Hand of the Fortnight

Number 22

Theme: Bidding over a 4H or 4S pre-empt with a 2 suiter.

Note: 1 example will portray only some possibilities in this area.

Ex. 1: You are sitting East. The bidding has gone

S W N E

4S / / ?

You hold this beast!:

S: 8

H: A K 8 6 4 3

D: A Q 9 7 5 2

C: -

If you double and partner leaves it in for penalties, you have no trump tricks to contribute.

However 5D or 5H may be cold!

So what do you do? Bid 4NT.

This is a bit(?) like the "Unusual 2NT" but you are not telling partner that you have the 2 minors.

Instead you are saying that you have 2 long suits + reasonable HCP (and usually shortage in their bid major).

Partner must answer 99.9% of the time. Partner also does not know which suit is the 2nd shortage so the "Pass or Correct" procedure ensues (until the best fit is found).

Suppose the bidding continues as follows:

S W N E

4S / / 4NT

/ 5C(1) / 5D(2)

Explanations:

(1) Often likely ..... but push on!
(2) Now partner knows that you have Diamonds + Hearts. Thus they can Pass 5D or correct it to 5H if that’s a better fit.

Additional notes:

1) Clearly you need to weigh up whether you can bid at the 5 level esp. if vulnerable. The hand above has only 13 HCP but has only 3 losers.

2) Using this 4NT tool to bid over 4H is trickier. Occasionally you will end up in 5S instead of 4S!

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