Weekly Hand Analysis - Vic Johnson - April 18, 2022- 5 Card Major

 

Question:  South opens with 1S but only has 5 spades.  What should the second bid be?

Vic:

No, the second bid is not correct. Rebidding a suit promises 6 cards & lying about length happens to be a reasonably “bad” lie. 

South opening bid promises a 5-card spade suit & 13-21 points. South is rock bottom of that point count range & their spade suit is pretty weak. They do have a slightly above standard 2.5 quick tricks (2.0 is standard for an opening hand). But they also have a below standard 8 losers (7.0 losers is standard for an opening hand).  

Basically, South has nothing to tell partner that they did not already tell them & partner subsequently decided to Pass over West 2H. South needs to trust their partner & take their chances on defending 2H by also passing. 

East should have DBLed South 2S for penalty. Looks to me like South could potentially find themselves down two. Doubled, that would give EW a score of 300, much higher than EW would get from making a part score heart contract.