Intended audience: Intermediate and up

Both vul, matchpoints, as south you hold: ♠A54 ♥A ♦A10542 ♣AK108

What do you bid?

Here is another one of those multiple choice problems where nothing seems to fit. The key to making the best choice is to pick the bid where you can elicit information from partner, based on a reasonable description of your holding.

The choices in ascending bidding order are double, 1NT, 2♦ and 2NT.

Double - The key drawback to a double is a jump in hearts from partner. If you can survive that you may be ok. However if partner bids 2♥ you have to decide between 2NT and 3♦.

1NT– Not a bad choice. One too many points and one too few hearts. You are still susceptible to a jump in hearts (via a transfer). The other problem is that you have hidden your extremely strong playing strength.

2♦- In the age of almost unlimited overcalls this may be the best, but I think it is the worst. The reason is that this bid will usually end up with you playing in 2♦!

2NT– For the minors, usually 5-5 but only one off. No limit on high cards, so you have a chance to show your strength.

This to me is the best bid of the lot. Let’s say partner bids 3♣. You can now either bid 3NT, cue bid 3♠, or show a good hand with longer diamonds by bidding 3♦. If partner bid 3♦, I would bid 3♠ to show my strength inviting game in diamonds.

This hand came up the Thursday before last. My partner decided to double. West (hands rotated) bid 2♠, and I bid 3♣. The bidding continued:

The full deal:

6♣ made for a top. In this case the double worked well. Notice that West bid a ‘slow down’2♠ here, but even if she had bid 3♠ I believe we still would have easily arrived at slam.

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