Your call on this distributional hand

[AL78]

♠-

♥KQ9865

♦A5

♣T8764

 

MPs, game all. Partner passes RHO opens 1♦. Your call?

[mikeh]

♠-

♥KQ9865

♦A5

♣T8764

 

MPs, game all. Partner passes RHO opens 1♦. Your call?

3H

 

At favourable 4H

 

There’s no right answer. Tell me LHO’s hand and I’ll have a better idea

 

Anything from 1 to 4H might be the winning call. On some days an unusual 2N might be the best call….if partner has long clubs and short hearts, but the suit discrepancy is far too much for me to involve both suits (plus I want a heart lead, not a club). Plus, and this is an often overlooked point….one should show the two suited nature of a hand only with some expectation that our side will declare or that partner may be able to bounce the bidding effectively. If we are overwhelmingly likely to be on defence or partner is unlikely to be able to preempt effectively, telling the opps that we have two long suits helps good opponents.

[mw64ahw]

Little more to add except I would use 2♦ to show the 2-suiter if choosing that route

[AL78]

I decided to treat it as a hearts hand and overcalled 3♥. Without hand records I can only display approximate hands but this is what happened:

 

[hv=pc=n&w=shkq9865da5ct8764&e=sak9764hjt73dj7c9&d=e&v=b&b=10&a=p1d3h4d4h5dpp5hppdppp]266|200[/hv]

 

Partner didn't want to open 2♠ because of the four card heart suit, which in the event was a good decision.

 

Diamond lead won in hand, then I played a heart to dummy's jack, all following and the jack held the trick!!! Cashed both spade honors discarding a diamond and club. Got off dummy with a club, RHO tried a diamond which I ruffed, then claimed with a cross-ruff inviting the defence to take the heart ace when they liked, but that was their last trick. +850 and a top instead of -200.

 

This set off a mild married couple post mortem, RHO not happy with her partner's decision to duck. His excuse was she might hold a stiff Q or K. I think that is a very narrow target to play for given the very real danger of losers going on the spades if I get to dummy, and also I am unlikely to make a vulnerable double jump overcall with a six cards suit king or queen empty.