Weekly Hand Analysis - Vic Johnson - July 3, 2023 - Bidding train

 Question:  

The bidding train kept rolling up to 5 diamonds.  Should South have ended it on the second bid with a 3NT bid?

Vic:

Answer:  NO, south should NOT go to game in NT on their second chance to call. And shame on the bidding train for rolling past 3NT.

The 1H bid by North promises a hand that could be as weak as 6 HCPs. It is true that South is probably looking at six (club) tricks in NT, as soon as they get the lead. But if north has only 6HCPs, South could find themselves down before their side ever gets the lead.

South was consequently correct to make a suit bid on their second chance to call. But they made the wrong suit bid. Diamonds are a higher ranking suit than Clubs. Bidding 2D is consequently a Reverse which promises the second suit is shorter (true), but also promises a stronger hand (ideally 19+ HCPs) than South is holding.

 What South should have done on their second chance to call is rebid their Clubs to promise six. Arguably, they could even jump to 3C to show a stronger than standard opening hand.

 Over either 2C or 3C, North should subsequently bid their diamonds (promises a diamond stopper - denies a spade stopper - implies enough points to be comfortable continuing the auction).  NOW South (who does have a spade stopper) can bid 3NT.

Turns out that in the actual auction South did have a chance to bid 3NT over 3D. I have no idea why South bid 4C instead. The subsequent bid of 4NT by North is also a mystery (they have no spade stopper). The mystery 4NT bid left South with three choices: Pass 4NT - bid 5C - bid 5D.

Both 4NT & 5C deserve to make, but 5D deserves to go down one. 

Ain't bridge a great game?