[Stephen Tu]

Scoring: MP

---

You hold this hand as South at favorable vul, matchpoints.
Bidding:
1♣-(dbl)-1♠-(p);
4♠-(5H)-?

What's your call & why?

[mike777]

5S

Dislike to defend with a void. Trust my vul opp.

Expect partner to be 4225 or 4216??

[pbleighton]

6S, because I am feeling unreasonable optimistic today

Peter

[P_Marlowe]

5S

Unless South is a lunatic, he goes at most
1 down, nothing in the bidding and in my hand
is an indication that he is a luncatic.

I wish I would playing IMP's.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[awm]

Pass... I think this is a forcing pass situation, especially if playing splinters. After partner's expected double I will bid 5♠ as a slam try.

[mike777]

awm, on Nov 5 2006, 03:18 PM, said:

Pass... I think this is a forcing pass situation, especially if playing splinters. After partner's expected double I will bid 5♠ as a slam try.

Why is this a forcing pass? Is this really pretty standard?

[awm]

Well what does partner have? He opened the bidding with 1m, so he's not bidding 4♠ as some kind of "preemptive" call on a potential eight-card fit where doubler implied length in the suit. In principle he could have some weakish 5-6 in the blacks hand, but doesn't that splinter over 1♠? Or he could have some 4-6 or 4-7 in the blacks hand, but those also splinter or bid 4♣.

This sequence shows something like 19 balanced with a four-card fit for spades. It's a voluntarily bid game on points rather than shape, with the intent to make. We also have guaranteed the majority of the values (19 opposite 5 or whatever). Why wouldn't this be a forcing pass?

[whereagles]

5♠. Got offensive power to that level.

[neilkaz]

The vul 5♥ bidder must have a hand that is too good to overcall 1♥ or his bidding makes no sense. If he had nothing much outide of ♥ he'd just have bid 4♥.

With this in mind, I suspect PD has some distribution and felt 4♠ had decent chances. However, I think trying for slam is a bit too optimistic, so I just bid 5♠ and let the chips fall where they may.

.. neilkaz ..

[P_Marlowe]

mike777, on Nov 5 2006, 03:20 PM, said:

awm, on Nov 5 2006, 03:18 PM, said:

Pass... I think this is a forcing pass situation, especially if playing splinters. After partner's expected double I will bid 5♠ as a slam try.

Why is this a forcing pass? Is this really pretty standard?

It certainly is not forcing pass, our rules regarding
forcing pass are fairly agressive, but the given seq.
would not be covered.

4S may simply be based on shape.
And even if Pass would be forcing, I simply dont want
to defend.
Either it makes, or the oppoenetns already have won the
board through their bidding.
In case of IMP scoring 5S would even be clearer.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[cherdano]

P_Marlowe, on Nov 6 2006, 12:13 AM, said:

mike777, on Nov 5 2006, 03:20 PM, said:

awm, on Nov 5 2006, 03:18 PM, said:

Pass... I think this is a forcing pass situation, especially if playing splinters. After partner's expected double I will bid 5♠ as a slam try.

Why is this a forcing pass? Is this really pretty standard?

It certainly is not forcing pass, our rules regarding
forcing pass are fairly agressive, but the given seq.
would not be covered.

Well it's good you have clear rules for your partnership, but I think this is clearly forcing in standard. As Adam said, 4♠ is usually a balanced or semi-balanced hand in the 19-21 range. Otherwise, you splinter, or bid 4♣ with 6-4 in the black suits.

Quote

And even if Pass would be forcing, I simply dont want
to defend.

Of course not. Like Adam, I am passing, then pulling partner's expected double to 5♠ to invite partner to bid 6♠.

[Robert]

Hi everyone

I play that pass 'asks' partner to double and double* is forward going in high level auctions. Double* for me here. If partner has a heart stack(or wasted) heart values and he wants to defend 'after' hearing me suggest bidding higher, there should be blood on the table.

I am playing partner for 18+-19 balanced HCP. Did he really forget that we play splinters? With long clubs and four card support, he should bid 4C to indicate his hand type.

I am all in favor of trusting the other pair, howeve, some people do take 'gambles.'
If partner is passing my forward going double of 5Hs, they could have taken their life in their hands and found that the parachute is not(repeat not) working.

This is certainly a forcing pass situation by my standards. Partner holds @19HCP balanced and I hold my promised minimum in HCP 'plus' some extra shape.

Regards,
Robert

[flytoox]

5S is more than enough. Pd may have a hand for slam, but if he has it he will bid it. I will be happy if i can make 5S.

[HeartA]

I am not sure if 5S is enough or not. But I bidding it anyway.

[Codo]

For those who think, that pd has 19-21 balanced: If I add my 6 HCPs, we reach 25-27 HCP. That leaves 13-15 for the opponents. Quite unlikely, that this will produce a hand thast is too strong for a direct Heart bid but strong enough for X and then 5 Heart in unfav. vul. So pd has distibutional values but surely less then 19 HCPs.
I believe, that he has some 5-5 hand in the blacks but does not want to search for a slmam because his hand is not strong enough.
So 5 Spade is clear cut and more then enough.

[keylime]

5S from me. Do NOT defend with a void here.

[mikeh]

keylime, on Nov 6 2006, 02:38 AM, said:

5S from me. Do NOT defend with a void here.

I don't think anyone is seriously thinking of defending: the question seems to be whether slam is worth investigating. My vote is no: I have a lot of ♦ losers to get rid of and something tells me the suits are not splitting. So 5♠ for me: who knows? Maybe LHO will think that the auction is forcing on him And I will get doubled, to stop rho from bidding on... now... do I redouble???

[Apollo81]

Pass is clearly forcing in this auction. I would have made a slam try without the 5♥ bid, so I will do the same now. Pass then 5♠ for me.

If I had to guess what everyone has (not necessary) I'd guess KQxx xxx A AQJxx or something like it for pard. I wouldn't splinter on that hand... That still leaves --- AKQxxxx KJxx Kx for RHO, consistent with his sequence.

[cherdano]

Codo, on Nov 6 2006, 09:18 AM, said:

For those who think, that pd has 19-21 balanced: If I add my 6 HCPs, we reach 25-27 HCP. That leaves 13-15 for the opponents. Quite unlikely, that this will produce a hand thast is too strong for a direct Heart bid but strong enough for X and then 5 Heart in unfav. vul. So pd has distibutional values but surely less then 19 HCPs.
I believe, that he has some 5-5 hand in the blacks but does not want to search for a slmam because his hand is not strong enough.
So 5 Spade is clear cut and more then enough.

If he has that hand, he will bid 5♠ over our forcing pass, so this can hardly be a reason against passing.