[paulg]

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IMPs, unknown opponents in the top half of the field

You are playing strong notrump, five card majors, better minor.

1. What is your plan?

2. If you double, what will you do over 3♦ or 3NT rebids?

[ahydra]

3S, and over 3NT bid 4H. I feel this would play better in 4M than 3NT.

ahydra

[mcphee]

Double is out, 3S greatly preferred. 4H if he bids 3N or 4D.

[rhm]

ahydra, on 2013-August-20, 05:02, said:

3S, and over 3NT bid 4H. I feel this would play better in 4M than 3NT.

ahydra

Why?
Would ♠xx,♥Ax,♦KQJxxx, ♣Kxx come as a surprise?
I double and respect 3NT. I would want better suits to insist on game in a major.
If partner bids 3♦ I continue with 3♥. Not sure whether this is forcing or highly invitational with both majors.
I do not care.

Rainer Herrmann

[Fluffy]

3♠ then 4♥ for me as well.

[Phil]

I will start with bidding my higher ranking 5 card suit. Double could work well if RHO is a known lunatic or doesn't pay attention to the colors.

[rogerclee]

I definitely do not like the plan of doubling and passing 3N, seems like a big/losing position to just not play a 5-3 major suit fit when we have a stiff club and a side 5 card suit.

If I knew partner was going to bid 3NT over double, I would do that and follow it up with 4♣ in an attempt to rightside the hand. Unfortunately if partner bids 3♦ we are pretty helpless, so I think that is out, and I will just have to bid bid 3♠..4♥.

[mikeh]

rhm, on 2013-August-20, 07:34, said:

Why?
Would ♠xx,♥Ax,♦KQJxxx, ♣Kxx come as a surprise?
I double and respect 3NT. I would want better suits to insist on game in a major.
If partner bids 3♦ I continue with 3♥. Not sure whether this is forcing or highly invitational with both majors.
I do not care.

Rainer Herrmann

Would Ax Axxx Qxxx Kxx come as a surprise?

Making up hands that match what you want to do is a seductive trap, but I thought you too good a commentator to fall for it here.

[Fluffy]

rhm, on 2013-August-20, 07:34, said:

Why?
Would ♠xx,♥Ax,♦KQJxxx, ♣Kxx come as a surprise?
I double and respect 3NT. I would want better suits to insist on game in a major.
If partner bids 3♦ I continue with 3♥. Not sure whether this is forcing or highly invitational with both majors.
I do not care.

Rainer Herrmann

Your experience playing 3NT with a 5-5 must be better than mines. I try to avoid that at all cost even with 5-5 minors.

[quiddity]

rogerclee, on 2013-August-20, 09:30, said:

Unfortunately if partner bids 3♦ we are pretty helpless, so I think that is out, and I will just have to bid bid 3♠..4♥.

What is a 4♣ bid over 3♦? Choice of games?

[rogerclee]

quiddity, on 2013-August-20, 11:39, said:

What is a 4♣ bid over 3♦? Choice of games?

I think in theory the best meanings are 4♦ = slammish raise and 4♣ = COG. In practice 4♣ just sounds like a diamond raise to me without prior discussion.

[akhare]

3♠, planning to correct 3N to 4♥ as well.

[rhm]

mikeh, on 2013-August-20, 10:29, said:

Would Ax Axxx Qxxx Kxx come as a surprise?

No, but I do not see what problem arises with your hand if I make a negative double as I suggested. In fact it looks better if partner declares hearts. That's one advantage of the DBL.
Many here claimed they would insist on game in a major.
I have not said that I am looking for 3NT as a final contract, I only said I am not as confident that I would overrule partner's decision to play 3NT.
Therefor I would not start with a 3♠ bid.
I am not even sure on your hand if you bid 3♠, whether partner would not prefer to raise spades instead of bidding 3NT.
It's a close decision in my opinion. Change your hand slightly to Ax Axxx KQxx xxx and many would raise to 4♠. If he raises spades you are in trouble and even if partner has 3 spades and 4 hearts you will end in the wrong major and could easily get forced.
But I freely admit 3NT could be wrong even when partners bids it. But 4M could also be wrong.

Rainer Herrmann

[paulg]

You can see the play problem resulting from finding your 5-3 spade fit in wank's problem - http://www.bridgebas...62081-illusory/.

Anyone happy to play in three notrump was losing IMPs. I was in the bidding both suits camp, but a couple of internationalists suggested double followed by 4♣ but this sounded just too confusing to me.

[gnasher]

Rainer's point about partner raising 3♠ on doubleton is a good one, but I still prefer 3♠. When partner is 2-3 or 2-4 in the majors he'll usually have a club stop.

Maybe double followed by 4♥ should show this hand? If we had a 4-6 where we wanted to insist on hearts opposite a 3♦ or 3NT bid, we probably wouldn't offer spades as a strain anyway.

[nige1]

paulg, on 2013-August-20, 04:42, said:

IMPs, unknown opponents in the top half of the field

You are playing strong notrump, five card majors, better minor.

1. What is your plan?

2. If you double, what will you do over 3♦ or 3NT rebids?

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Agree with

• 3♠ = 10, Intending to bid ♥ next
• Double = 8. Over 3N, I suppose that you could try 4♣ but continuations over 3♦ are harder.

[mfa1010]

Nobody playing 4♣ here as both majors and 4♦ as forcing?