Julian Pottage
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Your initial 2S showed 5+spades and 10+ HCP as you say. Partner had to bid something over that but your subsequent 3H sounds non-forcing to me. What else would you bid if you had 10 points and only 5 spades and a preference of some sort for hearts? With your actual hand you do not wish to give up on a slam with 4H, so the thing to do is to bid 4C. Other than that you are strong partner might not be entirely sure what 4C means but you would be in with a chance. if partner bids 4D over 4C then you can continue with 4H and partner might get the message that you were too strong to bid 4H directly over 3D.
You might like to ask your partner what he plays 2D as. It is most unlikely that you would wish to bid diamonds naturally when that is the suit bid on your left. If you do not play Michaels then I agree 2S is a sensible action – but playing 2D as Michaels rather than natural is a better solution still.
After you actual double, partner’s pass(es) were quite reasonable as there was no assurance of anything better than a 4-3 fit.
A good rule is that if responder makes a strong jump shift then responder’s suit counts as the trump suit. Whether West should respond 3C or 2C is debatable but either is better than 4NT. If (with a different hand)West wished to agree hearts, the right thing to do would be to start with a Jacoby 2NT. Wherever possible the partnership should set the trump suit before checking for key cards (or cue bidding). This avoids any ambiguity about the trump suit.
So yes East should have passed 6C – but West should not have responded 4NT.
With an opening bid in first or second seat you do not consider the lead directing element. you bid your suits in natural order even if that means bidding a weaker suit first. Even in third seat, given that your spade length gives your side a decent chance of buying the contract, I would still open 1S.
The opponents had bid two suits and West had an unsupported ace in one of the unbid suits, so a spade lead looks normal. If North-South were playing in no-trumps then sure you lead your fourth highest club but leads against suit contract are different.
If you give West the king of clubs instead of the ace then that might change the best lead. If East has the queen of clubs, a club lead might set up a winner; if East has the ace of clubs, you might cash two quick winners. Having said that, you are not expecting many rounds of clubs to stand up. Partner did not overcall 1S or 2S, so both opponents must have a few spades, which means someone is likely to be short in clubs.
If you play 2D as a Michaels cue bid showing 5-5 in the majors (which many people would), that is a better description than doubling. With a fit for both your suits, West would not have passed over 2D. Indeed West might well have bid 2S over 2D and then 3H over 3D.
Since you still need the same values for game whether there has been an overcall or not, the range for raising the 1NT response to 2NT remains as 17-18. While, I do not think you would make the bid if you were short in spades (partner is going to have at most three spades), I would not think you promise a full stopper.
For the benefit of those who did not see the seminar (myself included!) please could you give the hand and the auction?
If partner pre-empts and an opponent overcalls, double is for penalties. The reasons for this are twofold. Firstly, a pre-emptive opening already defines the hand within a narrow range. Secondly, a pre-emptive opening forces the opponents to guess and you want to cash in when they guess wrong.
If West had a really unusual shape (0-6-2-5) for example then it is OK to remove the double. After South’s SOS redouble, West knows the bidding is not going to end but it is unusual to be bidding when the opponents appear to be in trouble.
I agree. There was no need for South to bid 3S. 2S would be fine to indicate the hand is not completely minimum and does have four spades.
The worst partner is likely to hold is something like Kxx Ax QJxx AJxx Then if North finds a safe lead in one of the red suits there will be only 11 running tricks and partner will need to decide whether to take the club finesse or to endplay North. If partner has a 5-card diamond suit or the SA, there may well be 12 top tricks.
I am not sure there is a way to find out. Even if you decided to agree diamonds so as to initiate a cue bidding sequence, partner is very likely to have the HA and so cue bid hearts rather than spades.
If you are confident that partner has 15+ points, I would just bid 6NT – 32 HCP plus a very good 5-card suit should give it play.
Since 3C would be forcing, 4C must have a special meaning, which if you play splinters in other situations would logically be a shortage. Some people play it as a cue bid but if i had a hand that was too strong to bid 4H with no shortage I would bid 2NT (forcing) and then cue bid. If you do not play a 2NT rebid by opener as forcing, there is more of a case for playing 4C as a cue bid.
