[masonbarge]

North dealt, you are East. NS Vul (sorry the diagram is incorrect), EW Not-Vul, IMP pairs. You hold:

---

Bidding:

N 1♣
E Pass
S 3♣ - inverted minor raise
W Pass
N Pass
E ?

Do you balance and if so, with what?

[whereagles]

Pass, because the hand is too defensive. Loads of soft values, plus partner has 1-2 clubs and kept silent. Chances are he doesn't have much.

[wank]

doubling would be totally idiotic. that you bother to ask this question means you seriously need to reevaluate how often you're bidding in similar situations.

if your hand is the wrong shape to double 1c, how can you possibly have the right shape to double 3c for takeout with a silent partner? in fact, as it's impossible, double should really be penalties.

[whereagles]

wank, on 2015-February-02, 04:47, said:

if your hand is the wrong shape to double 1c, how can you possibly have the right shape to double 3c for takeout with a silent partner? in fact, as it's impossible, double should really be penalties.

It's really not that impossible, you know..?

[rmnka447]

Pass, not even close at IMPs.

[mikeh]

Pass

Of course, it may work out poorly, but in almost all situations, in bidding, it is possible that the 'best' call will turn out to be worse than some other option. One needs to acquire a way of thinking about these situations and then stick with it.


Here, opener will frequently hold a weak 1N type of hand, assuming that they play a strong 1N opener (if they don't, then I suggest that you provide this sort of information in the OP).

That means that the two sides will often hold about half the deck, but it also means that there is a fair chance they are on a 5-3 fit, and that your best fit is a 4-4 fit, hopefully spades.

But, there is NO assurance that this is so.

Partner could have a wide range of shapes, and we have no assurance of landing in a playable fit. Picture 2=5=4=2: yes, we'd like him to bid 3♦ but why should he? And we can hardly pass 3♥ since he could be 4=4=3=2, and so on.

We are very unlikely to make game. Partner, known to be short in clubs, is the one who should stretch to bid, even tho it is dangerous to do so sitting in front of the unlimited opener. When he passes, we can rule out any 12 count 4=4=4=1, and few other plausible hands give us game and many of the others leave us going down. Meanwhile, we have defence. While the LOTT is hardly infallible, it tends to word quite well on relatively balanced hands with split high card. If the opps are, as they often will be, in a 5-3 fit, then if we can make 9 tricks on offence, maybe we can make 5 on defence...and many times all 3-level contracts fail.

I wouldn't bid at mps, because I see defending as giving us a decent score more frequently than bidding: I think that we rate to have a better spot but we won't always reach it. At imps, the decision is very easy: pass.

[P_Marlowe]

Pass.

Simple rule: The one with shortage should act, if at all.
Your partner did not act, you dont have shortage, hence pass.

Second point: Just because one opponent did show a weak hand,
this does not make your hand stronger, or makes partners hand
stronger.

[wank]

whereagles, on 2015-February-02, 10:47, said:

It's really not that impossible, you know..?

no i don't. a hand with the right shape but too weak to act over 1c can act at the 2 level to protect, but it's too much at the 3 level imo.

[ahydra]

Woah, unanimous poll with 16 results!

ahydra

[aguahombre]

ahydra, on 2015-February-04, 06:47, said:

Woah, unanimous poll with 16 results!

ahydra

I am sure the reason there weren't more than 16 "unanimous" votes because a lot of us thought it was covered and didn't bother to pile on. But, I bet it wouldn't have been unanimous if we couldn't view the voters by name.

[MrAce]

aguahombre, on 2015-February-04, 09:42, said:

I am sure the reason there weren't more than 16 "unanimous" votes because a lot of us thought it was covered and didn't bother to pile on. But, I bet it wouldn't have been unanimous if we couldn't view the voters by name.

If you wrote this earlier, I would do my best to prove you wrong.