only two options for opener in this biddingsequence.

Then this ought to be a system question. This hand has 7.5PT and a solid spade suit - did 3♠ show such a hand? What do you use 2NT, 3♠, 3NT and 4♠ rebids for? What would 4♠ on the third round have been? It seems difficult to believe that you would have fewer options to describe this hand in a limited OB structure than a standard one. If our hands are so tied, perhaps we should even have considered upgrading this to 16hcp!