I did not enjoy this deal very much. I was sitting East and, since I had a strong clubs, decided not to raise partner in diamonds. Doing so might encourage him to sacrifice later, when I had good defence against a club contract. My partner led a heart against 5 C. How would you have played the contract? Declarer won with the heart ace. West’s advertised length in diamonds suggests that he will be short in clubs. The correct play in that suit is therefore to cash the king first. You can then pick up the suit when West has a singleton 10 or queen. Declarer chose to play the ace first. It now seems that he has one spade loser, one hearts loser and two further losers in the trump suit. Oh yes? He played the queen of hearts to my king and I returned a diamond, won with the ace. Declarer now cashed two top spades and ruffed a diamond. He then cashed the heart jack, throwing a spade, ruffed dummy’s last heart and ruffed a diamond. At this stage dummy’s last three cards were a losing spade and K-J of trumps. I sat over the dummy (with an impending feeling of doom) holding Q-10-8 of trumps. ‘Play the spade,’ said declarer. I had to ruff partner’s winner and lead into dummy’s trump tenace. Some days you wish you had stayed in bed! Partner doubles 3C for take-out.
What
will you say now?
Answer Even though game is not certain your way, you can hardly respond at the minimum level with 10 points and two four-card majors. You should aim for a major-suit game and the best response is a cue-bid of 4C. If partner bids 4H or 4S you will pass. If instead he bids 4D, you will bid 4H to indicate both majors. The problem with bidding 4H or 4S instead is that you may guess wrong when partner is 4-3 in the majors.
I did not enjoy this deal very much. I was sitting East and, since I had a strong clubs, decided not to raise partner in diamonds. Doing so might encourage him to sacrifice later, when I had good defence against a club contract. My partner led a heart against 5 C. How would you have played the contract? Declarer won with the heart ace. West’s advertised length in diamonds suggests that he will be short in clubs. The correct play in that suit is therefore to cash the king first. You can then pick up the suit when West has a singleton 10 or queen. Declarer chose to play the ace first. It now seems that he has one spade loser, one hearts loser and two further losers in the trump suit. Oh yes? He played the queen of hearts to my king and I returned a diamond, won with the ace. Declarer now cashed two top spades and ruffed a diamond. He then cashed the heart jack, throwing a spade, ruffed dummy’s last heart and ruffed a diamond. At this stage dummy’s last three cards were a losing spade and K-J of trumps. I sat over the dummy (with an impending feeling of doom) holding Q-10-8 of trumps. ‘Play the spade,’ said declarer. I had to ruff partner’s winner and lead into dummy’s trump tenace. Some days you wish you had stayed in bed! Partner doubles 3C for take-out. 
Even though game is not certain your way, you can hardly respond at the minimum level with 10 points and two four-card majors. You should aim for a major-suit game and the best response is a cue-bid of 4C. If partner bids 4H or 4S you will pass. If instead he bids 4D, you will bid 4H to indicate both majors. The problem with bidding 4H or 4S instead is that you may guess wrong when partner is 4-3 in the majors.