[RunemPard]

---

What are 4♣/4♦?

Plan the play...

[Codo]

I would play the king of spades. If neither the queen or ten shows up, I need to play the ace next, if east shows the ten, I will finesse next.

[gszes]

an overall general forcing bid (not a cue bid). The 4c user is usually asking p to pick a major
or they have a stronger 1/2 suited hand they cant show by bidding it directly (they dont
want to use up what little bidding space is left).

The xer here has slam interest but questions about dia control and it would be best to start
with 5c. This bid denies a dia control (4d a ton better for slam bidding here). A 5d bid now
eliminates the dia control problem and the only problem left is how to settle in a trump suit.
IMO once both sides show slam interest and all suits controlled the hand is forcing to slam
so 5s should show a spade suit if partner is showing both majors.

with little else responder should happily bid 6s.



The play of the hand was interesting and (before I saw all 4 hands) I asked declarer why he
chose to play for the drop vs taking the finesse once the spade T appeared (he also started
with a low spade toward his hand. His answer was actually very good he smelled a rat. Since
we had 6 diamonds to the AQJT98 there was no way the 3d bid could have been made with
any degree of safety or usefulness unless it was mostly a lead director with club support as
a run out in case of x. That greatly increased the probability of the 3c bidder having only 6
clubs and therefore increasing the odds of a 22 break significantly since a 3c bid with at most
QJxxxx would be unappealing with a hand that was unbalanced hoping the opps would get too
high.


My partners all played a very good quality game and I applaud their effort welllllll done:))))))))))))))

[PhilKing]

I would bid 4♠ as South opposite a passed partner.

As to the play, if West has 5+ diamonds plus 3+s (which I think he must) then declarers line looks fine.