Post by Douglas NewlandsPairs, nil, D-W, you are south
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AKQ8764
74
KJ95
W N E S
2S 3D 4S ?
What do you fancy?
4NT, takeout, tending towards two-suited rather than three-suited. If
partner has spades, they should have a strong hand for the 2S
overcall, so we'll likely make something at the five level. If partner
doesn't have spades, either 4S is making or else our 5-level contract is
making, so even though partner could be a bit weaker, we'll likely
either end up in a making contract or in an acceptable sacrifice. I
think that although 4NT shows the unbid suits, it also implies tolerance
for partner's diamonds, so partner can retreat to 5D if they dislike
both our suits.
I'll likely pass partner's response unless they do something very strong
(such as bidding 5S or 5NT; I don't know what the difference between
those two bids would be, but I'd bid 6H either way).
I considered 5H but don't think it's as good; seven cards to the AKQ is
purely a playable trump suit, but it's likely that everyone has
something of an extreme distribution and we might well end up completely
locked out from partner's hand. It seems better to leave open the
possibility of, e.g., playing 5C if partner has side clubs. There's some
risk of playing in a 4-3 club fit but with KJ9x and likely values in
partner's hand, that may work out better than playing in a 7-0 heart
fit.
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ais523