Let’s assume that West is of the persuasion that there’s nothing wrong with opening 1NT with a 5-card major.  Let’s further suppose that he is not even fazed by having a really super-duper 5-card major, as here.  That being so, should West open 1NT with that 17-count?  We don’t think so, it seems altogether too good … 3 Aces, 3 Tens, and a maximum point count.  This surely takes the hand into the 18-19 range, so West opens 1♠.

After West’s (forcing) 3♥, what do the various East bids mean?

-         4♥: Shows support, of course, but how good?  Three small or honor doubleton would both be good enough.

-         3♠: No Heart support worth mentioning and something in Spades.  Qxx would be about minimum, we would say, though JTx or Qx would be tempting.  The implication is that East does not have anything in Clubs, because of the failure to bid 3NT.

-         3NT: This would tend to deny a Spade stopper, may or may not have something in Clubs, possibly a bid of convenience.

So, if those are the guidelines, East has an obvious 3♠ bid.

West is advised not to sell out to 3♦ and has a choice between doubling and trying 3♠.  The Double seems more likely to work out well, as it keeps more irons in the fire … for example East might be 2-5 in the majors or might be able to pass the Double and extract a penalty.  Not that Double will always work well.  It’s quite possible that East will be 3-4 in the majors, but even then the 4-3  Heart fit should play quite well (with the enemy Diamonds being ruffed in the short hand).  Also, horror of horrors, East might be 3-3 and will experience the joys of playing in a 3-3 Heart fit instead of a 5-3 Spade fit.

Opposite an overcall, a hand with 3-card support and an Ace and two Kings is usually worth a game-invitational raise, but not with this East hand.  The negatives are (a) The K♦ is under the Diamond bidder; (b) The hand is square; (c) The trumps are rotten.  So East contents himself with just 2♠.

A jump to 2♠ here would show game-invitational values, and, no great surprise here, 1♠ would be something less than that.  But what about 3♠?  Yes, that shows this hand!  A six-card suit, and a smattering of values.  You might gives this hand an extra King or Queen and it would still be a 3♠ bid, but any more than that and it would be worth taking a shot at game.

South’s Double was lead-directing, and when West completes the transfer (where Pass was also an option) he shows 3-card Spade support.  Over to North.  What a terrific hand in the circumstances!  There’s that 4-card Heart support … a singleton in the enemy suit … a good 5-card side-suit … and minor suit honors that are likely to be well-placed.  North might consider going directly to game but that would be over the top, South might have made her lead-directing Double on KQTxx and out.

In standard methods there is no game try in Hearts available here but consider what use you and your partner have for a 2NT bid in this situation.  None, we suspect, as it’s hard to believe that a natural 2NT serves any useful purpose.  That being the case, consider using 2NT as a game-try in Hearts.

After 2♣, South has her sights firmly set on a Club slam.  She starts out with a Fourth Suit Forcing bid of 2♠, then agrees Clubs.  North’s 3♦ showed a Diamond card and, more importantly, a hand that was perhaps less than thrilled about playing in No Trump.  South is almost good enough to charge straight to slam, but there is still the possibility that N-S are missing two Key Cards.  Of course, using 4NT here for Roman Key Card would be somewhat futile, especially when playing 1430 responses … if North has no Key Cards she will respond 5♦ and the partnership will be out of its depth.  A better method is to use Minorwood … the auction is game-forcing … Clubs have been agreed … 4♣ has no other obvious purpose, and will allow a cheap way of asking for Key Cards.

What does Double mean here?  Anyone for Snapdragon?  Here are the prerequisites:

-         Three suits have been bid at the one-level

-         We have 5+ cards in the unbid suit

-         We also have tolerance for Partner’s suit (tolerance typically being defined as honor doubleton or 3 small).

That’s perfect for the North hand!  Her hand is not good enough to bid 2♥ directly, so she makes a Snapdragon Double, planning to compete later to 3♦ if Partner cannot support Hearts.

