Julian Pottage
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As already suggested, the way to get there is for South to give preference to 3C on the the third round rather than bid the hearts a further time. After South shows some club support, North just needs to find out whether South has the DA for a grand slam.
The way I play, South’s 4D in Brian Powell’s auction (1H-2C-2H-2S-3C-3S-4D) could be a singleton rather than the ace so North would need to check on key cards but the end result would be the same.
If you guess to play for a squeeze against East you can make 7NT but in practice you will probably take the spade finesse and go down.
This is a bid of the opposing suit below 3NT that you have not assigned another meaning too. a possible auction is 1D-(1S)-2C-(P) 2S. opener might have been planning to rebid 2NT but has too weak a spade holding to do so now that an opponent has bid spades, perhaps something like this:
8 5 4
A Q 7
K Q 8 4
A J 3
The default action for the leader’s partner is to return the leader’s suit. The defenders often lack the time to establish several suits so it is better to keep plugging away at one. Also, whenever you open up a new suit you risk losing a trick. If dummy’s holding in the suit is strong, that would be reason to switch – but it does not sound like that is the case here.
With three clubs headed by an honour, I do not understand why your partner would want to switch. You might like to ask her.
Your 3C rebid was not so much overstating the strength of the hand as overstating the shape. A 2C rebid shows a 6-card suit. You have a 6322 shape and no reason to bid as though your hand has more shape than that. With the lead coming towards your ace-queen, you will quite often have four defensive tricks and so limited reason to try to keep the opponents out. So sorry yes I agree with your partner’s suggestion that you were lucky. I also agree that of course East should have bid.
Sorry I missed that – but yes double = first step, pass = second step is sensible – you are more likely to want to stop at the five level (or defend) if the 4NT bidder’s partner has a first or second step response
Whatever your system, when you have a strong hand (and 10 points facing a strong 1C opener is strong) it is normal to show your longest suit first. Here you had such a big diamond fit that you found it even without bidding the suit first. I am very surprised to hear that that only 1 table out of 11 bid a slam. South must have underbid. With my regular partner North opens 1D, South bids 2D (inverted), North rebids 2NT (15-17) and South bids 4S (Exclusion key card Blackwood). When a key card is missing South signs off in 6D.
If you open 1C on the North cards, you raise 1D to 3D and again the South hand is very slammish.
If you are playing some sort of Key Card Blackwood, West should be showing 3 key cards not 2. If you are playing some sort of Exclusion Blackwood a better bid for East than 4NT is 5D – this asks for key cards with DA ignored. If you do not play 5D as Exclusion, a 4D splinter is good choice. You will find out immediately whether partner can cue bid 4H and so not be worried about losing the HK and an ace.
2C-2D-2H/S should be forcing because opener might have a two-suited hand. Remember, there is no need to open 2C if all you have is a bare 8 playing tricks – partner, with two tricks, would not be passing a 1-level opening.
South has an easy choice of opening bid but West’s actions are less clear cut. I think I would overcall 2NT to show both minors and then bid 3H to show a strong hand with heart values. Est has the spades stopped but may me wooried about hearts knowing West has 10 cards in the minors. A possible auction is this:
1S 2NT
P 3C P 3H
P 4C P P P
As it turns out even 4C is too high. West would have done better to have overcalled 2D and then bought the contract in 3D after South protected with 2H and East gave preference from 3C back to 3D.
As the hand has only one ace, I think I would pass – but it is a close decision.
On the auction you give 4S is still pre-emptive but if it went 1D-P-P then there would be no need to pre-empt against opponents who had chosen to stop at the one level.
If on your auction West overcalled 4S, you would conclude that West did not mean to pass in second seat!
Do you want to load an LIN file to Bridge Base Online or to somewhere else? From memory, you need to go into ‘Account’ and then ‘Deal Archive’. You then need to select a folder (or press on the + to create a new folder). You can then select ‘Import LIN file’. If you get stuck, ask a Yellow.
You have not given the vulnerability, which here is a vital piece of information. So often on competitive partscore deals the vulnerability is key. If you are vulnerable and go down, you do so at 100 a time undoubled, the opponents are more likely to double and partner is more likely to take your bid seriously. If you are non-vulnerable, going down 50 or 100 is likely to be better than letting the opponents declare.
Apart from the fact that North has four clubs, it is minimum double. Furthermore, South still has another bid if North passes. So vulnerable I pass.
2C-2D-2Nt must mean something and probably 2C-2D-3NT too. I agree that 19 points is too weak for a 2NT opening and that two point ranges are better than three point ranges.
1. If your agreement is that a weak two opening can often be on a five-card suit then partner needs three-card support to raise.
2. Neither of you can sensible come in over 2S. The South hand is too weak for a 2NT overcall and too ill suited for a 3D reply to double. North is simply too weak to take any action.
3. You need to ask David Stevenson about explanations and alerts. The East hand suggests the opponents were not playing weak twos at all but were playing 2S as a weak two-suited hand.
On board 10 East’s minor is only the same length as the major, so there is no question of responding in the minor.
The auction up until East’s final pass was perfect. West had described the shape and strength of the hand well – with a weaker hand West would either pass 1S (East is a passed hand, remember) or pass 2H or raise 1S to 2S.
East might have responded 1S with only 5 or 6 points but actually held 10, the maximum possible in the context of the previous non-forcing 2H preference. It is close whether East should bid 2NT or 3NT over 2S. If West’s singleton diamond is a small card and the ace of diamonds is offside then West has only a single stopper. At IMPs I think East has to bid 3NT – it is less clear at matchpoints.
