[whereagles]

Matchpoints, intermediate field, you hold:

♠ x
♥ 8x
♦ ATxxx
♣ K9xxx

Pard RHO you LHO
1♣ . pass .. 1♦ .. 1♠
4♥ . pass .. ??

1♣ = natural or a strong hand (possible types: strong 2, any 20+ bal, any 21+ unbal).
1♦ = natural or 0-4 hcp any shape.
4♥ = natural, strong hand. Pard had the option to bid 2♦ (instead of 4♥) to show a strong hand as well.

What now? Pass or bid?

[FrancesHinden]

Did partner need to bid 4H to show a good hand?
What would 3H have meant?
What would 2H have meant (or is that a club opening bid with a heart reverse)?

In a 'normal' 2C system opening 2C and rebidding 4H is usually weaker than 3H, while 2H and 3H would show different types of hand.

[whereagles]

>> Did partner need to bid 4H to show a good hand?

No. He had other options, namely the artificial 2♦ bid and 3/4♥.


>> What would 3H have meant?

Strong 2 in hearts, goodish suit, but non forcing.


>> What would 2H have meant (or is that a club opening bid with a heart reverse)?

Yes, it would be a 5-4 and enough hcp/playing strenght to the 3 level, even opposite a possible 0-4 hand.

[Free]

6♥, I can't believe partner would bid 4♥ with only 9 tricks, so 10+2=12 (or 13, bridge isn't math).

[Gerben42]

I bid 5♦ to show my first round control. Don't tell me that's to play, 4♥ set trumps.

[FrancesHinden]

I'm still struggling a bit with the system, but it sounds as if partner thought it had too good a hand for 3H as that was non-forcing, and didn't want to use the artificial 2D bid for some reason: I imagine he has a _lot_ of hearts and wanted to bid them sooner rather than later. So I expect a strong 2 in hearts that wants to play in game: something like 7 or 8 solid hearts and an outside card or two.

Maybe

Axx AKQJxxx x Ax

seems too good for a non-forcing 3H bid (although it only has 9 tricks) - although this hand might have bid 3NT over 1S, he could be worried about missing slam; I understand your 1D bid could have been natural and hence unlimited?

I think I have enough to move but not enough to drive slam. I will bid 4S, which shouldn't lead to any confusion about what suit is agreed, and I also have a spade control which could be useful. We're making slam opposite my example hand above (not a grand on a trump lead), but also we could be off two aces.

An alternative approach is to try RKCB in hearts and bid slam opposite 3 keycards, but 3 keycards may not be enough, and if partner could have the above hand + another card, we miss grand.

I'm not sure this is a hand evaluation problem, rather a matter of what this sequence by partner shows.

[whereagles]

Thx all. Hands were

Scoring: MP

Pard...We
1♣*.... 1♦ (1♠)
4♥ ..... ??

*Natural or an undefined strong hand

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All routes lead to a good slam, as long as you keep bidding. It's just an almost textbook example of how a seemingly weakish hand can go up in value tremendously.