[pretender]

You hold

♠A97
♥QT
♦A98762
♣T8

vul vs nv at imps
RHO opens weak 2♦. You pass, LHO 4♦, pard 4♠, RHO pass
It's your bid.

[mikeh]

pretender, on 2013-May-01, 22:09, said:

You hold

♠A97
♥QT
♦A98762
♣T8

vul vs nv at imps
RHO opens weak 2♦. You pass, LHO 4♦, pard 4♠, RHO pass
It's your bid.

I don't believe the auction

[niki98]

2♦ is either a psyche bid or the opponent didn't realise that 2♦ is multi or something. I'll pass.

[iviehoff]

niki98, on 2013-May-02, 01:20, said:

2♦ is either a psyche bid or the opponent didn't realise that 2♦ is multi or something. I'll pass.

It is just about possible opener has a 5cd suit and a weak responder, knowing the points were all somewhere else, looked at the vulnerability and decided to test you by making a pre-emptive raise with a doubleton. Though a misbid or misexplanation looks all too likely.

Often in this kind of situation you need to be careful about whether partner has already bid the cards you have in your hand because he can work out you must have them. In the present situation it is hard to know, because you cannot estimate very accurately what the opponents actually hold. If the ops really do have diamonds your DA isn't full value because partner has a void, and your rounded suit holdings could well be a bit unhelpful. Too many possibilities, so pass, but they could well be talking us out of something.

[ggwhiz]

Pard is likely to play you for about this point count with at least 3 of your diamonds in other suits.

Fixed is fixed and I'm staying there. Bidding on will surely handcuff pard in future competitive auctions.

[Lord Molyb]

*reads "I don't believe the auction"*
I wonder why (s)he thinks that?
Then I looked at the hand again.
Passing..

[gszes]

If p steals 7 points and 3 small trumps from our hand to make
their 4s bid do we really have enough extra to bid on??? If the dia
A were the club or heart A heck yes but there is just too much
about the bidding that points to the dia A being worth 1 trick only
and working with nothing no matter the reason for the opps bidding. I
have 6 points maybe a ruffing value and 1 trick extra sorry not enough
to risk game bonus going for slam.

pass

[rmnka447]

Pass. It could be as suggested that the opposition has bid on a 5-2 fit. However, jumping to 4 ♦ with 2 card support is really taking a shot even white versus red. So something seriously out of kilter seems to be going on in this auction.

The only reason to move over 4 ♠ is if you think slam is a reasonable gamble. With the hand you hold, that isn't apparent. So just stay "fixed" in 4 ♠. Partner may have pushed to take a call with a ♦ void. The last thing you want to do is take a call and find you have gone past the last makeable contract of 4 ♠.

[pretender]

At first I thought this was a clear pass, but after thinking about it some more, I think it's still a pass, but much closer than at first glance.

FWIW, let's take the auction at face value. What does partner have?
We know partner is short in diamonds, and chose to bid 4♠ instead of making a takeout double. I expect he should have at least 6 good spades.
If partner is indeed some variation of 6403, 6304, 7303, at least one of our doubletons will actually be ruffing value!
What about HCP? RHO opened a weak 2, and LHO decided it was worth preempting to the 4 level. If we have 26HCP or so, partner will have 16HCP outside of a diamond void. Along with a long spade suit, that would provide a lot of play for 6.

My only thing against bidding on, however, is that we will almost never stop in 5♠. The above deduction gives partner a minimum of 16HCP with a long spade suit and diamond void. But to partner, this will look like a maximum if I make any move. I can't imagine partner signing off after a try from my hand on this auction. Since I feel that we can't make an informed decision on whether slam is good, and given others' mention that the auction should not be taken at face value, I would take the low road here, but it's very close.

[Fluffy]

pretender, on 2013-May-03, 07:55, said:

If we have 26HCP or so, partner will have 16HCP outside of a diamond void. Along with a long spade suit, that would provide a lot of play for 6.

You mean 10 HCP outside spades, for covering 3 tricks losing 1 at most.

[ArtK78]

Pass.

[P_Marlowe]

slam may or may not make.

We have no idea how thin the 4S bid was, it could also be pretty heavy.
Given our diamond length, partner will be void in diamonds, and may only have 5
spades, give him 55 in the blacks.

Be happy to go plus.

With kind regards
Marlowe