[sceptic]

why should you not bid michaels with intermediate values and please define what you consider to be an intermediate range

Scoring: IMP

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West North East South

 -     -     -     1♥
 1♠    2♥    3♣    3♥
 Pass  Pass  4♠    Pass
 Pass  Pass  

[Robert]

Hi sceptic

Michaels is played a number of different ways. Some play that all michaels type shaped hands use a 2H bid here. I tend to play that michaels hands are either weak or strong, with intermediate hands I tend to overcall and show the second suit later.

Pick the style that you like and play that type of michaels bid.

With your start of (1H)-1S-(2H))-X I play that a double of 2Hs is a 'stolen bid' double showing a 10+ raise(they bid and raised their suit so you cannot cuebid at the two level 'unless' you use a stolen bid double.

Intermediate varies with shape and texture of the suits. I play michaels as about 6-11HCP or something around 16+ 'which hand will bid again to show the extra values. A hand like Axxxx x AKxxxx x has 11HCP and I would upgrade it into an intermediate hand because of the extra diamond and the good controls.

Regards,
Robert

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

people who play Michales Cues weak / strong
remove hands in the 10-15HCP range from the
cue. Please keep in mind that HCP is just one
factor.

The Adv.: The bid is better defined.
E.g. you wont make phantom sacrifices to
often, because if partner raises, you are either weak,
i.e you have found a cheap sacrifice or you are
strong, and you will have a fair chance of making.

The Disadv.: The frequency is lower.
Although this is not always bad, if they buy the contract
they know more, but of course sometimes you buy the
contract.

Personnaly I prefer the continuios style, increasing
the frequency further by using the Michales Cue with 5-4
shapes.

With kind regards
Marlowe

PS: In case you have weak / intermediate 2-suiter as opening
bids available, there maybe a case that the usefulness of the
continous range decreases.

[Mr. Dodgy]

I'd bid 2♦, then ?♠s.

I play MCB as weak/strong. Partner is not going to get too carried away by my 'reverse' knowing that I can only have an intermediate (8-15 HCP) hand, and has a fair idea of my defensive strength to base competitive decisions on.

[SoTired]

Original Michaels was intermediate in strength. About 10-14 HCP. Stronger hands started with a dbl. Weaker hands passed.

Current thinking is weak/strong Michaels, bidding the 2 suits with 10-14. With <10, you bid your Michaels and pass. With >14, you make a second bid.

[helene_t]

This is indeed an intermediate hand. The reason why some people don't use Michaels with such a hand is that you're too strong to pass p' s 2♠ yet too weak to bid again.

With that agreement I would bid diamonds followed by some number of spades. I don't think that would promise a 5-card spades, though: I would bid the same with a 4-card spades and values just short of a doublle followed by some number of diamonds.

[paulg]

An increasing number of players are playing Michaels as any (and all) ranges. Mike Lawrence said, in his Scottish tour a couple of years ago, that this was increasingly common within the expert community as the value of the hands was the distribution rather than the points.

The downside of this approach is that you sometimes need a bit of system to uncover the range, and that good intermediate hands often have to take a further action in competitive auctions.

The upside is that the frequency is higher.

I would not recommend this approach with 5-4 shapes. I do recommend serious partnerships looking at methods that show specific 2-suiters.

Paul

[the hog]

An interesting post by Paul. I also play that Michaels, (well Roman Jumps actually), is either weak or strong, however yes, there are many very strong players eg Marston, who play them with all strengths. As Paul stated, it gets the distribution across in one bid, and "no", it is Never 4-5.

[gwnn]

I like 1M-2M to be the other major and clubs specifically, makes everyone happier. With diamonds we just bid them. The same with 2NT, it's always the lowest two suits.

[skjaeran]

I'm also used to weak/strong Michaels. But at red I won't bid with the weak variaton, prefering to use Michales with all intermediate+ hands and pass with the weak hands.

I also prefer Michaels to show specifically ♣ and the other major over major.

[mike777]

On this hand if you bid michaels with any strength partner will not know:
1) what is your longer suit
2) What your minor is
3) what your strength is

OTOH if you simply overcall 2d, partner knows your longest suit and that you have a real opening hand.

Why not make your number one goal, making life easy for partner and not your number one goal confusing the opp and/ or partner?

[pbleighton]

Quote

Why not make your number one goal, making life easy for partner and not your number one goal confusing the opp and/ or partner?

Because this makes life way too easy for the opponents, and most of them won't return the favor.

Back to the future, Mike!

Peter