[jillybean]

Scoring: IMP

(p) P (1♥) ?

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Is this a clear 4♠ bid?

ty

[whereagles]

Not at all. Being NV vs V, there is a case for more action, like 5♠ or some sort of psyche.

However, if you like being bureaucratic, 4♠ stands a mile

[neilkaz]

I bid 4♠ all day long here and regardless of vul.

[the hog]

Yes Kathryn. I'd bid 4S any day of the week, even if vulnerable.

[Walddk]

To me it is. A 6-loser hand non-vul against vul. It may not make, and opps may not make 4♥, but you need to put full pressure on. Maybe they will misjudge.

If 3♠ is all you can come up with, you have handed them an extra level to explore. Quick in, quick out. The worst you can do in my view is to bid 3♠, then bid one more for the road if they bid 4♥.

Pre-empt as high as your cards allow you to on your first turn, and then keep quiet.

Roland

[jikl]

4♠ for me too.

Sean

[jillybean]

Ok, Ok, the difference between good bridge a bad bid turned lucky isnt always clear

[neilkaz]

jillybean2, on Nov 30 2006, 10:57 PM, said:

Ok, Ok, the difference between good bridge a bad bid turned lucky isnt always clear

Phil, has talked about realizing that that there are 4 hands at the table when you preempt rather than just 2. So lets look in more detail at who can hold what.

You have 7 HCP in 4th seat and the first two players passed. We'll now give opener a decent 13 HCP 1♥ opening and therefore we can assume that the other 20 HCP are divided about 10 each (or 9 and 11). Anyhow, it's not too hard to see that 4♠ has real good chances to make if PD has 9-11 HCP and may make if he has less.

OK lets again credit the opener with 13 HCP and his PD with 10. In this case, unless your PD has lots of ♥, the opps can make 4♥ you you won't expect you ♠ to provide any defensive help. Sometimes when PD is holding ♥ the opps still make make 3NT (again those ♠ may be shut out), or may make 5♣. Thus we see that with opener having a min and the HCP divided, both sides have good chances to make game and we have no way of knowing exactly who can make what so we want to be in 4♠ so lets just bid it straight away.

Let's look at what can happen when opener has a strong hand and your PD is nearly broke. In that case you may likely get set in 4♠x, but since your hand may at best provide 1 trick on defence and if PD is broke he won't help much on defence. So there's a real good chance the opps can make a slam.

By overcalling 4♠ immediately, you put the opps to hopefully the last guesses, and also they may not have agreed methods as to how to proceed.

ie..they may have questions about subsequent bids. Is an immediate double of 4♠ penalty or negative or simply showing cards and no clear bid ? Is 4NT some kind of Blackwood or is it take out for the minors. (Since responder has passed allready, I cannot imagine a jump to Blackwood over a 1♥ opening, so I'd play the dbl of 4♠ as strongly penalty oriented, and 4NT as a take out with some minor suited hand that didn't open. ) But who knows what they play and if they'll agree.

Very often after a 4♠ overcall here the opps may end up at the 5 level when 6 makes. Other times visa versa. Sometimes they may end even end up in the wrong suit since they don't have much room.

4♠ places so much pressure on the opps that I'd even bid it red vs white. Often they'll X you since no other option looks good and once in a while you'll make it. Also getting set 2 Vul certainly isn't as bad as having the opps make a cold slam or even grand. The key to this hand is the good 8 card spade suit and almost no defence.

4♠ was a very nice bid.. .. neilkaz ..