[pclayton]

I'm past the point of always making a 'disciplined' pass in these circumstances. If we get balanced into game and there is new information about the hand that is made evident by the opponents balancing call and partner's subsequent action, then I'll bid the game and happily take the charge if I'm wrong.

In a KO match, bidding games like this can have a detreimental effect on the opponents morale. Unfortunately, games bid in this fashion get doubled 'on principle' quite often.

Pard's actual hand fits this auction. I don't like a superaccept with such soft values, but a push to 3♠ looks OK. Richard, I'm not sure I'd take the same infererence about pard's heart cards on this sequence, or even the dub diamond, but NP.

The 10♥ makes the game playable, and its barely acceptable NV. Pard would make the same 3♠ call without the 10 spot, and game is really a dog then. Of all the cards that are a little dissapointing, its the ♠Q which doesn't pull its weight. Exchange it for the ♥J and game is better.

At the end of the day, you are NV. Your WC pard probably picked up 3 IMPs by taking the push, so lets respect his judgement and pass.

[Al_U_Card]

Could the auction (up to 3D at least) occur if the transfer hand had, say, 0 or 1 or 2 hcp? I think that 3S dbld would go for quite a bit unless pard has the magic hand that he has just shown (but didn't happen to have.....some expert) When you bid pard's hand, make sure that you are bidding what he SHOULD have and not what he needs to have to make your gamble pay off.