[Echognome]

♠Q8543 ♥KQ93 ♦Q6 ♣J9

White/Red at IMPs

P - (1♣) - ?

Act now or hold your peace?

[Impact]

Poor suit, Honours in every suit so that if they end in NT you are not unhappy with partner making his natural lead, the upside is (only) just insufficient for me to bid 1S.

This hand lacks playing strength, a lead and controls (those short quacks may cause opponents trouble but won't help partner)- and I don't want partner to stretch in NT or similar (note the upside of bidding if that H suit was 5 long as he could still bid 1S).

No, I don't consider this worth a double despite holding both Majors.

If they bid a Major, it will clarify matters.
If they bid NT directly partner's natural lead is fine.
If they make an inverted raise, we won't be competing anyway.
If they make a weak jump raise I can decide on table feel to back in with a double assuming it is passed round to me....but the odds against our making 3M are quite high so I would want to be playing with Al Roth....who would bid my hand anyway!

regards

[Free]

2♠, classic wide range pressure bid.

[ochinko]

Awful waste of values in the minors, but it still can't hurt much to bid 2♣ (Michaels) in these vulns.

[helene_t]

I'm with Frederick.

[cnszsun]

I don't see why we should do anything other than simple 1♠.

[ceeb]

peace

[pbleighton]

Clear 2S for active bidders.

Peter

[SoTired]

1S or 2C. Never pass nor dbl. Not a good hand for 2S, since too strong and good defense and suit sucks. How is partner going to make the right decision if you bid 2S on hands like this? If you bid 2S and opps get to 4H, would you want to hear partner take a 4S sac?

[vang]

why not 2d michaels for active bidders?

[ArtK78]

You are playing IMPs. Partner is a passed hand. There is no chance of game for your side, and you don't have a good suit to bid.

Pass.

The most likely non-disaster result that bidding (especially bidding a lot) will accomplish is going down 100 or 150 opposite a part score. Occasionally, you will find a playable partial when both sides can make about 8 tricks. A significant portion of the time you will go minus when your opps were going to go minus. But every so often bidding on a hand like this one will produce a disaster of epic proportions.

[mike777]

Echognome, on Aug 2 2007, 02:46 AM, said:

♠Q8543 ♥KQ93 ♦Q6 ♣J9

White/Red at IMPs

P - (1♣) - ?

Act now or hold your peace?

Double
Pass is also ok, close second.

In and out.
I want to compete with the majors and with the boss suit.
Partner is a passed hand.
Not a one spade overcall since very poor suit and I only want partner to respond at the one level, not the two level. Again he is a passed hand.

[keylime]

Pard's passed - if you play light initial action you're telegraphing the hand if you take a call. I pass and await them getting to 1NT, back to you. Then you might take a call.

[ochinko]

keylime, on Aug 2 2007, 05:13 PM, said:

Pard's passed - if you play light initial action you're telegraphing the hand if you take a call. I pass and await them getting to 1NT, back to you. Then you might take a call.

Actually, I like telegraphing my hand when I have the chance. That's what the bidding is all about. If I move early we may

1) find a better part score than opps
2) find a good sacrifice
3) not blow a trick on the lead when we become defenders.
Edit: 4) push opps to a higher than makeable level.

If your style is not that aggressive, pass is ok with me. What I don't like here is treating the hand as one suited, and bid our weaker major with 1 or 2♠. It may work by fooling opps too, but to me it's still a psyche that is out of place here.

Double risks playing with ♦4:2 when partner is 3:3 in the majors, and both 2♥ and 2♠ are better.

What will you call after it goes 1M from LHO, pass from partner, 1NT from RHO? Now you're even worse that those that doubled initially.

[pbleighton]

Quote

why not 2d michaels for active bidders?

Fine if you play Michaels as 5-4, I don't.

Peter

[whereagles]

In my opninion, the hand is too defensive for a michaels. I'd dbl.

[TimG]

pbleighton, on Aug 2 2007, 06:20 AM, said:

Clear 2S for active bidders.

Fine if you play a jump overcall can be made on a crappy 5-card suit.

There's active and then there's hyperactive. I think 2♠ falls into the hyperactive category.

[goobers]

I can't believe double, this hand is already offshape and missing values, and the values present are already dubious.

I imagine I'd pass at the table, but reading the posts is convincing me to bid.

[jdonn]

2♠?? Michaels??? Double?!?!? LOL I am seriously getting a kick out of this thread.

[FrancesHinden]

We have a 10-count with 5-4 in the majors at favourable vulnerability opposite a passed partner.

A 2S bid looks something like:

KQJxx
xxxx
Ax
xx

(to me, KQJxx xxxx xx xx also looks like a 2S bid, by the way)

IF you have the agreement that Michaels may be done on a 5-4, which I don't, but some people do, then a 2C bid looks something like

KQ109x
AJ10x
x
xxx

A double, if you are desperate to act on this shape and point count, looks something like:

Jxxxx
KQxx
Axx
x

A pass looks something like this:

Jxxxx
QJxx
KJ
Qx

The actual hand we have looks more like a 1S overcall than anything else. In fact, it looks so much like a 1S overcall that that's what I would do.

[I'm a bit verbose sometimes.

Quote

2♠?? Michaels??? Double?!?!? LOL I am seriously getting a kick out of this thread.

Seems to summarise the above points quite well]