[mikeh]

Playing with a friend at the club, in a 20 table duplicate, you pick up x x AJ987xx AKJ9

All vulnerable, LHO is dealer and opens 4H. Partner, a good player, bids 4S and (unsurprisingly) RHO passes. Your bid and why?

[DavidKok]

I have a tongue-in-cheek rule. When discussing a hand, if you tell me which 9s you held, you overbid. Here I even see an 8 and a 7!

Spoiler

Anyway, I bid 6♦.

I think it's going to be a gamble. I have some gadgets here, but they won't convey that I have a strong 7-4 at all. If we're going to bid, I think we should just bid what we hope we can make.
In my agreements 4♠ here can be quite weak. It is so often correct to bid 4♠ over 4♥ - for it to be wrong, both games have to fail (or one has to fail by a lot). For this reason partner's 4♠ could, for example, be ♠KQxxxxx, ♥xx, ♦x, ♣Qxx, opposite which 4♠ seems reasonable but any higher contract is doomed. However, there is no room to investigate whether partner has a weak 4♠ or a stronger one. Preempts work. I think we have too much strength, too much shape, and too many controls that I think passing or bidding 5♦ are both big gambles. Jumping to slam certainly isn't risk-free, but I do think it is the lesser risk.

[mike777]

6D seems
clear

These hands always remind me of a famous interview of a lady here in the USA who was called the Queen of ACBL bridge clubs,
I think her name was Helen S. She had a zillion points. Her advice, never bid slams at your local club.

[jillybean]

Who is your opponent? Is 4♠ preemptive or one of the 4M bids you see in the MBC?

[mikeh]

 jillybean, on 2025-November-08, 09:59, said:

Who is your opponent? Is 4♠ preemptive or one of the 4M bids you see in the MBC?

Lho is a slightly above average club player. Partner s a much better player and, if anything, tends to be conservative

[jillybean]

Do you have any agreements at the 5 level?
This hand has too much potential to bid 6♦ but where else can we go, what is partner going to do over 5♥?
I'm tempted to bid 5♥ and see what happens, it's only a club game.

mike777, on 2025-November-08, 09:54, said:

These hands always remind me of a famous interview of a lady here in the USA who was called the Queen of ACBL bridge clubs,
I think her name was Helen S. She had a zillion points. Her advice, never bid slams at your local club.

This seems backwards

[mikeh]

jillybean, on 2025-November-08, 11:15, said:

Do you have any agreements at the 5 level?
This hand has too much potential to bid 6♦ but where else can we go, what is partner going to do over 5♥?
I'm tempted to bid 5♥ and see what happens, it's only a club game.


This seems backwards

Only if you want to become a better player, able to compete in tougher games. The average club player is, in my experience, hopeless at slam bidding and often little better at declarer play. Therefore, while bidding and making slams will get you great results, bidding and failing will be awful. A competent player can routinely score at least 60% in most club sessions without risking a zero by bidding good but not cold slams.

I’m not the least bit interested in that sort of thinking but of one’s desire is the rack up black points, its not a bad idea.

[jillybean]

I am not able to play tournament bridge at the moment, I am playing very casually with various partners. I'm not motivated by results in club games and points only motivated me until I become a "Life Master".
For now my motivation is to have fun and try new things, improve my Directing and help to keep bridge going locally, find a partner to play Fred's 3nt.

This hand seems like a pure guess, I can bid 6♦ or can I can create some fun and try something else.

I'm playing with a casual partner for fun in one session at the local sectional this weekend. I will put my game face on.

[P_Marlowe]

I would pass.

You could easily convince me, that this is to tame, that I am a chicken.
It is, as it is.

The hand is to complicate for me.

[Zelandakh]

Is 5NT for you and JV Pick-a-Slam or GSF? It seems to me that if partner has solid spades, we want to be in 6♠ but if it's just 5 decent spades, which is perfectly possible for a pressured 4♠ overcall, not then a minor suit slam is likely to play better. If we don't have tools to differentiate, we might be better off just going low so I think system is a relevant factor here.