Julian Pottage
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If your partner bids 3S, you should assume that she has either 6 spades (so is bidding to the level of the fit) or that she has 5 spades and a singleton club (and so is bidding on the assumption that at least one of 3C and 3S is making) – you cannot assume any extra values. If wishing to try for game, partner either doubles 3C or bids one of the unbid suits. Having said that, with 14 points and 4 spades you had enough to raise even a competitive 3S to 4S – you had both more points than promised and an extra spade.
Although it means giving up the ability to bid a natural 2NT, I play with all of my partners that if your side makes a 1H or 1S overcall then 2NT shows a value raise with 4-card support; a cue bid is then precisely 3-card support. Given how weak a 1-level overcall might be, you will rarely have the strength to want to make a natural 2NT bid – and if you do you can either double (if responder has bid) or introduce a new suit.
A lot of people do not play a penalty double of a strong 1NT. If you are playing a strong NT and your opponents are playing a conventional double, you hardly ever need to rescue. It is still possible that one opponent has the shape to double, showing whatever that means in their system, and the other has the strength to leave in the double – but this does not happen very often.
1. Partner cannot bid 2NT. 1NT is a limit bid and your 2C asked for a 4-card majors without promising anything. By passing 2D you announced that you had a weak hand.
2. The way it went you could have been playing in a 3-3 fit (or even 3-2 if partner had a 5-card club suit), so I would not recommend bidding the hand the way you did. If you play 1NT-2C-2D-2H as weak with both majors then it is reasonable to use Stayman. When I am playing a strong NT, however, I play that as invitational.
Sorry if I misunderstood. It is generally easier to follow a bidding sequence laid out in a diagram than described in text. If I understand correctly, you are asking about the situation in which the player in second seat has opened the bidding with one of a suit but the other three players passed at their first turn.
In the situation where the player in the protective position is a passed hand, you would need to borrow more than a king if you bid 1NT. You cannot have 3 points less than a strong NT opening – 3 points less than 15-17 would be 12-14 – and you cannot have that or you would have opened in the first place. So a protective 1NT overcall by a passed hand shows 10-11 (though depending upon the vulnerability you may choose to defend).
Otherwise I think the rule of a borrowed king applies whether you are a passed hand or not.
Natural bids at game level are very rarely forcing. I think I said that yesterday but maybe not to you. I play the jump to 3NT as 15-17 and only four spades but others (Bernard I think included) play it as 18-19.
At matchpoint pairs you would not even consider taking a safety play (or if you did, only for a few seconds). With a combined 27 HCP everyone is going to be in game and you want to go for the maximum.
The chance of finding North with all 4 clubs is slight (only 5%) so it is not clear to take safety play even at teams. Only at rubber bridge would it be clear to take the safety play.
If you start on clubs from hand rather than dummy, you can cater for a 4-0 break without giving up on the chance of making all 7 club tricks. If South shows out, you duck in dummy.
Crossing to the HA is not 100% safe, however. If North has all the missing clubs, South has exactly one diamond honour and North switches to a diamond and you guess wrongly, you might lose a club and two diamonds and then two hearts.
You could have won the first trick with the queen of hearts instead of the king and then you would have been in hand.
As the cards lie you can make 11 tricks by endplaying South but I imagine many pairs would make only 10 tricks and those who received a spade lead would make only 9.
Natural bids at the game level are rarely forcing and this bid is indeed not. Your partner has denied the values for a game forcing opening and denied 4-card heart support, so it is difficult to see why you might want the bid to be forcing.
If one opponent opens the bidding and the other opponent passes, you can be reasonably sure that the one who passed has 0-5 points and that the opponents do not have game values (if the opponents are playing a strong club system, responder could have more than 5 points but then the opening hand is more limited). In the situation in which the bidding starts with three passes, the opponent who opens could have 19 points and the other opponent could have 11 points. You cannot apply the borrowed king principle but you can bid in the knowledge that partner knows you passed as dealer and so cannot have a strong hand. If you have a good suit then you can overcall without partner thinking you have a good hand as well.
Bidding on after partner’s 3C seems reasonable to me. Give partner CAKQxxx and anything useful in diamonds and you make 3NT. As you say, you could have passed 4C: partner could have doubled 2D or jumped to 5C over 3D with a better hand.
East-West have done well here. They must be playing Lebensohl, by which East’s 3H showed some values, to explain this sequence. If you are not playing Lebensohl (and maybe even if you are), I do not think you can double with the West hand – it is too likely partner will bid hearts and you will have to play in hearts whether it is or is not the right thing to do. I would just overcall 3C on the West hand (I am not planning to bid both suits, which is why I bid the cheaper and stronger suit). East with the spades very well held would then bid 3NT.
Combined 33 high card points is one indicator of 12 tricks, though your partnership will rarely hold that. You are much more likely to have the values for a slam when you have a good trump fit. If you can count some distribution points as well, the chance of having enough values is much higher. Good luck.
Once you have (i) agreed the trump suit, (ii) worked out your side should have the playing strength for 12 tricks and (iii) established via cue bidding that you do not have two fast losers in any suit, the final thing to do (iv) is to check that you do not have two key cards missing via a 4NT enquiry. If you follow those four steps, you should reach some good slams and avoid bad ones.
With a void in spades and hand that is rather more two suited than single suited, I would bid 4NT rather than double. Partner might have SJ10xx and a bust and have been happy to leave in a double but I think 4Nt is the percentage action.
If the contract offers a 50% chance of success then you should go for it even at the risk of going down more. Some pairs will not be in game, so you automatically lose to them if you play safe for one down. No matter how obvious the auction to 3NT might be to you, there will always someone not in it.
