[diana_eva]

IMPs, vul vs not, "all stars" team match on BBO. Would you bid something here? If so, what?

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[mikeh]

If your partner is an expert, which is not always the case even when he or she has a star, then he or she is 5=6 in the blacks (tho some old-timers might be 5-5). AKxxx x x KQxxxx is the least I would expect for this auction. Now, on the auction, that holding rates to not make game....trumps may misbehave, and a club ruff is probably available to the opps, who may well have time to find it. However, when a minimum construction makes game possible, and a medium construction makes it excellent (AKJxx x x AKxxxx) then we need to bid it.

Put me down for 4♠. We have 2 more clubs than spades, but 11 tricks is riskier than 10.

If partner has only 4 spades, petition BBO to remove the star

[monikrazy]

I'd be very concerned about bidding 4S because of the possibility opener may have only 4 and a strong 7-4 or 6-4 shape.



Would anyone be ok with 3N?



Thinking about it some more, opener should probably double with exactly 4s (even if he doesn't have diamonds), making 4S the stand out bid regardless.

[sprayguy]

I agree with monikrazy. Partner didn't double so may not be short in hearts and your Q of hearts useless. If partner isn't short in hears, your Q of diamonds is also useless. So now you're looking at a 4-3-3-3 with a fitting Q and J in partners suits. Not much to recommend any kind of raise.

[Phil]

I'll bid 4♠ too, but if my hearts were weaker, I might try something else. While I expect partner to be 5=6, its quite possible that partner is, say, a good 4=2=1=6.

Hopefully, my hearts are good enough to protect us from a tap, although I am concerned about diamonds being a trick source for the opponents.

[mikeh]

sprayguy, on 2015-June-08, 11:55, said:

I agree with monikrazy. Partner didn't double so may not be short in hearts and your Q of hearts useless. If partner isn't short in hears, your Q of diamonds is also useless. So now you're looking at a 4-3-3-3 with a fitting Q and J in partners suits. Not much to recommend any kind of raise.

well, agreeing with monikrazy means seeing 4♠ as the standout call, so I am puzzled by your post

More to the point, it is important, when looking at a hand, to be constantly listening to the auction and to be willing to draw inferences therefrom.

Here:

Partner reopened at the 3-level in spades, having opened 1♣. He has no assurance that you have length in either black suit. Indeed, the safest inference (tho not the only or even main one) is that he couldn't handle you bidding diamonds had he reopened with a double.

So he is short in diamonds and it makes no sense for him to reopen if he is at all long in hearts. His hand therefore suggests to him that you have red suit length. Despite this inference that you may have no real fit for him, he has suggested that he'd rather play 4♣ on a misfit than defend 3♥. He also suggests he is willing to play in spades despite the lack of a negative double.

He must have a GOOD hand, and he must have a LOT of black cards. His most probable shape is therefore 5=6. A 4=7 hand, absent a negative double, is a hand that plays in clubs more than in spades, so he should not usually reopen 3♠. A 4=6 hand should rarely reopen with 4=2=1=6, tho it is possible if it is very chunky, and 4=1=2=6 will usually double, since you will strain to bid a black suit rather than diamonds (so if you bid diamonds, you will usually have 6+). All this means that 5=6 is the most likely.

Any decent 5=6 blacks has to give a play for 4♠. We have two working cards (I consider Jxxx in his 6 card suit to constitute a working card) on an auction wherein we gave no promise of even one. It behooves us to act.

We can go beyond that to note that the heart Q isn't actually useless. It may well act as a block to efforts to tap out partner. That's not a big factor in my optimism, but this sort of thinking can help in the valuation process.

It is important to look beyond our initial impression of a hand. This applies to all hands, ranging from hands on which we were initially very excited, but which the auction has suggested isn't very good anymore, to these sorts of weak hands on which the auction tells us to upgrade our meagre assets.

That is not to say that bidding 4♠ is bound to work, but it is to say that it is, as monikrazy concluded, the standout bid.

[diana_eva]

mikeh, on 2015-June-08, 12:22, said:

well, agreeing with monikrazy means seeing 4♠ as the standout call, so I am puzzled by your post

Moni edited her post after sprayguy posted. Last line was added after spray posted, when she gave it some more thought.

[diana_eva]

Thanks. I guess there isn't much more to the hand. Was a sanity check for me because I did bid 4♠ at the table, knowing it might be stretching, but then again the double fit made me think it's definitely worth upgrading this balanced crap. I expected partner to be short in the reds and with lots of black cards.

Lost 15 IMPs when that turned out to not be the case at all, but that's not relevant much. I simply wanted to check that it's sane to bid on and to play partner for distributional blacks, even if this time he didn't have that.

[cherdano]

In an All Stars team match, I'd bid 4♠. In an "all stars" team match, I'd be worried partner doesn't know what double would have meant, and I'd bid 4♣.

[mikeh]

diana_eva, on 2015-June-08, 13:46, said:

Thanks. I guess there isn't much more to the hand. Was a sanity check for me because I did bid 4♠ at the table, knowing it might be stretching, but then again the double fit made me think it's definitely worth upgrading this balanced crap. I expected partner to be short in the reds and with lots of black cards.

Lost 15 IMPs when that turned out to not be the case at all, but that's not relevant much. I simply wanted to check that it's sane to bid on and to play partner for distributional blacks, even if this time he didn't have that.

one reason why I always reject these invites to 'ALL STAR TM GAMES', lol.

[diana_eva]

mikeh, on 2015-June-08, 13:57, said:

one reason why I always reject these invites to 'ALL STAR TM GAMES', lol.

If you get me as a partner please reconsider

[monikrazy]

Sorry @ sprayguy. I didn't realize anyone had responded and/or started to respond before my edit, or I would have made a note of it in my post.