Problem A. I said I'd be willing to learn about forcing passes and Todd, Jim and Ken reckon this to be an example. I confess to being worried about East doubling 4N holding something like (6511)* and 16 HCP as an intended sacrifice when vulnerable against not. But putting that to one side, what would I bid?
Todd's construction of partner's hand suggests diamonds might be the target suit, rather than hearts.
Preliminary thoughts . . .
PROBLEM A: 5
Why 4NT? Why not 4 instead? Why does partner not care about the King?
What hand I consistent with partner’s bidding? If partner had spades long enough to bid, he bids them. With enough hearts to want them as trump, he asks keycards with 4 .
Partner is also single suited. Diamonds. That is what I can come up with.
Maybe:
AKJ x AQJ9xxxx x . . . (this is still not close,but something like this)
Showing my King is the only information I can convey.
So I do.
Why can't partner have spades as a single suit instead of diamonds? His bidding would make equal sense - he simply wants to know about aces. He might also make the same bids if he was aiming at hearts (holding Ax Kxxxx AKQx xx). If those are not ludicrous thoughts, conceivably partner might be thinking of diamonds, hearts or spades. That rules out a bid of 5
for me. 5
is attractive, but in fact I can support him in spades (with much less elan, admittedly), so double might be better. Further, perhaps he passed 5
because he's worried about two losers in the suit, a double would be more informative than 5
- surely this would show a void/singleton (it can hardly be for penalty from a pre-emptive opener who has no aces). If I become completely convinced this is a forcing pass situation, I will double.
Problem E. I have to say I find 3
an unattractive bid because it almost certainly converts a positive score into a negative one. Suppose partner has KQJxxxx in clubs. Now let's say he has nothing outside. With any 7222 hand 3
is cold (and possibly has 2 overtricks) and 3
is doomed. With a 7(321)* hand, partner is most likely to have a singleton in diamonds and so 3
goes down again, whereas even if he has 3 hearts and opponents lead them, we're making with 3
(with an overtrick).
I'm hesitant over 3N for the same reason; if partner has nothing outside clubs I've swapped a positive score for a negative one. Moreover, if partner does have the K
, I will need hearts to break 4-3 or 4-4, otherwise that's 5 tricks gone from the start (opponents have hardly got the HCP to lead any other suit).
I am not afraid to say that I don't understand how this plays out at Matchpoints. I'm a bit ashamed about that - whenever someone says "well, it's matchpoints ... " my mind seems to become a void. I hope someone can point me to a nice document which explains MP v IMPs. But, to my simple mind, 3N is either a clear top or a shared bottom, and 3
is better than average (much better if everyone keeps choosing 3
!). So, I will pass or if it's better to aim at a putative-but-quite-unlikely top at MP, 3N.