[mgoetze]

---

[ArtK78]

My answer is Yes.

Seriously, this is a complete guess. I would bid 4♠, but I can see 3NT being the winning contract.

[billw55]

4♠ on the grounds that we could all too easily have a serious problem in clubs. If the clubs were a little stronger, say KTx, I would go for 3NT.

[jogs]

Pass, if partner's bidding shows 5=332. On balance spades rates to make 1/2 trick more than notrump. Rather hope for nine tricks than ten.

[gwnn]

Partner's bidding does not show 5332, I've never heard of such a system and can't at the moment think of how one would work.

[rogerclee]

Exactly, this auction is not like 1N-2H; 2S-3N at all, this sequence shows basically all hands with 5 spades, not 4 hearts, and no slam interest. Passing is a pretty wild and bad gamble to me, it's a lot to just say that you can't take one more trick in spades than NT on this hand. As a general rule I almost always convert 3N to 4M on this auction with 3 card support.

On top of that if your partner didn't want you to convert 3N to 4M he could bid stayman or just 3N instead of transferring. To me this is a big additional inference not to pass.

[mgoetze]

rogerclee, on 2011-August-17, 15:55, said:

On top of that if your partner didn't want you to convert 3N to 4M he could bid stayman or just 3N instead of transferring. To me this is a big additional inference not to pass.

To be honest partner was a robot but I'll try to keep it in mind when playing with a good partner.

[mikeh]

I agree completely with the first part of Roger's post, but not the second. Partner wanted us to use our judgment....he wasn't using the transfer to force us to bid 4♠...he was merely doing his best to give us the information needed to make the best decision.

My approach is that he expects us to bid 4♠ almost all the time with 3 card support, but that the phrase 'almost all' is not the be read as 'all'.

On this hand, I'd pull in a heartbeat.

To show an extreme example of the hand that I would pass: Axx AQ10 AKJ K108x.

[jdeegan]

4♠ Clubs are a worry. Sometimes 3NT will be better, but I think 4♠ is the percentage bid.

[Phil]

I also agree with most of what Roger says, but I think there are some skewed hands like KQJxx x xxxxx xx that I am playing in 4♠, regardless of partner's holding, so there are some hands with five spades where I would not transfer and bid 3N.

If I knew partner had a balanced hand, I still would bid 4♠. We only have one spade honor so we cannot be confident the suit runs, and its unlikely we take the same number of tricks in NT.

[Siegmund]

My habit is to pass essentially all of my 4333s here (the ones I might pull would be the ones with aces and spaces in 3 suits and xxx in the last). Lot of good players are posting saying they would pull here though so maybe I need to be pulling more often.

I'll admit that it's less obvious to pass here than it is after 1N-2H-2S-3N - not only is partner slightly less likely to be balanced, he's weaker and going to have at least one less non-trump entry.

[whereagles]

To pass you need to be pretty sure 3NT is superior. Not so here, so pull back.