Unusual Hand 25

At a local club the following hand was held void A73 AKJ1097 Q1064, and as dealer opened 1. Quite a good hand but what do you re-bid when partner responds 1? Its a 5 loser hand but............

Your replies

1. I am going to rebid this hand 3D, because it is too good for 2D, and bidding 3 C is less attractive

2. Would reply 2 clubs - you have a void in partners suit and though a 5 loser no fit as yet - surely the bid is not going to die and once you hear partners next bid you can come to life - even if opposition come in you will come in with your diamonds againThis I think will end up a game contract in diamonds/clubs or no trumps - who knows maybe hearts, partner could be 5/5 in the majorsIt is not worthy of a high level reverse of 3 clubs and equally 3 diamonds is not the bid as you bypass a possible club fit

HOWEVER YOU MAY END UP TAKING A PENALTY OFF OPPOSITION

3. I think I’d bid 2 clubs. It’s a bit too strong to just bid 2D but not really quite strong enough in HCP to bid 3D, and the clubs though not good are not entirely without merit, and there are 4 of them. Hoping to end up in NT, and expecting to get a lead of the unbid heart suit to my ace and then be able to run off my diamonds. But of course there may be no entry at all to partner’s hand if all he has is spades and doesn’t have QD, and then you would be stuffed! It all depends on partner’s next bid - if I bid 2C it’s forcing, so let’s see what else partner has to say. If he has nothing else to say and just gives preference to either clubs or diamonds, then game probably wasn’t on anyway and the world isn’t going to end.

4. Don`t want to overstate the strength of this hand (5 loser status is conferred by the spade void, so need a fit to gain most from this). The 0364 hand has an 8 card+ fit probability in H 15% D 75% and C 30% so I`m rebidding 2D.

5. I think the hand is too strong to just bid 2 diamonds, and I want to show my 6 card suit so I would bid 3 diamonds. The void in spades does not help my hand unless we get a fit, so it looks like no trumps or a minor suit contract. (I’ve read the article on hand evaluation). If the bidding continues I’ll try to show my club suit, but we may be too high

I always like to show my second suit with a holding of six - four, so would bid 2 clubs to allow partner to describe their hand further. Partner could have diamond support but is correctly showing their four card major first. I feel wary of bidding no trumps at this stage risking just four weak spades between us which could result in losing four or five tricks.

I would rebid 2d to show 6 diamonds then if partner responded again would go to NT. I would be interested in what the experts say

For what it is worth we would bid 3C, denying spades (and hearts) and suggesting at least 5 very good or 6 reasonable clubs…

What actually happened

Partners hand was a massive AKQ52 KJ85 Q85 A, a cool 19pts so sure ly a slam looks extremely likely from Souths point of view. What ever opener re-bids you can bid 4NT asking for aces!

However the actual results were at odds with this: 1 pair were only in 3 making 12 tricks, most pairs were in 3NT making 13 tricks. One pair were in 7NT , going 1 down, and 1 pair in 6 also going one down. The top score was the pair that bid and made 6 making 12 tricks. Whatever s re-bids, N has got to take charge.Bidding a the heart suit first by N would reveal a bit more about the S hand, and then ask for aces and kings.

Putting the hands into Bridge Solver, showed that 6 , 7 and 7NT all make. The spades broke 4-4, and the 5th spade can be used as discard in 7. 7NT makes because E-W have to find 4 discards on diamonds when the suit split 2-2 and is squeezed in 3 suits

The actual hands