East should have been wearing a wet suit to open his hand at all. Plus he needs shark repellant! But a very interesting hand regardless. One point you made is that south’s four club bid is not Gerber, and to me, this is very important. My mentor pointed out more than once that this bid has to be stayman. Maybe everybody knows this, but it is still good to reinforce. Four NT would be quantitive, right? I imagine you would recommend cue bidding aces after the three NT bid to look for slam if south did not have that nice major? Could south use a Texas transfer and then investigate slam to get the hand right sided? I know this would have to be system agreement.

Thanks, as always.

Hi Jane A,

You bring reasons for interesting partnership discussions, following follow up to a partnership’s jammed auction, once East opens his very weak hand with 3 diamonds.

Probably 4 clubs should be Stayman, but it could mean a club suit, worth bidding along with a good hand in relation to not having bid originally over his RHO’s 3 diamond opening.

A simple choice instead would be either a very conservative 4 spade probable final bid for the partnership or just a jump to 5 spades, allowing partner the opportunity to make the mistake (of either passing or raising).

Never forget the advantage of such an action in absolving oneself of doing the wrong thing and at the same time, putting your partner in the crosshair. Only kidding, but still fun to do, especially to get revenge on certain partners.

Since, as Shakespeare once said, “the play’s the thing” and so it is on this hand.

Thanks for writing and be sure to inform your partner that he made bridgeblogging.com if only as merely an enthusiastic opponent.

See you tomorrow.

Bridge is beautiful !