North:
x x
A K Q x
A K J x x x
x
South, opener:
A Q J x x
x
x x
K Q J x x
I am more in Ken's camp than Jim's on the best bidding. So I will answer the questions as given:
1) Is south strong enough to bid 3C, does that bid shows extra values in opener's hand?With this 5-5 distribution you do not need any extra strength to make the high reverse into 3
. This is the advice given in the book "2 over 1 Game Force by Audrey Grant and Eric Rodwell"
So yes rebid 3
. This could also be showing a 4 card
suit with extra strength.
2) Should North bid 3D after 3C, allowing room for a 3H bid from South?1
- 2
3
-?
Responder has a very strong hand and should look at slam possibilities. 3
I believe is the best bid as it is the most economical and shows a 6 card suit. So yes bid 3
.
3) In the actual auction, could South bid 3N over the 3H bid, rather than go past 3N?If the bidding went:
1
2
3
3
?
The 4th suit bid of 3
says "Please tell me more about your hand partner?" So opener would bid 4
to show a definite 5-5 and no stop in hearts. Clearly this illustrates that the 4th suit bid of 3
was unsatisfactory.
4) What do you think about 1S-2D ; 3C-3N?Responder has 17HCP. The strong 6 card
suit makes it worth at least 19. So it is too strong to bid 3NT which would be showing a maximum of 15.
Ss best sequence I believe would be:
1
2
3
3
3
?
Not an easy decision. Responder despite the very powerful hand can see the partial misfit and cannot assume that a slam will be on. Nevertheless, opener could have something like:
AKxxx
x
Qx
KQJxx
Where 6N or 6
is a virtual laydown and is entirely consistent with the earlier bidding. If responder bids 3N would opener make a slam move? I am not sure.
Opener would know that responder has something extra because he bid 3
before bidding 3NT on the principle of "slow arrival" . So maybe opener would now take out 3NT into 4
showing slam interest in
s.
So back to the decision on the actual hands:
1
2
3
3
3
?
What should 4NT by responder now mean? Keycard in
s or quantitative in no trumps? You could argue that it must be quantitaive in no trumps since responder could fix the suit as
s by bidding 4
. So with this fig leaf I say bid 4NT. There is still a safely run-out, because if partner takes it as
keycard, he will bid 5
showing 1 and now you sign off in 5
.
Quoting JIM who says: "Personally, I would open 1C with the intent to rebid the spades twice. This is a treatment that Brian Platnick insisted upon the one time we played together. Now it will become easier to stop in 3NT, and not get overextended."
If you play it this way then you have difficuly showing hands with 6 clubs and 5 spades.