[CSGibson]

I accept with South. I blast with North. I would drury originally with south (I have what looks like 3 cover cards in spades, that's a limit raise).

[mikeh]

jillybean, on 2013-August-27, 07:31, said:

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We do play drury, south is a tad light by our standards.

North bids game. He has a huge hand...not merely a 17 count but a huge 17. That diamond J is worth a lot since it solidifies the suit. Put another way, so,ewhat simplistically, the N hand has a LTC of 5...2 tricks better than a normal opening. Partner has the values to rasie a normal minimum to the 2 level and we are 2 tricks stronger than needed...we bid game.

Note that AQJxx xx KQJ Axx (I think too strong for a 15-17 1N) is a full LTC weaker and hence wouldn't blast game.

[Mbodell]

CSGibson, on 2013-August-27, 08:45, said:

I accept with South. I blast with North. I would drury originally with south (I have what looks like 3 cover cards in spades, that's a limit raise).

Yeah, this is one of those ATB where both sides get full blame. South should have accepted the invite. North should have blasted. +200 in 3♠ making 5, "unlucky".

[aguahombre]

Good grief. With that North hand, if partner accepted my ???invite??? I would think we had missed slam.

Maybe that was North's intent...to raise 3S to 4 and to Wood over 4. Trouble with that would be if South broke tempo.

[jillybean]

As I said in the OP, not one of our better boards.
The only redeeming factor was I made an extra trick than the other pairs who stopped in 3.

[VM1973]

I agree with Mbodell. The hand rates at least 23 zar points and surely must be too strong for a simple 1♠-2♠ raise.

[jdeegan]

3♠ was my initial response w/o seeing the results. My reasoning was that unless partner can pick up spades and diamonds with only one combined loser, this mess will probably degenerate into a scramble hand. In that case 3♠ making four (because partner is such a good dummy player) ought to be an average or average plus board anyway.

The actual hand happened to be a perfect fitter, so five spades is almost a laydown, and six is possible. Too bad you were not playing long suit game tries. Too bad your partner chose to take a monstrous underbid on this particular hand. With 17 gilt edged HCP and a singleton, simply bidding 4♠ is correct. Partner is good for nine tricks opposite ♠Kxx and the ♦10. The only possible reason for 3♥ is to hunt for an unlikely slam. In this case, you would end up in game anyway.

[mycroft]

I am another who may not accept. If partner doesn't have the ♠A, I expect that after he's told everyone we're crossruffing, we'll be doing it with one trump on the board. I tend to avoid making SSGT at Matchpoints, for that reason.

I would be just blasting game with the North hand. It's a pity that I don't have a "I actually have a secondary diamond suit, does that help?" call - just a "need help in diamonds" or "short hearts" - but that hand's too strong for *any* game try. If I have to make one, it's 2NT - assuming that's "where can you accept a long suit try" - because the answer is "anywhere but hearts is good".