Dear Mr. Wolff: I recently picked up ? ---, ? Q-J-9-6-4-3, ? A-J-5-3, ? Q-7-2, no one vulnerable. The auction started one club from partner, followed by one diamond on my right. I bid one heart, only for the next player to bid four spades! I had no idea what to do when that came back to me. What do you think?

— Shape-suitable, Springfield, Massachusetts

Answer: I would definitely act, as we could easily be making a five-level contract or saving cheaply. Bidding five hearts would be an unacceptable gamble and five clubs would wildly overstate my support. I could bid four no-trump to offer two places to play, but I would rather double to show cards and keep all my options open.

Dear Mr. Wolff: Should raising partner’s fourth-suit forcing call be natural or something else?

— Default Bid, Little Rock, Arkansas

Answer: It may not always be best, but it is surely simplest to play that if you can have four cards in an unbid suit, a raise of fourth suit shows that you do. If you bypass a suit to deny four cards there, then raising fourth suit should show three and extra values.

Dear Mr. Wolff: We got a bad result on this board. I opened one club with ? A-4-3, ? A-K-10-4, ? 5-2, ? K-7-6-2, vulnerable against not. The next hand overcalled two diamonds, weak, and partner bid two spades. My right-hand opponent raised all the way to five diamonds and I doubled, collecting only 500 when we had 1430 available in six spades. My partner had ? K-Q-9-8-2, ? J-5, ? 9, ? A-Q-10-9-8. Where did we go wrong?

— Barrage, Ketchikan, Alaska

Answer: If you play that opener’s pass of five diamonds would be forcing (as I do), you should pass to suggest bidding on at this vulnerability, given your spade support. Your partner might bid six clubs then. Still, five diamonds doubled might have been the limit of the hand. No one did anything silly here.

Dear Mr. Wolff: What is meant by the term “false preference” and when might it rear its head?

— Game-going, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Answer: This is when opener rebids a second suit in an auction, such as one heart, one spade, two diamonds. Now responder ought to pass if he has three or four diamonds and two hearts and no hope of a game. If he has 8-10 points or so, he might want to keep the bidding alive in case opener has extra values and the best way to do that is to give false preference to two hearts.

Dear Mr. Wolff: My partner keeps on playing his card before the preceding player has followed. He should not be doing this, right?

— Breaking the Law, Great Falls, Montana

Answer: No, this is both inappropriate and impolite. It puts undue pressure on the opponents to play quickly. Worse still, the fourth player could legally follow to the trick before his partner did in this situation, thereby giving the second hand more information. Have a discreet word with your partner about this before your next game.

Contact Bobby Wolff at bobbywolff@mindspring.com.