[sceptic]

Hi all,

I elected not to open this hand, I do open light but I am trying to open hands that have a rebid if I do, so this one I decided was an easy pass (taking spots into consideration)

I have a few questions

1/. Do you agree with my decision not to open?

2/. Is my next bid Jacoby 2NT in this position as a passed hand (my pard took it as such) bidding their shortage at the next opportunity

3/. I was tempted to bid 4hearts as a sign off, BUT, all of a sudden with my club holding against a shortage, I felt my hand increased in value, so I bid 3 Spades as a 1st 2nd round control, Do you agree or what would you do?

4/. What do you think my pard was thinking as I was a passed hand and I was bidding strongly

Scoring: IMP

---

West North East South

 -     Pass  Pass  1♥
 Pass  2NT   Pass  3♣
 Pass  3♠    Pass  4♥
 Pass  Pass  Pass  

[hrothgar]

Comment 1: Nothing wrong with the decision to pass in first seat, so long as your partner is on the same wavelength. I would definitely pass playing 2/1 and probably pass playing standard.

Comment 2: Most pairs pairs don't define the jump to 2NT by a passed hand as "Jacoby" 2NT. (It is, however, often used a mixed raise showing 4+ card support). The reason that i mention this is that the the partnership's repsonse structure over the mixed raise will often differ dramatically from that used over Jacoby 2N. Personally, I think that this hand is too strong for a mixed raise - I'd start with some form of Drury.

Comment 3: Assuming that 3♣ showed shortage, your hand revalues enormously. A cuebid is certainly warranted.

[han]

1. Whether you open this hand or not is as much a partnership understanding as a matter of judgements. However, I do not understand your arguments against opening. This hand has NO rebid problems, and it has two tens. How many spotcards do you expect on average? When opening light I consider this a clear opening. When opening mainstream it is close. A former face to face partner would open fairly sound but *always* with 3 quick tricks. I don't agree, the AK doubleton is not an attractive holding, and you have nothing in your two longest suits.

2. Again a matter of partnership understanding. If your partner opens light in 3rd seat then it should be possible to stop in 3H, which is not possible in the standard Jacoby 2NT structure. Something to discuss...

3. You did well not to sign off. Given that you have a passed hand and no shortness (which your partner knows), your hand couldn't be any better! You have to cuebid here. However, it wouldn't occur to me to bypass diamonds, why on earth would you cuebid spades first. You've got diamonds well under control I'd say.

4. Your partner's bids make sense. Slam is very unlikely opposite a passed hand, but perhaps you have the perfect hand. After you chose the cuebid spades instead of diamonds (the suit partner really wanted to hear about!) it seems right to sign off.


You did wel to snif at slam with these hands, but your auction wasn't quite perfect imo. Slam goes down as the cards lie, but it seems a decent one.

[EricK]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with your pass. The fact that you would be bidding your weakest suits is a big negative factor. Of course once you have passed, your hand becomes massive. As long as you don't force the bidding too high, you should definitely bid strongly.

If partner is not in the habit of opening light in 3rd seat then you can play 2NT as a maximum pass with 4♥ (so similar to Jacoby). If partner does open light then you should probably bid Drury with this hand.

You were certainly right to look for a slam. Your hand could hardly be better at this point. Your correct bid was 3♦ however.

Your partner was probably thinking that neither of you had a ♦ control so quickly signed off in game.

[luke warm]

i'd have passed that hand also, unless playing a weak nt... 2nt should be limit in hearts... i'd expect 3♣ to be a real suit, in which case we have a double fit and i'd bid 3♦

probably it's better to look into using drury here, cause partner could have a real dog