I thought a bit more about this hand. Partner has two aces, he doesn't need them for his 1
bid, but of course he needs something so after 1
- 1
there should be a reasonable play for game somewhere. But there is also the problem that if I bid this too strongly he might look at his two aces and decide maybe we have a slam.
And of course maybe we do have a slam. But I wouldn't bet on it.
I would not do anything that suggests i have four hearts. If partner believes that I have a strong hand, a good
suit, four
and a stiff
. he may well check on keycards and put us in 6
. Of course it might make. They start with a
and then, if someone has four
to the T, they can beat it by leading another
forcing the ruff with the J. But maybe the
T comes down anyway, or maybe this defense does not occur to them.
Still, I don't want to be in 6
and really I don't want to be in 6
either.
But 4
seems safe, as does 5
and, for that matter, 5
.
Here is a question: Does 1
- 1
- 3
- 4
- 4
show something like this hand? That is, is the 4
call natural with a strongish three card
suit. Kxx would be enough to make 4
a very reasonable contract opposite the given respnder's hand. We ruff a
, draw two rounds of trump leaving the other two trumps out, we plan to lose to them. And, of course, responder might have five hearts.
I am pretty sure that it once was the case that the above auction was considered natural with declarer showing the three bid suits including three
and a stiff
. Basically a natural sequence. Times change, but it does not seem like a crazy approach.
Suppose we change the
A in responder's hand to a
spot, so he has xxxx.Over 4
he converts to 5
. I pass 5
, I lose a
, a
and a
. Ok, that's off 1. But that's when respnder has four points. If a
spot is changed to a Q I should have a play for 5
.
So, all in all, I am making the game forcing 3
call. A judgment call. But I think the issue of whether 1
- 1
- 3
- 4
- 4
is a natural passable sequence is of some importance.
Ah, one more thought: If it begins 1
- 1
- 3
then I think 3
shows a spade stop. With a
stop but no spade stop responder might opt for 3NT if he has a bit of something, maybe
Qxx pr even Jzx. There is no way to sort out all possible situations pf no stop, both stops, a spade stop w/o a club stop, a club stop w/o a spade stop, so we just accept that as a fact of life.