[FrancesHinden]

Scoring: IMP

1♠ P P ?

---

Well?

[pbleighton]

Pass. Pd has to have the perfect passed hand for us to have game, and my pds never do.

Not vul, or at MPs, I might bid 2D. Vul at IMPs, I don't strain to compete for partscores.

Peter

[jillybean]

pass, bidding here gets me into trouble more often than not

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

I would pass.

Due to a lack of a bid,
which would get both minors in
the picture.
NT is out, X is out, and 2D does
not really appeal to me.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[brianshark]

No reason to think declaring is better than defending. Pass.

[hrothgar]

Simple hand, really painful decision.

I am reluctantly going to base, because any bid that I make is likely to put us in a lot worse spot than defending 1♠.

If I double, partner is going to bid Hearts
If I balance with 1NT, partner is going to show Hearts
If I bid Diamonds, partner is going to expect a suit

Give me a stiff Heart and I'd be willing to gamble 1N. As is, I'm passing.
If I were forced to bid with the given hand, I probably bid 1NT

[whereagles]

Pass.

This is almost a textbook example of judgement call: pard is short in spades, yet he didn't double. He must be weakish and you should thus pass. To act here is to give LHO a chance to bid his hearts. It wouldn't be surprising to see it go

(1♠) pass (pass) 2♦
(2♥) 3♦ (4♥) ??

[HeartA]

Another pass here.

[gwnn]

I have 4 gorgeous trumps and no real offensive values (♣A and ♦K are roughly of the same value in off/def.) - pass is most obvious

[pclayton]

Auto pass. Weak diamonds and strong spades. Where's our plus position if I bid?

And where are the hearts?

[jikl]

Pass here also.

Sean

[pbleighton]

Frances:

Well?

Peter

[Walddk]

Pass without much thought. It's usually wrong to sell out at the 1-level; this hand is a perfect example of the exception to the rule.

Roland

[FrancesHinden]

whereagles, on Nov 22 2006, 05:31 PM, said:

Pass.

This is almost a textbook example of judgement call: pard is short in spades, yet he didn't double. He must be weakish and you should thus pass. To act here is to give LHO a chance to bid his hearts. It wouldn't be surprising to see it go

(1♠) pass (pass) 2♦
(2♥) 3♦ (4♥) ??

Ah, well, yes and no...

---

It's true the opponents are making 9 tricks in hearts.
However after the opening bid and the pass, you will make 12 tricks in diamonds.

Table 1 (our team NS):

1S P P P
NS + 200

Table 2 (our team EW):
1S P 1NT 2D
2H 3D 4H all pass

NS + 100

3 imps in

[gwnn]

IF you realize LHO has KQ doubleton. (you don't really know about RHO's QJ of hearts, do you?)

[Walddk]

FrancesHinden, on Nov 23 2006, 11:35 AM, said:

---

Table 1 (our team NS):

1S P P P
NS + 200

Passing the East hand is a major crime and at the table where he responded 1NT, I don't understand the 2♦ overcall on K9xxx. You don't require much of a suit for a 2-level overcall in England it seems.

It deserves to go for 800 against nothing.

Roland

[whereagles]

Walddk, on Nov 23 2006, 09:45 AM, said:

I don't understand the 2♦ overcall on K9xxx. You don't require much of a suit for a 2-level overcall in England it seems.

It deserves to go for 800 against nothing.

Not really. Pard is marked with short spades and thus should have some support for diamonds.

Statistically, that is

[Walddk]

whereagles, on Nov 23 2006, 12:03 PM, said:

Not really. Pard is marked with short spades and thus should have some support for diamonds.

I disagree. It is much more likely that responder is short in spades after his 1NT. It is perfectly normal to see spades divided the way they were at the table. 3 with North, 1 with East.

Roland

[Blofeld]

Walddk, on Nov 23 2006, 04:45 AM, said:

Passing the East hand is a major crime and at the table where he responded 1NT, I don't understand the 2♦ overcall on K9xxx. You don't require much of a suit for a 2-level overcall in England it seems.

I think this is a little unfair on the English ... say rather that some people don't require much for a two level overcall; I'm English and it wouldn't even occur to me.

On the balancing problem I pass, on balance.

[FrancesHinden]

Walddk, on Nov 23 2006, 10:45 AM, said:

Passing the East hand is a major crime and at the table where he responded 1NT, I don't understand the 2♦ overcall on K9xxx. You don't require much of a suit for a 2-level overcall in England it seems.

It deserves to go for 800 against nothing.

Roland

While I agree with your sentiments, it's only fair to observe that
i) the players who passed the East hand and overcalled 1NT with 2D were not on my team.
ii) We gained 89 IMPs in the first 14 boards of this match so it's probably a valid conclusion that this team are not entirely representative of expert English bidding.

(this hand came up in the top division of our local league. the difficulty with the league is that the county doesn't have a huge amount of strength in depth so while the league has 7 teams, there are basically 5 who can play bridge plus the 2 who were promoted from the second division, lose all their matches heavily and then get demoted again. I don't set the conditions so this isn't my fault!)