[thepossum]

Dear all

Suppose you had this hand. Partner doubles oops showing spades and 7+ points. You have 15 HCP, 18+ total points. Both non vulnerable. IMPs

Should you bid 3S and leave it partner to bid 4 or is there enough value with void and side suits to go straight to 4.

Would be interested in all considerations including vulnerability, MPs, IMPs and the fact it is last hand of eight in tournament you are doing well in. For example you are a 45% player but currently on 55% 😊

Best P

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[helene_t]

I think I would have bid the same way as you did, both as North and as South.

4♠ is probably a reasonable contract at IMPs. I am not sure if I want to be in game at MPs, though. Since most of the field will be in 3♠ or defending 4♥X or such, 3♠+1 should score quite similar to 4♠=, while 4♠-1 will be a bottom. So it could well be that if the chance of making 4♠ is close to 50%, it is better not to bid it at MPs.

If the split is bad there could be an issue with the 4th diamond trick, and you could easily run into a ruff in clubs or maybe in diamonds. The spade finesse might not work, and even if it does there may be no way to go to dummy without suffering a ruff. Note that you need to go to dummy twice to finesse twice against ♠K.

So your auction was normal, IMO, and looking only at the NS cards it also looks like a good contract.

Something else: have you analyzed the play? I suppose it isn't so interesting at IMPs where you know that you make the contract after the friendly lead. But after you have drawn trumps, it is a mistake to ruff the heart. Think about it this way: your two remaining trumps will always give you two tricks. There is no way opps can prevent that. So it is no rush to take them. Rather, try to establish one or two club tricks while you still have trump control. You don't have to analyze the hand completely at this stage. Just think about it this way:

- do I need to ruff a heart to ensure two trump tricks? No, opps have no trumps so they can't pull them.
- does ruffing achieve anything else, such as establishing the heart suit or going back to my hand? No.
- Conclusion: preserve your trump control. It may not gain but it might, and it can't lose.

[steve2005]

not good contract?!
lose 2 clubs and K♠ no finesses. The friendly lead allows making 5 as cards lie but 4 is unbeatable.
Only danger is someone with 3+♠ gets a club ruff or a diamond ruff. I don't know what odds for that are but I doubt it's close to 50%
Also a 4-1 or 5-0 ♠ break could be a problem.

[akwoo]

Give partner any 2 non-heart kings and 4♠ is odds on. Give partner just the K♠ and you have decent play.

Unless you're in a terrible field, you should bid it. (Actually, I would bid a 4!H splinter if we had that agreement.)

[thepossum]

Thanks all for comments

I do often bid splinters but not sure it was available in this auction

I was just basing point counts on 6-9 or 7-10 for the double.

I wasn't sure that bottom end of that range was strong enough for 4 level

However I should have gone to 4 in retrospect

Just FYI in the field I was in 3+1 was 50%

[Cyberyeti]

thepossum, on 2018-November-16, 05:09, said:

Thanks all for comments

I do often bid splinters but not sure it was available in this auction

I was just basing point counts on 6-9 or 7-10 for the double.

I wasn't sure that bottom end of that range was strong enough for 4 level

However I should have gone to 4 in retrospect

Just FYI in the field I was in 3+1 was 50%

3♥ is the bid (what else can it be other than a splinter), if partner just bids 3♠, respect him, he may do on this hand, it's not a great game, but made better by cards partner may think are worthless. Note 10♣ is absolutely key and the fact that there's no club ruff. QJ♥ also protects you in practice from a force that could otherwise mean you're straight off on a 4-1 trump break.

[Tramticket]

Cyberyeti, on 2018-November-16, 07:33, said:

3♥ is the bid (what else can it be other than a splinter)

If this is a challenge to find another meaning, I can see an argument that 3♥ is a request for partner to bid 3NT with a heart stop, based on a long running diamond suit!

It's not an auction that I've ever considered before.

[Stephen Tu]

Tramticket, on 2018-November-16, 07:44, said:

If this is a challenge to find another meaning, I can see an argument that 3♥ is a request for partner to bid 3NT with a heart stop, based on a long running diamond suit!

I can't. Stopper ask would bid 2h, not 3h. In general without fit you use lower cue bid to show gf strength so there is more space to grope for strain when partner can't bid nt. With the fit there is less need for space so it makes more sense for jump cue to be spl rather than swapping the meanings.

If advancer had bid 2h instead of 2d, then there is more ambiguity.

[thepossum]

I just bid according to partners system. I usually would check all options including splinter in this situation. From recollection it wasn't available but I could be wrong and I may have rejected it on points

Anyway, issue of splinter is irrelevant to the query about evaluation of the hand for game or at least prejudges my decision about that valuation

😊