Intended audience: Intermediate and up

Both vul, matchpoints, as south you hold: ♠AKQ ♥J105 ♦654 ♣J872

What do you bid?

There are six possible bids! 1NT, 2♣, 2♥, 2♠2NT, and double. Lots of choices, what is yours?

As usual I find there is a high correlation between critical thinking before bidding and how well things turn out...

Here we have almost all our 11 points in their suit. We have terrible distribution which will likely make game an underdog opposite a normal opening bid. So unless partner comes to life it looks like a part score hand. If this is true I would like the opportunity to get +200. The best way to do that is by underbidding, hoping that the opponents will bid 2♠, which I will double. I would like to bid 2♥, but a double over the hoped-for 2♠ just shows a maximum for my previous bid. The only bid I hate is the negative double.

I chose 1NT. Sure enough I get my wish. West bids 2♠ and I double, ending the auction. The full deal:

After the top three spades all east could score was 3 spades, 1 diamond and 2 clubs. +800 was an easy top.

Try to make bids that will lead you to the contract you want to see reached. Here 1NT did exactly that.

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