A Bidding Decision

Game All. You are South, the dealer.

S 6

H KJ9843

D KQ9765

C -

Do you open with this hand? It is certainly strong enough to do so, but I find that the problem is that partner always misjudges what you have. If the hand is a misfit and opponents don't bid, you end up too high; if the opposition do bid, your partner doubles them in 4S and you have no idea whether to pass or bid on...

(you bid on) :-)

I prefer to pass initially and this was my advice at the table.

N E S W

- - NB 1S

2C 3S ?

Partner's overcall of 2C may or may not be helpful to your cause. In any case, you can now bid 4H and, if opponents bid 4S, and/or partner bids 5C, you can follow up with 5D. That should get your hand across.

Equally, if the auction runs 1S - 4S, you can bid 4NT and when partner bids 5C, you can bid 5D - that should show this type of distribution. Even if partner has bid 2C and opponents bid 4S, 4NT can't be Blackwood (surely?) or Quantitative - and, if it's neither of those, it must be showing a 2-suiter.

This deal actually ended in a surprisingly simple fashion...

N E S W

- - NB 1S

2C 3S 4H 4S

5H NB NB Dbl

5H made exactly, and 5S would have been 2 down, doubled by partner.

I wondered what would have happened if the auction had run:

N E S W

- - 1H 1S

2C 3S 4D 4S

5H NB NB

West said that she would have bid 5S, believing 5H to be making. So, I guess, N/S gained +570, instead of +300. Not a total vindication of the method, but not too bad.

And will such action work every time? Sadly no sometimes it will work better to bid immediately but, I think in the long run, it probably works best.