Handling AKo, ended up in 5 Clubs (after a double)... Bridge

[BC]

I was playing on Bridgebase last night and this hand came up. I was happy with the result, but an inviting comments/criticism because I wanted to parody a poker thread and this was a good hand.

And they still start poker threads without using the word "Poker", so...

I held

S T64
H AJ3
D K8
C J7432

Auction (I'm in 4th seat):

1S - x - P - ?

I know I have the requisite 8 points, but I made a minimum bid anyway of 2C because my suit isn't good and partner probably wants to hear about hearts. Open to criticism here... 3C or 1NT, anyone?

Auction continues:

P - 3C - P - ?

I probably underbid here too, just raising to 4C, but I figured this was the best way to say "I don't have a spade stopper but I am interested in 5C if you are really that good."

Partner raised to 5, and we played there.

Partner comes down with:

S A3
H Q2
D AQT3
C KQT65

After opening bidder leads a small heart away from the King (it was a doubleton, I later found out) and I won the Q on the board. I drew trump, and once 5 was in the bag I played KD and hooked the TD for an overtrick.

[4sigma]

Agreed with your initial action. You could be more aggressive at your first bid rather than your minimal call, if your A/K were in your suit. But that is not the topic of this thread.

On the next round, I think your raise is borderline. You have a very good hand, but unless the perfect cards end up hitting the table for you, there is relatively little upside available to raising. Alternatively, it may pay to be that aggressive if you know that your opponents are rather loose. Anyone who plays Kx the way your LHO did is probably worth raising against.

[Steve White]

2C is fine. 1NT is OK, barely. 3C would be too much.

I would not consider passing 3C, as I have an excellent hand compared to what I have promised. Rather than 4C, I might bid 3S, hoping it shows no stop; with a full stop I would presumably try 3NT. 3H is another possibility, since I should have denied four hearts, but it would be more tempting with only 2 spades, prepared to ruff the third round in the short hand.

I don't like your partner's bidding. His hand is within current standards for a 2C overcall, and a doubleton heart is a serious defect to a double.

[Klaymen]

When people X, you assume they are looking for hearts and have tolerance for the other suits. Bidding 2C is plenty. That hand is a 2C underbid and a X/rebid overbid.

I like 3S over 3C, suggesting values in the other suits and not in spades. It does put partner in a difficult decision though, the spade stopper isn't going to last long. you could have a goldmine with

xxx
Jxx
Kxx
Axxx

or a dud with

Qx
Kx
Jxx
Jxxxx

Glad you foound 5C

[4sigma]

OK, I don't really object to your 4C bid. I was responding in the style of a response to a poker post. Agreed that your partner's double is ... creative. I would overcall 1NT before doubling on that hand.

[minus790]

This hand is a freaking monster in light of partner's 3C call.

4C is a serious mistake. You've got to do something (3S) to investigate which game, not if game.

[BC]

I considered 3S, actually. Unfortunately, this was the first hand with a new partner who I wasn't sure spoke English, much less Standard American; my primary purpose that evening was to play 2 hands to make sure I could use the software with nominal confidence. I took what I considered the "safe" route. I figured 4C was probably forcing to game but would allow for slam exploration - but that if partner passed 4C, it was probably the right place to be, also.

I think with a regular partner, 3S would be asking (not telling) but I don't know if I would have done it. Partner's takeout double tends to signal shortness in the suit, so can I really expect better than Ax? AK or AQ would obviously have been enough, but my Txx isn't going to make a single stopper into a double stopper short of partner having 3 cards in the suit or exactly AJ unless the defenders misdefend. As it happens, we got to a better game because I didn't. Even a blind squirrel gets a nut sometimes.

So what does/should partner do with Ax doubleton? KQ or KJ tight? How much does one need to go to 3NT, and what can partner assume I have? KJ is golden if I have QTx; do I ask in that case or just bid it myself and hope? I realize that there are a lot of possible cases; I'm guess I'm asking the 3S bidders what you all think the answer to the question "how much should I have before I ask if partner has a stopper (as opposed to either (A) just bidding 3NT myself or (B) just bidding 4C or 5C myself, if ever), and how much should partner have to bid 3NT in confirmation of a stopper"? I've never seen a good rule of thumb, and have gotten burned on both ends (which, given that there's a ternary question followed by a binary response, shouldn't be too surprising - I know there's only so much info that can be passed in an auction.)

If partner had overcalled 1NT, we end up in 3NT, obviously.

I had a partner at U of M who had an uncanny knack for bidding good 7-card fit games and slams and non-major games; this hand reminded me of him. His play and defense were sometimes suboptimal, but I enjoyed bidding with him because I ended up playing minor games, 5-2 minor slams, 4-3 major games, and once a 3NT in which we had discovered that we had 5-3 fits in BOTH majors and rejected them to find the only making game. I think he would have found the minor game on this hand, I'm just not sure quite how...