[jillybean]

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[Cyberyeti]

I would overcall 1♦ but I see the attractiveness of bidding more

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

this is a tactical problem, among others.

I would go with 3D.

As it is, we are red vs. green, 3D is not a nothing bid.
3D has the chance to quite them, and partner.

And if 3NT has a chance of making, partner can still bid it.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[mw64ahw]

3♦ given I play intermediate jumps although shape wise this is a touch strong

[mikeh]

I think we have three reasonable options and the choice may be more about style than anything else.

1D. Should be safe, lol. Pluses: we’ll get at least another chance to bid and maybe the actions, or inactions, of the other three players will enable us to make a good choice. Minuses: talk about being easy to play against! 1D makes it very easy for the opps to exchange information about fit and power, so while we may glean useful information, so too will they. Plus partner will almost certainly never realize what we have, so we’re probably going to be making a final decision unilaterally

3C. Pluses: gets us to 3N when we belong there and meanwhile may put pressure on LHO. Also describes our diamond holding…I’d prefer to have the Queen but AKJ10xxxx isn’t terrible. Minuses: allows LHO more room than the third option, and may get us to 3N when it is hopeless and the third option is better

5D. Pluses: Maximal pressure. LHO is almost always having to double with values and RHO is almost certain to pass. I’ve had great success with this approach. Minuses: the opps are almost forced to double when they have values for 9+ tricks, and we may go 500 v a nv game or partscore or go minus when we’d go plus on defence because partner has a defensive misfit.

I go with 5D. Even when it’s ‘wrong’ double dummy, few opps bid or defend double dummy. I will usually have 9 tricks so -500 isn’t terrible opposite a 420 or 450 and 5D offers, by far, the largest upsides, ranging from making to being down 1 into their game or pushing them too high (which won’t happen often but is delicious when it does). Plus I’m a huge believer in maximal pressure.

[apollo1201]

If the underlying question was should we X, the answer is no.

The rest has been explained better than I could by MikeH.

[jillybean]

Were you kibitzing?

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[mikeh]

jillybean, on 2026-July-14, 16:18, said:

Were you kibitzing?

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It’s always nice to find out that the approach I suggested would have worked, lol…though at mps, 3C would have been even better! And even the 1D option would have succeeded. Since, for me, a major advance of 1D would promise 5, advancer would bid 1N and now overcaller has nothing but winning options, so my 5D just got us to a making game a little faster.

[thepossum]

I think I may have bid 4 diamonds and hope partner went to 5

[jillybean]

Made 6, the question of course was should we double first, clearly no.
Resulting again

[Stephen Tu]

mikeh, on 2026-July-14, 16:45, said:

It's always nice to find out that the approach I suggested would have worked, lol…though at mps, 3C would have been even better!

Without special partnership discussion prior, I think in North America 1c-(3c) would be followed by 3 passes. BWS is stopper ask for 1M-(3M) but natural for 1m-(3m).

[mikeh]

Stephen Tu, on 2026-July-14, 19:58, said:

Without special partnership discussion prior, I think in North America 1c-(3c) would be followed by 3 passes. BWS is stopper ask for 1M-(3M) but natural for 1m-(3m).

It is for me as well, but I believe…without great assurance…that it used to be stopper ask. But I admit I’m not sure

[Stephen Tu]

mikeh, on 2026-July-15, 00:18, said:

It is for me as well, but I believe…without great assurance…that it used to be stopper ask. But I admit I'm not sure

Maybe it was stopper ask before 5 cd majors took over. But I'm quite sure natural over minors has been more or less standard undiscussed, in North America, for at least 40 years. Certainly there is a minority who would play this as stopper ask also, but that's not what I would assume if I played in some pickup partnership at an NABC and we skipped discussing this.

[Cyberyeti]

I think 1♣-3♣ is a stopper ask over a 4+ card club, natural over a 2 card club and up to agreement over 3+.

5♦ costs you 2 or 3 IMPs to 3N which may be significant

[mw64ahw]

Cyberyeti, on 2026-July-15, 01:59, said:

I think 1♣-3♣ is a stopper ask over a 4+ card club, natural over a 2 card club and up to agreement over 3+.

5♦ costs you 2 or 3 IMPs to 3N which may be significant

In the UK my experience always seems to be a stopper ask

[Cyberyeti]

mw64ahw, on 2026-July-15, 04:55, said:

In the UK my experience always seems to be a stopper ask

When it's not the "Ghestem or a club suit" variant