First of all, let’s imagine that South has just bid 3♦.  We look at our hand and see that we would like to invite game.  No problem!  We can cue-bid 3♥, expressing our game interest and leaving the final decision to Partner.  But that cue-bid option is not available in this auction.  Should West just guess whether to bid 3♠ or 4♠?  He could, but a better solution is to play Maximal Doubles in this situation.  Using this convention, the Double here is a substitute for a game-try cue-bid.  The ingredients for the Double are:

-         Our side has agreed a major

-         Their side has just completed to three of the suit directly below our major

South decided that her hand was worth a limit raise in Spades … it’s only 9 points but a couple of Aces and a good 5-card suit must count for something.  By a passed hand, many pairs use Drury here, whereby 2♣ (and sometimes 2♦ also) shows game-invitational values.  Let’s face it, if Partner has made one of her infamous light third-seat openings, we would much rather play at the two-level (via Drury) that at the three-level via the standard methods opposite a first- or second- seat opening.

2♣ was Drury, a device used by passed hands to show values and a fit for Opener’s major.  What’s your plan?  At this vulnerability, surely we intend to play in 4♠ or 5♦, sacrificing against their Spade game.  How about 2♠, which would still be Michaels, showing Spades and a minor?  That’s a possibility, but West can do better than that.  He bids 2♦ first, then bids 4♠ when the opponents bid their inevitable Heart game.  This sequence shows longer Diamonds than Spades, probably 6-5.  Perfect!

Here’s another gadget, the Impossible Spade.  West’s 1NT denied 4 Spades, so the next time around he had no use for a natural 2♠.  The common treatment for 2♠ in this auction is for it to show a really good raise to 3♣.  Does West’s hand really qualify?  Marginal, we would say, and he only has 4 Clubs (remember, East might have just 3 in this auction).  A reasonable alternative to 2♠ would be 2NT.

We like East’s 3♠ bid!  This is a case of East bidding what he’s got and letting West decide what to do.  East paints a clear picture of a man without anything in Diamonds, and that prompts West to bid the only making game of 5♣.

First of all, would you have opened the West hand with 2♣?  That might work out just fine (there’s certainly enough playing strength), but with two-suiters it’s often a good idea to start bidding suits right away.  Also, consider the perils of this auction:

            2♣       2♦

            2♥       3♣

2♦ was waiting, 3♣ was a second negative.  Yikes!  It’s now a bit late for West to start introducing his Club suit.

On to the actual situation.  West has wisely opened 1♥ and has gotten a raise from Partner.  Would you:

-         Leap majestically to 5♦ thereby demonstrating that you are intimately familiar with the modern-day miracle of Exclusion Key Card (but discovering nothing useful from Partner’s response)?

-         Show some common sense by splintering with 4♦ and asking Partner’s opinion (and thereby zipping into the excellent slam)?

Your choice.

We submit to you that this is the rebid problem from hell.  You would get votes for 1♠, 2♣, 2♦ and 3♦, but we’ll bet that none of those will be enthusiastic votes.  We further submit (perhaps more controversially) that West would never have got himself into this abominable pickle if he had made the correct opening bid.  Yes, of course, you were wondering, just as we were, why West didn’t solve all problems by opening the hand 1NT.

East has various ways to bid his hand:

-         Open 2♣ and rebid 2♥: This hand does not have enough playing strength to insist on game.  Also, bidding that way risks losing the 4-4 Spade fit.  So, scratch that off the list.

-         Open 2NT: That could work, but with 4-5 in the majors there’s the danger that a major suit might be missed (even playing Puppet).

-         Open 2♣ and rebid 2NT: East might like the No Trump approach and feel that his hand is too good for a 20-21 opener.  So he goes via 2♣ to show a bit more.

-         Open 1♥: Yes, this is the perfect bid.  Perfect, that is, if the auction does not now go “Pass, Pass, Pass”.  If that fate is avoided then East has every expectation of getting to the right place.