My first underbid

 

I was playing a few boards with my father on BBO the other day… Here was my hand:

♠ 2

♥ K104

♦ KQ9432

♣ Q75

Nice hand…  10 HCP, 6 card suit, singleton.  Not as strong as the last hand I picked up that I didn’t get to play because we lost an opponent and the remaining one switched seats to see his partners cards and we had to skip the deal… but an interesting hand none-the-less.

So my father opens the bidding with 1 heart.    Nice!  We have a heart fit.  I have a really nice hand, and I want to show my shape.  I could bid 3♥  right away to show him our heart fit.  Or I could choose to delay showing our fit and bid my diamonds…  I’m not sure what steered me to that decision, but I opted to say 2♦.  So now LHO chimes in with 2♠ to which my father jumped to 4♣.  The bidding thus far has gone:

 

West	North (Me)	East	South (Dad)
–	–	–	1♥
Pass	2♦	2♠	4♣
Pass	?

 

At this point, I’m looking at my hand.  I like my hand — shortness in the opponents suit, fits with dad in both of his suits, a long strong diamond suit as a bonus.  So here’s the kicker  — I sign off in 4♥. 

Huh?

After I clicked the button I realized I had made a mistake.  When Dummy came down I apologized immediately – yes, I was afraid of that.  Sorry partner!  Only -4 imps, but I should have known better…  Actually, I did know better, but I clicked too fast and the possibility of looking for slam didn’t occur to me until it was too late.

For your interest, the full hand is shown below.  With no system, with only sayc as your convention, I wonder what the optimal bidding (on all 4 players) should have been…  

 

Dealer: South Vul: All		North
		♠	2
		♥	K104
		♦	KQ9432
		♣	Q75
West				East
♠	Q543			♠	AK109876
♥	9852			♥	Q
♦	875			♦	J6
♣	63			♣	J94
		South
		♠	J
		♥	AJ763
		♦	A10
		♣	AK1082

 

 The f inal result:  The opponents failed to lead a spade and we wrapped up 4♥ plus 3.