[Wackojack]

Scoring: MP

Bidding:
S W N E
p 1♦ 3♥ dble
3♠4♠ p 6♠
dble p p p

Lead 2♠

---

My partner would expect me to open 1♠ with 5-5, but I was concerned about my rebid if partner responded 2♥. So I decided to to treat my spades as a 4 card suit and open 1♦. Comments please?

When my partner doubled the 3♥ bid, I alerted, then remembering the new EBU ruling before East bid, said "sorry no this is not alertable now". South a young man smiled and said that it depended on partner's hand and I nodded. After the auction finished, I asked North what the 3 spade bid meant. She said that she would have expected it to be a spade suit and a heart fit but in the light of my bidding didn't know.

In the light of the double do you still make the odds play of Q♠ or not? I got the impression that South liked the poker aspects of bridge. I did not make the makeable contract.

At the time my partner thought it was a good slam and I did not. My approx calcs:
Chance of making = Not losing 2 spadesx((losing 1 spadex 0.5)+losing no spades)
= (1-3/16)(9x.5/16 + 4/16) = 43% My guess is that the plus of a gift is offset by the minus possibility of a ruff.

[mike777]

I do not understand your system that you are playing. You cannot open 1s and rebid 3d if partner's first response is 2H?

Is there a British teaching bridge bidding book that tells you in your system that you must open 1D with this hand? Can you cite the book and page?

[pbleighton]

"I do not understand your system that you are playing. You cannot open 1s and rebid 3d if partner's first response is 2H?"

If you are playing 2/1 forcing for one round, and 1S-2H-3D is a GF opposite a possible 10 count (do Brits still make 2/1 responses with 9 counts?), some wouldn't want to GF on a 13 count with a void in pd's 5+ card suit.

That said, I would open 1S, playing Standard American, and worry about a bad 3NT contract later.

Peter

[Wackojack]

mike777, on Aug 19 2006, 09:03 AM, said:

I do not understand your system that you are playing.  You cannot open 1s and rebid 3d if partner's first response is 2H?

Is there a British teaching bridge bidding book that tells you in your system that you must open 1D with this hand?  Can you cite the book and page?

We were playing 5-card major with a 15-17 no trump. (A 2/1 response would normally be 10+). As I said we would normally open 1♠ with 5 diamonds and 5 spades. However, I considered that if I opened 1♠ and got the expected response of 2♥, a rebid of 3♦ does not look attractive. You say I cannot do this, so are you agreeing with me? The text books, I assume, say open 1♠ with 5-5. (Indeed we have agreed that 1♦-1♥-1♠-any-2♠ would show 6 diamonds and 5 spades simply by virtue of diamonds being opened first) But because the spades were very weak and the diamonds strong, I decided rightly or wrongly to treat the hand as though it had 4 spades only. I asked for comments to find out if others would or would not do the same. Your post sheds no light on this for me. I am afraid I do not understand the point you were trying to make.

[mike777]

I try and shed light by hopefully asking pertinent questions that lead to more knowledge.....

[Wackojack]

Quote"You cannot open 1s and rebid 3d if partner's first response is 2H?"

Sorry Mike I didn't hear the voice inflection revealing the heavy irony in your statement above when I was posting. I just took it as read. Now I know where you are coming from.

[Codo]

I had opened 1 Spade and had no fear from 2 Heart. But I think, that you must have tools to show this hand, so I always force my pds, that I can rebid 2 Spade after there bid to show the weak hand (11-14 HCPS). So the bidding would be:
1 Spade 2 Heart 2 Spade 2 NT 3 Diamond.... But I agree, that horrible things can happen- like a 3 Heart bid instead of 2 NT from pd.

I dislike the slam, but I had played the spades in a normal way, trying to have no looser. If that fails, I need the diamond finesse too work.
Seems to be slightly more then 50 %, at least before they doubled...

[mr1303]

I stopped in 5♠, and double finessed. I decided that had I been in 6, I would have taken the safety play, but thought that I should try the matchpoints line to try and make as many as possible.

They did overcall 4H at my table, and bid 5H over 4S as well.