You Hold…

Hand evaluation in unusual auctions.

by Tom on September 2nd, 2006

Playing in the Atlanta regional today, my partner held this hand (IMPS, all vulnerable, 2nd seat.):

Kx

QT9xx

KJTx

xx

Nothing exciting to start. Everyone passes to partner, who opens 1C in 4th seat. You respond 1H, partner forces to game with 2S. You decide to make a descriptive call of 3D, and partner shows a distributional 2 suiter by bidding 3S.

There are many possible contracts, but your soft honors in both red suits suggest that playing 3NT might be best, so you bid 3NT. Partner now bids 4S.

What’s going on? The key inference to getting this hand right: If partner wanted to insist on a black suit instead of 3NT, why wouldn’t he bid 4C instead of 4S? 4S must show an very very unusual hand. Normally you might think partner had 5 excelent spades, but your KS makes that impossible. Partner must have a very unusual and strong hand, and your doubletons in the blacks and the KS make your hand very strong. Bid 6C.

Partner’s hand was:

AQTxxx

—

—

AKT9xxx

Granted, 7-6 hands aren’t that common, but a little time to consider what partner has will get you to your slam.  (On the actual deal, clubs and spades both break so 7 makes.)

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POSTED IN: Bidding, Intermediate