[thepossum]

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Did I overbid. I appreciate a lack of cues and precision on bidding but I reckoned the spades were onside etc

Sadly I fell into the approx 30% (possibly 20%?)

Any advice on bidding would be appreciated

[AL78]

Looks unlucky to me. At the time you place the contract you know there are 10 tricks off the top and East is marked with almost all the remaining HCP so the spade finesse will almost certainly work, which brings you up to 11 tricks. A couple of diamond ruffs get you to 13 tricks, or one ruff and a six card heart suit in declarer's hand. The only negative information is the club void which implies the hand fit is not optimal.

What happened? Did partner have a 5-5 or 6-5 red suit shape and bid 4H on that basis rather than HCP, and they couldn't quite bring it in?

[mw64ahw]

You could start the bidding with 3♠ which would show the support, ♠ control & slam interest, whereas 2♠ could be as little as a limit bid. This can lead to a sequence of bids which establishes where the controls are

North's bid for me says I have enough for 4♥ and little else which may mean that 7♥ was optimistic although you are correct to go for a slam with 4NT.

I actually play 2♠ with/without interference as limit+; asking opener to initially show their hcp strength. This produces an initial valuation of the combined hands which makes it easier to judge whether a slam is on with more evenly balanced hands.

[mikeh]

3S over 1S would be played by virtually everyone as a game force splinter, which doesn’t match your hand. Plus 3S leaves very little room for slam exploration.

2S is clear.

Then it depends on partner, but in essence you played partner for either AKQxx in hearts or AKxxxx plus either something good in diamonds or a good lie in spades.

One of the drawbacks to void showing responses to keycard is that few pairs have a way of asking for the queen afterwards, so bidding 7H was a gamble. Not, imo, an unreasonable one in that even AKxxx gives some play…you need some luck, of course, but when the worst holding he can have gives you some chance of making and it might be cold then bidding grand is not unreasonable

There are methods that allow for queen ask…bid 6D over 6C as queen ask. 6H denies, any other call shows the queen or significant extra length (2S doesn’t show 4+ support, unlike a Jacoby 2N in an uncontested auction so he’d need 7 hearts to show the queen when he doesn’t have it). This sort of agreement is very far from standard..I play it in only one partnership.

Btw, some partnerships use 2S as limit and 2N as GF, but whether that’s optimum is debatable given that you lose a natural 2N bid, plus it’s not the sort of agreement most players would play…it’s quite common in expert circles but hardly standard even there. The advantage is that showing gf values, rather than limit or better, allows opener to avoid jumping other than to deny any slam interest.

[LBengtsson]

I think the problem here is with system not your final bid of 7♥.

Why is partner bidding 4♥ and 6♣ where so much bidding space is lost. Yes, they have meaning but if partner has extra values he has other bid than 4♥ I guess. After your 2♠ bid did partner has other bids available but did not pick one. 4♥ was final not constructive.

Would not 3♦ be a better bid if he was 5-5♦/♥ or 4♣ with void/stiff, and what would 2NT or 3NT mean in this bidding sequence also? Maybe you have not explored what all these bids mean and the only one he could use was 4♥ showing 15-17 distributional points.

[thepossum]

AL78, on 2022-June-11, 07:02, said:

What happened? Did partner have a 5-5 or 6-5 red suit shape and bid 4H on that basis rather than HCP, and they couldn't quite bring it in?

What happened was that we had a beautiful grand except for Qxx of trumps with East 3-0 trump break

I was not unhappy with the 4H bid

[pescetom]

thepossum, on 2022-June-11, 11:06, said:

What happened was that we had a beautiful grand except for Qxx of trumps with East 3-0 trump break

That's what 6◇ is for, as mikeh points out.
If there are two or more steps available after a void showing bid then we play that the first is Specific King Ask and the second Queen Ask (if only one then it is Queen Ask).

[AL78]

thepossum, on 2022-June-11, 11:06, said:

What happened was that we had a beautiful grand except for Qxx of trumps with East 3-0 trump break

I was not unhappy with the 4H bid

In which case I would call that unlucky. Most pairs would judge no trump losers with a ten card fit missing the queen, which is why when it comes to showing or denying the trump queen, players will say they have it if they don't but know the fit is 10+ cards. It is like the slam I once bid after a pre-empt which no-one else found and only went off because of a Lightner double and the diamonds being 6-0 (diamonds being my first bid suit).

[mikeh]

Many years ago, in the Canadian National Team Championship my partner and I were annoyed when active preemption prevented us from finding that we had a 10 card fit (they were at the 5 level before opener got a second bid). We were very pleasantly surprised when trump were 3-0 offside. At the other table our teammates were far less aggressive and their opps sailed into the doomed grand😀

You were unlucky. Sometimes the bear bites you….sometimes you bite the bear. Don’t regret your bid just because, this time, you were unlucky

[pescetom]

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[thepossum]

Thx everyone for commenting
Here was the hand. I could possibly quibble that North was a point or two light but not really

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A bit costly since half the field were in 6 and half in 4

[fuzzyquack]

3-0 trump break is unlucky. But I bet you'll be very unlucky in general with any partner who bids like yours. 4H with this hand is nonsense; could be a decent 13 5332. How about a pedestrian 3D to start a possible dance? 7H was a great contract, but reaching it through a guess was horrific.