[spadebaby]

I blew the bidding with this hand at a home game.

I am looking for help on what I should have done. The other
players are Not duplicate players and are "old school"....so they
said I should have gone 4 or 5 clubs right away.

My partner bids 3 clubs ( I now know she has 7)

I hold:

S: AK10xxx
H: KJ10xx
D: void
C: A9

LHO bids 3 diamonds

Since I had a 6 card MAJOR.....I felt that I HAD to mention it. So I bid 3 spades.

Partner comes back with 4 clubs

LHO: 5 diamonds

Me: ?????? Here is where I believe I did wrong....... Since my partner didn't support the spades....
I should have gone to 6 clubs, YES?????

What I did: went 5 spades.

I went down cause I couldn't get the transportation back to the clubs.....


Can You guys help enlighten me to what I should have done?

I for sure did not want to let the opponent go in 5 diamonds...cause they would have made it. Even viewing
my bid as an interference.

[ggwhiz]

Tough spot. I would just double 5♦ as my only sure plus except when it isn't

If you are going to bid though clubs has to be better than spades

1. You likely lose at LEAST 1 spade with no support from pard and the opponents bidding suggests bad breaks.
2. No outside entries to partners club suit is pretty much a given.
3. I'm doubling because an outside entry to my spade suit (with clubs as trumps) is far from a given or even setting them up opposite 1 or 0 so I need help in hearts which is far from given or even likely.

If they got me, they got me.

[blackshoe]

Hm.

I play 3♦ in response to 3♣ as showing both majors at least 5-5 and asking for three card support. Might have helped here. Without that agreement I think I agree with ggwhiz - double for penalties is probably best over 5♦, but 6♣ has to be better than 5♠ - or you could bid 5♥ hoping that if partner can't stand either major he'll retreat to 6♣ himself. At this point, though, whatever you do may turn out to be wrong.

[spadebaby]

Thanks for your input. I never even thought of doubling.

And I am not sure why even after reading your replies. I don't have an
diamond stoppers.

Yes, A club and AK spades, but they are probably void in those or maybe ruff.


OOOHHHH now i see it.....I would be the lead....and go for it before they had a chance
to ruff them....

The light bulb just came on !!!

[Vampyr]

blackshoe, on 2013-November-16, 17:42, said:

I play 3♦ in response to 3♣ as showing both majors at least 5-5 and asking for three card support. Might have helped here.

It might, the only disadvantage being that it would have been insufficient.

[hrothgar]

I'd be tempted to bid 6♣ over 5♣

A hell of a lot of the opponent's defense just disappeared because you have a void opposite their diamond honors.
You're hearts are sitting over the 5♦ bidder

If your partner is a conservative opener and promises a disciplined preempted, I'd expect to make

[wank]

i wouldn't be remotely tempted to bid 6c. they lead a diamond tapping your hand and then you can't establish and run the spades due to not having the ace of hearts. the best hope would be partner being 7222 and then you might be able to cross ruff and come down to a heart finesse, but that requires partner not to promote a trump loser with all this ruffing.

just double and take the money. where do you think they're going for tricks? yes they may have a miracle distribution, but fat more likely, your aces and kings will do the business.

[blackshoe]

Vampyr, on 2013-November-16, 19:41, said:

It might, the only disadvantage being that it would have been insufficient.

It might have helped if the OP had stated the problem correctly in the first place. Okay, 3♦ would be insufficient. So I'll bid 4♦. Now what?

[helene_t]

Why not try 5H? Partner knows your spades are at least as long so with say 2-2 in the majors he will go back to spades. But on a good day he has three hearts for you

[Trinidad]

blackshoe, on 2013-November-17, 11:57, said:

It might have helped if the OP had stated the problem correctly in the first place. Okay, 3♦ would be insufficient. So I'll bid 4♦. Now what?

So, okay, the OP made a mistake writing "LHO". He probably thought LHO meant the player left of opener, rather than left of you. Remember that this is the Novice and Beginner Forum. I know that I have thought sillier things when I was a beginner. Perhaps you thought that it went 3♣-Pass-Pass-3♦; Pass-Pass-?? (?!?) or that LHO (on your left) bid 3♦ out of turn.

But -keeping in mind that this is the Novice Beginner Forum, with a thread title "Help with this bid"- do you seriously think that one of the things a beginner should learn is that a 3♦ response to partner's 3♣ preempt could be used to show both majors? IMO, the fact that 3♦ was insufficient was the minor flaw in your post telling that you would bid 3♦, showing the majors.

Rik