A SELECTION OF SIX-HEART CONTRACTS

Last month, my wife and I were playing online at bridgebase.com against robots (computer-controlled opponents). We had a very rare occurrence, bidding to six hearts on three consecutive deals. Each was interesting, starting with the one in today's diagram.

I like strong jump shifts to the two-level, but keep them narrowly defined. The responder has either a strong one-suiter or a good two-suiter (opener’s suit and the suit in which responder jumps). In principle, the point range is 12-16: sufficient to insist on game, but asking opener to decide on slam.

Look at the North hand. Given that introduction, assuming you open one diamond, what would you rebid after partner responds two hearts?

I was not fond of rebidding three diamonds with such a weak suit. If partner had a heart one-suiter, my queen-doubleton was acceptable support. I might have rebid two notrump to see what partner did (but that would have promised 15-plus points in our system because we use the weakno-trump opening that shows 12-14 points). At the time, I bid three hearts.

Now partner rebid four diamonds, which I thought was at least fourcard support. Since we seemed to have a good double fit, I control-bid five clubs. This persuaded my partner to jump to six hearts. Understandably, she expected me to have better diamonds.

West led the club three: ace, eight, 10. Immediately, declarer played two rounds of diamonds. West, guided by partner’s unwise clubeight signal, led another club, so we made the slam.

One other pair bid (and made) six hearts after North passed, and South opened two clubs!