[Winstonm]

Scoring: IMP

Auction:

2♥P-P-?

2H is weak. What action do you take and what is your reasoning?

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[barmar]

In favor of defending: partner is almost certainly short in ♥, yet he didn't make a takeout double. And if you play a ♠ contract, how are you planning on dealing with your 3 ♥ losers? If you don't draw trumps, RHO will probably be able to overruff. Maybe you can get some discards with dummy's minors, but RHO may have a good enough hand to stop that.

Partner will probably overvalue his ♥ shortness when responding to you, not realizing that it's duplicated values.

[pclayton]

This I'll pass. Both pard and RHO have short hearts. With a decent 10-11, I expect pard to find a TOx of ♥. Can I make a game opposite one of these hands? Maybe, but I think that my EV is best if I just pass.

Good hand for a simulator

[P_Marlowe]

2S

I may regrett it, but I will regret it more,
if I Pass and 2S would have been right.

Marlowe

[Robert]

hello everyone

Pass. I have pretty fair defense to a 2H bid. Partner was supposed to bid with heart shortage. Maybe the 2H bidders partner passed because he has a heart shortage.

Partner does not have to credit you with this much 'stuff' when you balance in 4th seat over 2Hs.

At IMPs you often take a small plus rather than gamble for a possible minus. They are vulnerable so down two will beat any partscore and beating them one will break even most of the time.

Bidding 2Ss might get you to a part score or even a 4S game. It might also get you doubled if the 2H bidder passed because of his heart void. You are unlikely to get doubled in 2Ss, however, if partner pushes a bit, you could get doubled in 4Ss.

Was it Larry Cohen who passed out one of his partner's 'weak transfer' 2S bids with something like A AKxxx Axx Axxx He had seen his partner's 'weak' 2S bids before. An opponent balanced and was buried. A real worse case auction.

I rate to go plus defending 2Hs and hope that bidding leads to a minus score.

Regards,
Robert

[han]

My estimate is that pass is the percentage action.

[Fluffy]

I would first bid 2♠, then think if its right or wrong

[Free]

2♠, lets create some action on this board

[Kalvan14]

Pass. The hand can be tricky, and if pard has 4 spades, he is weak.
He does not have the strength/shape to bid a minor. at a guess, might have 3 spades, 1-2 hearts, and 8-9 cards in the minors.
Get your plus, and a good story to tell.

[beatrix45]

2♠, wtp? Partner is short in hearts, so he is a heavy favorite to have spade support. Plus, opposite:

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we have a game on a dummy reversal given 2-2 spades or 4-3 clubs with 3-1 spades.

[Winstonm]

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Partner's hand. (Acutally, my hand) Bad luck, bad bidding (us) or good bidding (them)?

[MickyB]

I reckon you are both just shy of taking action. Chalk it up to bad luck.

[Kalvan14]

N would have been stretching with a t/o double (replace 2 small with JT in ♠ , and he might act).
I stated that I would take the bird in hand, and I am not a results merchant.
Pard had the possibly only hand to justify a pass, and at the same time to make it possible to play 4♠ [which would still go down on a 0-4 spade break].

OK, you got a good story to tell

[khursun]

2S.

Lots of reasons. The hand has 31 ZAR points, one trick above a full opening hand (26 ZP to open, 5 ZP per level). Expect at worse to be down 1 (in which case 2H would have made). Also, hope opponents will go to 3H. Since LHO is long in hearts, would expect to happily finess RHO for spades. Also the 2S bid tells pard what to lead against 3HX.

And I would want to gripe at pard for passing with that incredibly gorgeous hand. It doesn't get much sweeter. Pard had 27 ZAR points (a full opening hand), a singleton in opponent's preempt suit, and very adequate support for any suit pard chooses.

West North East South
2♥     X      pass   4♠

A 3S response to the T/O double would show a circa 10 HCP hand, an inadequate response which risks missing a certain game. Of course, 4S also seems an inadequate response since ZAR strength predicts 11 tricks. South has lots to consider in how to bid slam.

Without the preempt, these two hands have a biddable 6♠ slam, prospects of only one club loser. The preempt helps tremendously in the play of the hand since it warns of bad break in trumps and warns of East heart ruff risk.

[Al_U_Card]

Is pard unhappy with his support for the unbid suits? I don't blame the p/o bidder for having trouble deciding when I would expect my pard to dbl with that hand. The shape is good. The honor placement is good. The H shortness means that pard may not balance if he has H cards so with no dbl from pard I would just bid 2S and get ready to win the H lead and then try to not go down too much...

[beatrix45]

Partner's hand. (Acutally, my hand)  Bad luck, bad bidding (us) or good bidding (them)?

Assigning blame for this fiasco? Your partner 100%, you 0%. Sure, you might have made a very aggressive T.O. double, but so what?

The opponents didn't do anything except bid their cards. Passing 2♥ is not insane as a means of creating (for tactical reasons) a swing board, IMO, but when the test tube breaks, the charge goes to the mad scientist sitting opposite.

[000002]

The more cards we hold in the opp's suit , less cards(opportunity) fit on "our" suit.
I reckon that a 8cards fit (almost ♠)more frequency than 9cards fit, and 2♠ balanced bidding is dangerous to encourage partner's 3♣or 3♦ bid with 11HCPs & 6cards suit.

OFCZ, we'll lose a game sometimes ,even as a♠ slam .