Your left-hand opponent deals and bids Three Clubs, both sides vulnerable, and your partner doubles. After your right-hand opponent passes, what would you bid with each of the following four hands?

1. Three hearts. Partner’s double is for takeout, so you cannot pass merely because you have a poor hand. The only real problem is whether to bid three hearts or three spades.

Three hearts is better even though your spades are slightly stronger. Bidding three hearts increases your chances of finding the best trump suit because it leaves partner room to bid three spades if he is so inclined, while three spades does not allow partner to bid hearts on the three-level. Occasionally that might result in losing a superior heart fit.

2. Four clubs. You have a game-going hand opposite a partner who almost surely has at least 14 points.

But rather than guess whether the best game (or slam) contract lies in hearts or spades, you force partner to choose the trump suit by cuebidding the enemy suit.

The four-club bid does not guarantee first-round control of clubs, but is better used in these circumstances to show game-going values with uncertainty as to which suit should be trump.

3. Three spades. The primary purpose of a pre-emptive bid is to make it difficult for the opponents to find their best contract. That is the case here, where you must choose whether to bid three diamonds or three spades.

Either bid could turn out right or wrong, so all you can do is try to judge which is more likely to prove successful in the long run. Most experts would probably bid three spades, contending that their partner is more apt to consider whether to carry on to game in spades (10 tricks) than in diamonds (11 tricks).

4. Four spades. Here you should bid what you think you can make. It would be dead wrong to bid only three spades, which is what you’d do with a hand containing much less — possibly even no values whatsoever. Your hand is certainly much better than that.

Furthermore, jumping to four spades might stir partner into bidding a slam if he has extra values. With something like

he would certainly act over a four-spade bid, but might even consider passing a three-spade response.

Tomorrow: How to capture a king.