My opponent on Saturday held the following hand in second seat with no one vulnerable:
S 3
H 3
D A10954
C AK9852
After my partner opened 1H, they bid the obvious 2NT for the minors. I passed and their partner jumped to 4D, inviting game. This hand has a pretty easy acceptance, and bid 5D (although, incidentally I think it's too good for this, and should cue bid along the way).
Now I bid 5H, and there were two passes back to this hand. What would you do?
To recap:
(1H) 2NT (P) 4D;
(P) 5D (5H) P;
(P) ?
The first question is whether your partner's pass was forcing. Many people play that when game is freely bid that pass is forcing. If that's what your agreement is, then your only real options are X and 6D, and you have the inference that your partner has at least some extra offense, or they would have doubled. If you're not playing that pass is forcing, then you've also got pass as a choice with this hand, and you know less about your partner's hand.
I don't know what's right, although I think the decision would have been easier if you'd cue bid earlier. It also depends a lot on who your opponent is, although I suspect any opponent passing originally, then bidding at the 5 level has some kind of surprise in store. I'm pretty sure though, looking at 3 quick tricks that I'd double anyway. At the table my opponent passed.
So what did I have for my bidding? SKQ109742 HJ975 D7 C10. I was pretty sure we didn't have slam (playing partner for 4 of 5 key cards), so I wanted to see how high the opponents were going to bid constructively, planning to bid hearts over their final contract no matter what it was. Certainly other options exist, including immediate heart raises, splinters, and spade showing bids. The question is whether making a more descriptive bid will help partner more than it will help the opponents.
In the end we made 5H on our combined 18 high card points for a pretty good board. It turns out the right decision for my opponent was to bid 6D, not because it makes, but because down one was a good sacrifice!
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Yay, a bridge blog! -Jonobie :-)
ReplyDeleteWas 4D explained as inviting game? I would have assumed that it was preemptive. 5c then would have shown extra length in clubs and a good hand, and P would not be forcing.
ReplyDeleteIf it was invitational, I'd still have bid 5c, and then I'd feel comfortable doubling 5H having gotten the hand off my chest. If I had failed to bid 5c, I suppose I'd bid 6c now, but there's no right answer.
With your hand it's not really clear whose hand this is after the initial 2NT. I'd get in there with 3S non-invitational planning to rebid hearts later. Then partner can make decisions.
@Drew, 4D wasn't explained as invitational, but I'm sure that's how the opponents were playing it since I knew them.
ReplyDeleteAlso 3S would have been forcing by me. In most of my partnerships we play 3S forcing since it seems wrong to force to the 4-level with no fit and use 3D as an invitational spade hand so you can still get out in 3H. But I certainly agree that there will be times showing both suits will work out better.