From Newsgroup: rec.games.bridge

On Tuesday, October 1, 2019 at 5:39:39 PM UTC+1, Lorne wrote:

On 01/10/2019 00:54, asrl07@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

On Monday, September 30, 2019 at 4:39:15 PM UTC+1, Lorne wrote:

On 30/09/2019 14:49, asrl07@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

I held as East:

A85
Q87
AK7
QJ87

N E S W
1H P
P X 2D 2S
P 2NT AP

My hand is too strong for a protective 1NT so I doubled, intending to bid NT next time around. After the 2S response, I decided partner could have four spades, so bid 2NT instead of raising spades. This failed, as 2NT went one down whereas 3S is an easy make. Partner insisted that she must have five spades for her bid, and that with only four she would double. I said that it was very unlikely she had five spades, since if she has enough values to volunteer a spade bid and has five of them, she could have overcalled the first time.

Partners hand was:

QJT97
K62
52
KT9

What do you think?

2NT can make double dummy played by me, the defence attacked diamonds, and I ended up losing three diamonds, a spade and two aces.

How many spades partner has depends on your agreement about double -
some play it denies 4 spades others play it as less than 5.

However your 2N bid shows 15+ or 16+ depending on your range for a
protective NT so partner should be bidding game. The most flexible way
forward is 3D which allows you to show 3 spades and you get to play 4S
which looks like it should make as you can throw a heart on the long club.

4S doesn't make.

North holds 432 54 863 A6543
South holds K6 AJT97 QJT94 2

Assuming East is declarer, after a heart lead, declarer cannot stop North getting a heart ruff (the third trump with North combined with South holding Kx preventing declarer from drawing all North's spades is the killer), which combined with the SK, CA and HA takes it off.

Just because it might fail this time does not mean you do not want to
bid it. I ran a simulation with the west hand fixed and the other 39
cards dealt randomly but only those deals where S opens 1H and E has a strong NT were analysed. For those where E had 3/4 spades 10+ tricks
made 70% of the time in 4S and for the rest 3N made 71% of the time so stopping out of game is a clear long term loser.

Also on the hand, why did E pas 1H? Looks like an auto 1S overcall to me.

I agree, I wasn't implying it was right to stop in a part score, only that on this deal game fails. At least if we had gone off in 4S we could have put it down to bad luck rather than suboptimal bidding.
I don't get why she didn't overcall 1S.
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From Newsgroup: rec.games.bridge

On Monday, September 30, 2019 at 9:49:45 AM UTC-4, asr...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

I held as East:

A85
Q87
AK7
QJ87

N E S W
1H P
P X 2D 2S
P 2NT AP

My hand is too strong for a protective 1NT so I doubled, intending to bid NT next time around. After the 2S response, I decided partner could have four spades, so bid 2NT instead of raising spades. This failed, as 2NT went one down whereas 3S is an easy make. Partner insisted that she must have five spades for her bid, and that with only four she would double. I said that it was very unlikely she had five spades, since if she has enough values to volunteer a spade bid and has five of them, she could have overcalled the first time.

Partners hand was:

QJT97
K62
52
KT9

What do you think?

2NT can make double dummy played by me, the defence attacked diamonds, and I ended up losing three diamonds, a spade and two aces.

If your agreement says that your hand is too strong for a balancing 1NT, then you have to double. I certainly want to be able to balance with 1NT with a weaker hand, so I would double. Partner's 2S bid seems correct to me (and her failure to overcall as well) I think passing your 2NT rebid seems wrong. It shows a good hand and makes her Heart holding look good. I would follow with 3D and get to 4S. Looking at the two hands and remembering the auction, that seems a reasonable contract.
--
Will in Deerfield Beach
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