[AL78]

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The person sitting East had judged their hand too strong for a club overcall but was unsure what to do now. What would you do?

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

X is ok, ..., you have 18HCP, a shortage in their suit, you are not really worried about a
4-3 fit in spades.
Now your options are X or a heavy 3D, I would go with a 2nd X, followed by a correction to 3D
or passing 3D.
3D is a sensible option, if you have agreed to play 2NT as some sort of Lebensohl.

This should get the hand across.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[LBengtsson]

Good hand to post, AL78. I agree with Marlowe that X is extras here, and then we see what partner does next. 3NT maybe a possible contract (if West can cover the ♥ suit) with East's hand over North. The only problem with 3NT though is getting to partner's hand to lead towards the East hand. I think we have to think about game here not just a partscore as all we need is partner with ♦AQxxx and 5♦ is possibly on, but reaching that contract may be tricky.

[jillybean]

3♥

[AL78]

Thanks for the responses. I should have mentioned this was another hand in the informal beginner section but East was an experienced player mentoring an improver, so no Lebensohl available. After some thought he bid 3♦ and played there. As it happens his partner held a very suitable hand and he made +2.

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[akwoo]

I thought about 3H, but I don't like it because partner will bid 4D on a wide range of hands and you won't know what to do.

The problem with aiming for 3N is that one stopper from partner won't be enough if they don't have the ace of diamonds.

If you're going to give up on 3N anyway, then I think the practical bid is 4D.

For me, 3D can be a minimum with a fit, just aiming to compete, so that's an underbid. Some pairs may agree otherwise.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

11 tricks games are hard to bid.
Even after a 2nd double by East, I am not reaching 5D.
West has a hard time finding a bid, and it is easy to imagine, that he will repeat his diamonds with 3D.
The 2nd X showes certainly 17+, but this will only mean, that you have 23+ HCP and as stated 11 tricks is
a long long way.

The only way to get to 5D is West overbidding, which will lead to lots of minus scores with different layouts.


With kind regards
Marlowe

[mw64ahw]

With 8.5 playing tricks a simple raise to 3♦ feels like an under bid

A couple of other options:
2NT both minors intending to invite with 4m
2NT showing ♣ and another as in The Overcall Structure
--3♥ 1+ playing tricks requesting 2nd suit intending to correct to 4♣ over 3♠
----4♦
------5♦ given I have 2 tricks to contribute