Diamonds to Gold Deal 2

By: Larry Cohen

Diamonds to Gold Deal 2

On this second of 4 "Diamonds to Gold" Deals from Denmark, I thought Christmas had come in August. With both sides vulnerable, I held:

spades865
hearts--
diamondsAKQ853
clubs10964.
 
I didn't have a weak 2diamonds icon bid available in my system (this hand might be too good anyway), so I opened 1diamonds icon. LHO Doubled and my partner, David Berkowitz jumped to 4spades icon. Not 4hearts icon as one would expect (my void), but 4spades icon! How interesting.
 
I wondered how many hearts the opponents would bid and in turn, if I would go on to 5 or even 6 spades as a sacrifice (or maybe even to make). RHO bid 4NT for takeout. What should I do?

Rather than a direct 5spades icon, I decided to pass and await developments. The developments were shocking. LHO (the takeout doubler) bid 5diamonds icon, some sort of cue-bid, I supposed. David passed and RHO passed! They were in 5diamonds icon! Should I double? No way--I didn't want to chase them into hearts. This was the full deal:
 
Vul:Both
Dlr: East
? --
? Q973
? J942
? KJ532
 
? KQJ1042
? KJ1086
? --
? 87
 ? 865
? --
? AKQ853
? 10964
 ? A973
? A542
? 1076
? AQ
 
  West    North    East    South  
  1diamonds iconDouble
4spades icon4NTPass5diamonds icon
PassPassPass 
 
No, 5diamonds icon was not a cue-bid. I suppose South thought his partner had minors and chose the 3-card suit. North had no reason to remove it. David led the spades iconK and declarer played well to hold it to down 3, 300. This was actually not such a good result for us. Many tables in the event (including our teammates) went for a much bigger number (4hearts iconX down 1100 by our teammates).
 
Next time I suppose I should double instead of looking the gift horse in the mouth.