Sitting North, what would your next bid be?
Anna Zareba’s answers
This final bid seems to determine the best contract since your partner has at least 6 spades. How do you know that? You didn’t make a support double when you had the chance, so you must have a maximum of 2 spades. Your partner bid spades at the 3-level anyway, after the opponents’ overcall of 3♥️, so you can fairly expect a nice long suit. Also, your heart shortage might allow you to ruff in the short hand before establishing your diamonds.
20/20 ✅
You have an extremely promising shape and you should definitely try for game. It looks better in spades. But you could just as easily make 5♦️ as 4♠️ in some cases and make 5♦️ as go down in 4♠️ in others. Jumping directly to game (skipping cue bids and bidding levels) often means that you are not interested in a slam, which is true here.
15/20
This is not a game-forcing bid. Your partner might pass, which is quite likely as we can’t agree on a suit and no one forced the bidding. It would be better to bid game as you have a reasonable chance of winning.
10/20
A bit reckless! You have a hand with 6 losers, and your partner has never shown any slam ambitions. Moreover, you are completely ignoring the spade fit!
5/20
Some players might be tempted to pass as we haven’t agreed on a suit and no one has shown a game-forcing hand. A part-score might be the best contract, but it is unlikely. Consider the fact that your partner bid freely at the 3-level, so they might easily have the values you need.
0/20
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I loved the bridge problem. It helped that I chose the right answer.
More of these bidding questions please.
great!
Interesting hand-enjoyed it! Jean Dorr
Pass
4spades will bring a higher score
Great analysis keep up with lessons
Slam is possible. Why not bid 4H, to show a control. Pard can still bid 4 S, but with as little as AKQxxx, xxx, xx, Kx, slam is likely.
But the hand as You show is not likely
I agree!
I
I considered 4 Hearts showing a control but decided on 4 Spades for clarity and having only 2 small spades.
Enjoyed the question, made us think! 4 spades for me!
Fun, let’s have more of these.
I love these tests BECAUSE it illuminates “other subtle ways” to value one’s hand beyond HCP etc
For the record, my simplistic answer was 5D