Cyberyeti, on 2019-March-01, 05:33, said:
There is just room for partner to hold an ace here, but if he does, it's probably in diamonds rather than hearts and he has to have both an entry and a means of disposing of the 4th club as well (which could easily be the same thing).
3♠ should be forcing here after a double and ask for controls, if partner bids 4♥ then great, if he bids 4♦ then you may need to guess well.
Further complication, given that ♥A WILL be wrong, opposite xx, xx, Axxxx, 6543 you need to play in clubs, so it may be that you have to bid 6♣ over 4♦ (which if you play weak/strong Michaels should be 6+/4)
I don't think double then 3S is forcing.
It is a truism of bridge theory that one does not design two methods to show the same hand.
To me, if I reopened with a double and then wanted to create a unilateral gameforce in a new suit, I would double, then cuebid, and then show my suit. Such would announce to partner that he can pass me, below game, only if holding only 12 cards or fewer.
Since I have that route to establish an unequivocal force, I don't need and would not use double then 3S to show the same hand. To me double then non-jump spades shows a hand unable to balance with 1S or 2S (the latter showing an opening hand with 6 spades). So double then 2S would be, say, 16 high and 5 spades.
Double then 3S shows a better hand, but one can have a hand much stronger than 16 high with 5 spades, and still be from gf.
AKQxxx x AJx KQx
This is a double then 3S hand. Were partner to hold something like xx xxx xxxx xxxx I'm too high already and I surely don't want to bid a game.
Whereas if I double then cuebid then bid spades, partner, even with a misfitting yarb, must bid
As for what approach I would take: I'd bid a simple 4S.
While the hand is strong enough to double and cue, the odds that we have a slam that both makes and can be bid with some measure of confidence is vanishingly low. Meanwhile, double, and even more so double then cuebid begs to wrongside the contract, often costing us an imp. Say it costs us an imp, compared to 4S from my side, 25% of the time, we'd need to have better than 40-1 odds of being able to bid and make a slam.
I don't see it. 40-1 is not a high hurdle, but to place partner with an Ace means LHO opened 1st seat with at most 11 hcp, one Ace and no Kings. If partner has an Ace, even it being the heart Ace doesn't mean we are making. And in any event, even if we can hold our red suits to one loser, we still have clubs to worry about. So much so that I doubt that we can bid a making slam with any confidence, and gambling a slam in this situation, merely because partner has an Ace (less so if it the unlikely heart Ace) seems foolish to me.
As for double then 3N....no doubt that it can be a big winner. However, I don't like gambling that the opps won't do something brilliant, either because they are brilliant or because they stumble into brilliancy.
LHO, on the auction double then 3N, will likely guess that his partner has no entry. So a low heart lead is unlikely to prevail.
He may well lead the diamond Ace and then have them run some diamonds and then play a heart through. Down 6 in 3N cold for 4S is likely to cause some amusement. Or the heart Ace and switch to the diamond Ace, although we are probably down no more than 1 or 2 on that defence, assuming partner has no stopper.
Sure, 4S could fail. But I think it more likely than not to make, especially if I just up and bid it. It may be difficult for an opponent to hold onto enough clubs to beat me even if, double-dummy, it would be easy and, of course, 4S will often be cold or cold on the lead.
'one of the great markers of the advance of human kindness is the howls you will hear from the Men of God' Johann Hari
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