What should I Bid? - Best enquiry for June 2006 

The best submission for the month of June was made by Robert Ashman.

 Hand: At unfavourable vulnerability I held the East hand:

AK7  A52  85  Q9864

Q10  9  AK632  AJ532

Bidding:	West	North	East	South
	1	1	2	3
	Pass	Pass	4	All Pass
	?

Comments:  We were playing a short club, and I was very unsure of what sort of trouble I might be getting myself into by my 4 bid.  Of course 6 is a lay down, and 7 made because the King was onside.

I thought 4 would be forcing, and in my mind, certainly showed at least 4 and probably 5 clubs.  On that basis alone, I thought partner should have bid 5.

In the post mortem, our opponents (both experts) suggested I should have bid 5 myself, ensuring that we were in game at least.  Another player suggested a bid of 4, showing strength and forcing some sort of response from partner, would have been better.  However, no-one suggested how we should have reached the excellent slam.

I would appreciate your opinion.

Peter’s Reply:

Hi Robert,

4 is forcing. In the same way that, had partner raised diamonds immediately over the opponent's 3, the choice would lie between a forcing, looking for slam, 4 and an immediate game level bid. There is no mileage in being able to compete to the four level precisely. Nonetheless, how many partnerships understand this and have any level of discussion in this area?

As a practical matter, I wouldn't be prepared to risk the four level forcing bid with any but a skilled bidding theorist in the absence of clear agreement.

That said; let's look at some germane issues.
Even if 4 were not forcing, I wouldn't contemplate passing with the West cards. I'd be worried about missing 6. What do you show with 2 when you clearly have a substantial club holding for the voluntary 4 bid? How many hearts are you going to have? It looks to me that partner was asleep.

Your fears about partner's club length suggest that you need to examine the logic deeper. I assume you were playing 5 card majors with 4 card diamonds (hence the short club). On the bidding partner can't reasonably have more than three hearts, not more than three diamonds, and the failure to double 3 for takeout suggests no four spades. I don't believe it is realistic to play partner for less than four clubs. I'd guess something like what partner actually had; some balanced hand probably with five clubs with not much heart strength or partner might have punted 3NT.

If you were not confident of the auction and not prepared to bid 4, whatever that meant, I think you should have settled for 5, or 6 if you wanted to gamble on partner having a decent hand.

Regards
Peter Fordham

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