[the hog]

wank, on 2011-October-07, 23:39, said:

my guess would be opener's got a selection of honours in the reds but no length and has now realised his honours are the nuts when respodner has 11+ red cards

something like this

---

This is a 4H bid over 4D, not a ridiculous 4NT bid.

[Cyberyeti]

the hog, on 2011-October-08, 02:15, said:

This is a 4H bid over 4D, not a ridiculous 4NT bid.

How about AKxx, Kx, KJx, AKxx.

The reason to bid 4N is that it should make and that if partner shows a 5th diamond with 5♦, you want to bid a slam. Give partner AQxxx and Q109x and compare with Axxxx, Q109xx and any Q.

[kenberg]

Firstly I don't know what the auction means. But I will take a guess. I expect the 4NT showed that the majority of the values were in the black suits, and the 5♠ was something like "I don't know if this belongs in 6♦ or 5 NT but at matchpoints it does not belong in 5♦. I know, 4NT already pretty much said that. But I think there might be room for someone to say "I know you understood me the first time and you think 5♦ is best, but I am telling you it is not best. Trust me, it's not". Of course he can still be wrong.

[wank]

the hog, on 2011-October-08, 02:15, said:

This is a 4H bid over 4D, not a ridiculous 4NT bid.

as i said it was my guess of what partner's got, not what he should have done earlier during the bidding.

if your partner's never made a less than ideal call and then tried to rectify it later in the auction, you're a lucky man.

[aguahombre]

the hog, on 2011-October-08, 02:15, said:

This is a 4H bid over 4D, not a ridiculous 4NT bid.

The choice not to bid 4H with only two of them over 4D, nor to cue 4S with only 3-cards in diamonds might not be your choice ---or even the choice of other experts. But I don't think it rises to "ridiculous".

[jdeegan]

On the surface, 5♠ is either 'pick a slam' or a try for seven. Of the two it has to be 'pick a slam'. So I bid six of my strongest red suit or 5NT if they are equal. I can't imagine what pard has.

[wyman]

kenberg, on 2011-October-08, 08:14, said:

Firstly I don't know what the auction means. But I will take a guess. I expect the 4NT showed that the majority of the values were in the black suits, and the 5♠ was something like "I don't know if this belongs in 6♦ or 5 NT but at matchpoints it does not belong in 5♦. I know, 4NT already pretty much said that. But I think there might be room for someone to say "I know you understood me the first time and you think 5♦ is best, but I am telling you it is not best. Trust me, it's not". Of course he can still be wrong.

This was more-or-less my intent. It was one of those "There's no way 5D is a good MP score, so I need to do something, but I'm not sure what."

My thought at the time was "5N will be pick-a-slam, since he could have a 6th H or D. So I'll bid 5S, which still needs to be pick-a-slam, but it hopefully suggests spades as a 3rd option. If he passes, we're still doing better than 5D."

But I can see 5N being natural as well.

[the hog]

So what did the misguided partner have?

[han]

Be honest now, did you open 2NT with a 7-card spade suit?

[wyman]

han, on 2011-October-09, 02:27, said:

Be honest now, did you open 2NT with a 7-card spade suit?

Haha. Not this time. This is actually from a bidding contest, so if you have plans to do any of the more popular monthly bidding contests (for example, the September or October ACBL Bulletin or Bridge World), please don't read the spoiler until you're done. I doubt you'll repeat the auction, but I'd rather not post the hand without spoilers. In hindsight, I should've spoilered/disclaimered the OP. So sorry about that.

Spoiler

From October ACBL Bulletin's Bidding Box, I held: AKQ10x / Kx / xxx / AKx.

I really thought that x / Axxxx / QJxxxx / x was a narrow range to aim for, especially at MP, so I decided not to pass 5D. I considered just bidding 6D, but 6H could be right. Hell, 6S could be right. What partner actually had is irrelevant here (x / A10xxx / AKQxx / xx), but the aftermath is that he thought 4N was RKC-D, so he bid 7D over 5S, which is the right spot.

[kenberg]

Just your basic everyday auction!