[AL78]

5CM, strong NT:

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What do you do?

[Cyberyeti]

You need to know if 4N is ace asking or minors here for you.

I will bid 4N if it's minors and 5♣ if it isn't.

[LBengtsson]

Cyberyeti beat me to it - again! lol. Was going to say the same. These higher level decisions are imo the ones that separate the better players from the social ones. At IMPs you would bid one more to prevent the game swing. I think at MP that can apply also. 5♣ is justifiable, if you cannot show the ♦ suit with 4NT. Good hand to post.

[AL78]

Partner would be unlikely to know what 4NT means but in the event I passed which shows how much of a clue about this game I have.

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Two down but not good when you have two slams on. Time to start looking for another hobby

[Tramticket]

You have 7-5 distribution, huge playing strength potential and very little defensive potential. I wouldn't be looking to defend.

The slams depend on a two-way diamond finesse, so not a disaster if you stay out of the slam.

[pescetom]

Tramticket, on 2023-April-14, 05:59, said:

The slams depend on a two-way diamond finesse, so not a disaster if you stay out of the slam.

But the auction marks West as the likely location for Q, both in terms of HCP and spaces.
Not that South will bid slam over 5C; maybe over 4NT.

[Cyberyeti]

pescetom, on 2023-April-14, 06:50, said:

But the auction marks West as the likely location for Q, both in terms of HCP and spaces.
Not that South will bid slam over 5C; maybe over 4NT.

Well if you assume hearts are 6-4, you can find out the overcaller has 4 spades by ruffing them out so you assume he has 2 diamonds to his partner's 3 after he shows up with only one club and finesse correctly, if he'd had 2 clubs you'd know he only had one diamond if you were right about the hearts.

[apollo1201]

This one is for you 😝😝😝😝😁😁😁😁😁 for once

Partner gave you a 2nd chance.

Given the auction, unless opps are crazy, partner doesn’t have a trump stack. Maybe HA or HK but he expects them to go down by overall defensive strength, you opened and they have some more points if you expect 9+ for the 2S bid (and that your pass was not forcing).

In all cases, partner’s X doesn’t obligé you to pass and with such an offensive hand, and partner’s expected honors, a high level contract in either minor looks like plain sailing.

If you suspect that partner will not get 4NT, bid 5C. But I would have acted the round before.

[mycroft]

Agreeing with Apollo et al.

Even if double is 100% penalty, it's penalty *based on you having traditional defence for your opener*. For me, that's "1.5 defensive tricks baseline". You have - potentially zero defensive tricks. And, assuming a fit (even 1 club), much more offence than you've promised. Having passed 4♥, maybe because no bid shows your hand and you're hoping partner will do something (look! he did!), now you can show it.

Would you find slam? maybe not. If you bid 5♦ now, partner might understand enough to bid 6♣, looking at both bullets.

[sfi]

AL78, on 2023-April-14, 05:21, said:

Partner would be unlikely to know what 4NT means but in the event I passed which shows how much of a clue about this game I have.

Two bits of advice I give newer players when I'm playing with them are:

• Bid more with a fit
  
• Bid more with shape

The more your hand matches one of these rules, the more your offensive potential. Conversely, you want to rein it back with flat hands or in a misfit. The other thing these rules do is get you to start evaluating hands without counting points, which means you start paying attention to other features. And that will only help your game in the long run.

[akwoo]

AL78, on 2023-April-14, 05:21, said:

Partner would be unlikely to know what 4NT means but in the event I passed which shows how much of a clue about this game I have.

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Two down but not good when you have two slams on. Time to start looking for another hobby

I think it's worth saying something about how to think about this hand.

Let's suppose partner has 0 high card points. They're still likely to have a club or two and a diamond or two, especially given the opponents have lots of hearts. How many tricks do you expect to take in clubs? It looks like you'll lose one club, two diamonds, and a heart, so you'll make 9 tricks in clubs. If you're doubled, that's -300.

Now remember partner does have a decent hand, high card wise. How many tricks can partner take in a heart contract without being able to take any in a club contract? They could have ♠AK and ♥KQ at most, and that would be only 3 tricks, and it would require the perfect holding from them. You're still possibly taking no tricks in defense opposite that, for -420.

Give partner the best holding for defense and worst holding for offense possible, and you're still quite possibly (though not definitely) better off bidding 5♣.

(For the rest of you - yes I do have to do this thinking at the table - it's not automatic.)

[pescetom]

akwoo, on 2023-April-17, 22:00, said:

Let's suppose partner has 0 high card points. They're still likely to have a club or two and a diamond or two, especially given the opponents have lots of hearts.

You can make that about three rather than a euphemistic one or two: opponents are marked with seven or eight spades as well as ten hearts, leaving them with eight or nine cards in the minors.

[blackshoe]

I would like to bid 4NT over 4♥, if that shows both minors, but if I'm not sure partner would understand 4NT, I'd bid 5♣.