[neilkaz]

I really and very strongly dislike South's bidding on this hand. I have no problems with overcalls at the 1 level on 4 card suits, but here, the ♦ suit is garbage and this likely hides the 4 card ♥ suit. For heaven's sake, if you want to overcall a suit on this hand, overcall 1♥ so you don't often miss a 4-4 fit and possible game and so you get a lead you may want.

Overcalling 1NT could work out, but the stiff ace isn't so good and you have no spot cards. If you get whacked, you need some good scramble methods including the ability to get to 2♣ if that is where you belong.

Mark me down for a reluctant 1♥ as long as PD (mine do) expects me to sometimes have a decent 4 card suit (although I want a better suit than this).

Now the 3♦ rebid on that garbage 4 card suit is better suited to poker than bridge and is very likely to catch PD with only 3 card support. On a bad day, one of the opps has 4 ♦ with a couple honors and you get whacked hard. I'd just make a competitive double of 2♠ showing extra strength but not length, or pass it around to PD, if he would think such a low level double penalty in comp.

.. neilkaz ..

[SoTired]

sheeze this hand sucks. And the bidding was worse. My goodness, if you are going to overcall a crappy 4-card suit, why not 1H rather than 1D? Then at least you give your partner a choice by bidding diam the next time or finding a fit for game.

This hand represents several common B/I misconceptions:
1) Compulsion to bid with something
2) Poor hand evaluation skills, specifically a) singleton aces, lonely honors, c) lack of 10's and 9's
3) Winning the bidding results in winning the hand

1) They have opened the bidding. We do not have a good overcall, a 1N overcall, or a takeout dbl. A 4-card suit overcall is usually made on a great 4-card suit. So PASS. You will not die.

2) An extreme example is comparing ♠A ♥xxxxxx ♦xxxxx ♣A with ♠x ♥AQxxxx ♦xxxxx ♣x. The first hand is a 6-loser hand with 2 aces, but in a red suit contract, you are unlikely to be able to both draw trump and set up the other suit before you get tapped out. You are likely to only make your aces and some trump tricks. The 2nd hand is a 5-loser hand and if a fit is found in either red suit, you will be taking many tricks.

The hand is mostly lonely honors. That is, suits with only one honor. Please tend to devalue honors in short suits and 4/5 card suits with only a single honor.

The average hand has 1 ten and 1 nine. This hand has none.

3) Sometimes defending a hand provides the best result.