Misinformation
Teams of 8: Tolle (X-IMP scoring).
(At least one contributor to this forum has already seen this hand with slightly different information, but these are the correct facts as I now understand them).
Game all, dealer W. E holds:
!s 873
!h 1075
!d Q874
!c K86
W opens 1 !s , playing Precision, so 5+ cards, <16 HCP.
N overcalls 2 !h and you elect to pass
S bids 2NT, alerted as a good 4-card raise to at least 3 !h
W bids 3 !c
N bids 3NT, alerted as a slam try (I believe without a shortage, but I have not been able to check this for certain)
S signs off in 4 !h , which comes back to you.
Do you take any action in the pass-out seat?
I'll reveal the nature of the misinformation in due course: the information given is the correct (and documented) statement of the pair's agreements.
Comments
I bid 4 spades probably 50% of the time
My thinking being that partner cant have many H losers and probable double fit in S and C (at least 5-3 and 4-3 fits)
50% of the time I think they have missed a slam and pass
Pass. Partner might only have 11 HCP (but could have 15 HCP). The 3NT by North seems a bit odd so I think they might have a spade cover (they have at most 24 HCP, unless partner has been telling me lies). So we could lose too many tricks if doubled. Whilst I hold the King of Clubs I don't think it is enough of an "extra" to show partner. Green against Red then I would bid 4 spades.
CMOT Dibbler
Chief TD of the Ankh-Morpork Bridge Club, I presume?
When conducting polls in misinformation cases, it is more important to establish what a player would have done with the correct information, rather worry about what they did do when misinformed.
I pass, 4-3-3-3 hands aren't very good offenisvely and if North hasn't a shortage we may be able to cash 4 tricks in the black suits. This was after some thought.
Nah! I just do the snacks and drinks at half-time.
CMOT-Dibbler
Yes, I realise that we don't give much credence to the "you should have got it right even with the duff info you had" argument. For what it's worth, however, this is what had happened.
In fact, RHO had forgotten that 2NT was a raise, so did not alert it. He bid 3NT as a raise of NT rather than a slam try in the heart fit he didn't know he had. Now things got a bit messy, because LHO didn't alert 3NT. I don't know whether this was because he had got the "don't alert over 3NT" rule wrong, or whether he was trying to be helpful and reasoned that if partner hadn't alerted 2NT, then 3NT wasn't intended as having a meaning that fell into an alertable category, notwithstanding the agreement.
At the end of the auction S said "I possibly should have alerted my partner's 3NT and he definitely should have alerted my 3NT". Explanations of the agreement were forthcoming, but everybody forgot that E should be offered his last pass back.