[kfay]

Scoring: IMP

(1♦)-P-P-Dbl
(3♦)-3♥-P-?

---

My partner held this hand last night. On your left is the mercurial Han Peters. What's your call?

[helene_t]

4♥.

[ArtK78]

At IMPs scoring you have to bid 4♥. There is certainly no guarantee that it will make. But it might, or it might push the opps to save in 5♦, which you will certainly beat.

At matchpoints, this is a tougher problem. Passing 3♥ is not unreasonable at matchpoints. Partner could not overcall at the one-level, so if he has 5 or more hearts he does not have that great of a hand. If he has only 4 hearts, you might run into some bad breaks.

[pclayton]

An anxious 4♥. I don't expect it to be cold, and I think pard will have to work a little bit to make it.

Whenever I bid a tight game at IMPs, its a "feel good" auction.

[keylime]

Pard found a 3♥ call on their own when they didn't have to, at red. I'll bid game, and see the mercurial Han turn into the pensive Han.

[gwnn]

Is Han's name supposed to scare us? Never!

[pclayton]

Something else to consider: How much worse can our hand be for a 1 level balance? A lot worse IMO.

[skjaeran]

Easy raise to 4♥. Do anyone know someone who'd pass?

[kfay]

I wouldn't have passed But my partner did. She's pretty new to serious bridge and I just figured I'd post this problem to get a general opinion that she could look at.

Partner (me) held :

---

Easy 4♥. Pretty much expected a unanimous panel. Interesting question about what to do in MPs... I'd probably think about it for a few seconds then bid 4♥.

[ArtK78]

Jlall, on Sep 19 2007, 02:23 PM, said:

skaeran, on Sep 19 2007, 01:39 PM, said:

Easy raise to 4♥. Do anyone know someone who'd pass?

Seriously, we have a huge hand for a balancing X opposite a partner who has bid 3H on their own. This is closer to a slam try than a pass.

Slam try? Opposite a partner who could not act over a 1♦ opening bid?

I don't think so.

Quite frankly, I don't think that passing is outlandish. At IMPs, you have to bid a game. But I don't know if I am so quick to hang partner for competing at matchpoints.

[pclayton]

ArtK78, on Sep 19 2007, 11:55 AM, said:

Jlall, on Sep 19 2007, 02:23 PM, said:

skaeran, on Sep 19 2007, 01:39 PM, said:

Easy raise to 4♥. Do anyone know someone who'd pass?

Seriously, we have a huge hand for a balancing X opposite a partner who has bid 3H on their own. This is closer to a slam try than a pass.

Slam try? Opposite a partner who could not act over a 1♦ opening bid?

I don't think so.

Quite frankly, I don't think that passing is outlandish. At IMPs, you have to bid a game. But I don't know if I am so quick to hang partner for competing at matchpoints.

Just because pard passed over 1♦, doesn't mean he's weak. There are many hands with 4 hearts and a little diamond length that pass. Some of these hands will make a stronger call than 3♥, however.

I'd say Kevin's example is about a Q better than a dead minimum, and game is still very good.

[mikeh]

4♥ looked automatic to me, before reading the actual hand. Good lesson hand for someone new to serious bridge, tho.

[skjaeran]

ArtK78, on Sep 19 2007, 09:55 PM, said:

Jlall, on Sep 19 2007, 02:23 PM, said:

skaeran, on Sep 19 2007, 01:39 PM, said:

Easy raise to 4♥. Do anyone know someone who'd pass?

Seriously, we have a huge hand for a balancing X opposite a partner who has bid 3H on their own. This is closer to a slam try than a pass.

Slam try? Opposite a partner who could not act over a 1♦ opening bid?

I don't think so.

Quite frankly, I don't think that passing is outlandish. At IMPs, you have to bid a game. But I don't know if I am so quick to hang partner for competing at matchpoints.

If you read Justin's post carefully I don't think you'll find anything suggesting he'd make a slam try on this hand. He just said a slam try is closer than pass, meaning he thinks the hand is good for a 4♥ raise and he doesn't feel that raising to game is stretching at all, but that he's got just a little in reserve. I fully agree with him.

I'd not hesitate to bid game at matchpoint either. And I really find passing outlandish.

[Fluffy]

Hey I think Jusitn can defend himself .

Actually I can think on many more hands that fail to make game than those who have a play in slam.

[jdonn]

Such an easy 4♥ bid at any form of scoring.

[joshs]

ArtK78, on Sep 19 2007, 02:55 PM, said:

Jlall, on Sep 19 2007, 02:23 PM, said:

skaeran, on Sep 19 2007, 01:39 PM, said:

Easy raise to 4♥. Do anyone know someone who'd pass?

Seriously, we have a huge hand for a balancing X opposite a partner who has bid 3H on their own. This is closer to a slam try than a pass.

Slam try? Opposite a partner who could not act over a 1♦ opening bid?

I don't think so.

Quite frankly, I don't think that passing is outlandish. At IMPs, you have to bid a game. But I don't know if I am so quick to hang partner for competing at matchpoints.

Passing is not even close to reasonable, sorry. Don't construct hand's or worry about why partner passed over 1D (there are many hands that good but have no good bid). You have promised about 9 points in support of hearts with your balancing x, and you have about 17. Since its about 2.5 points/trick, you are roughly 3 tricks stronger then promised. In general, partner's competative bids might be 1 trick more then there hand is worth, so you have to give a little slack, but if partner thinks he can make 8 tricks then you have reason to believe he will take closer to 11 tricks.

P.S.
1D-P-P-x
P-2M
is about 12-14ish. Balancer bids are about 3 points lighter then a direct action promises, and responder's ranges are about 3 points higher. This hand is an easy raise of a 2H bid to game.

Also, note these good hands that advancer has, almost always has only a 4 card major, or they usually would have bid already.

[han]

I also think that the hand is a clear 4H bid, and it is a useful hand for a beginning duplicate player. The balancing double can be made on hands that are quite a bit weaker than this one.

Also, experienced bridge players would rather go down in 4H then play in 3H with 4H making. Think about it, when you play in 4H going down 1 then you make 240 points fewer than you could have (-100 vs +140), but if you play in 3H while you should have been in 4H then you make 450 points fewer (170 vs 620), quite a bit more.

This is probably the opposite thinking of most beginning players, who tend to dislike going down and don't see playing 3H+1 as a big loss.

[Echognome]

I don't have a whole lot to add to the points already mentioned. What may be useful to consider is what hand partner will have that doesn't overcall 1♥, but makes a free bid here of 3♥. If he only had a decent suit and not much else, he would have overcalled 1♥. Thus it is likely that his heart suit wasn't that great to overcall. The reason for this is that it is likely he has only four hearts, but decent values. That is consistent with a hand that could not act over 1♦ as it does not have the appropriate shape or suit quality to act on its own, but once partner doubles, he has the appropriate hand to act. Note that partner did not jump to game. Well partner is also there not trying to hang you for balancing. So he will often be bidding less than if you had doubled in the direct seat. All of this adds up to what others are saying, I just thought it might be useful to reason it out.

[Joe de Balliol]

Agree with others - easy 4♥ at IMPs. At MPs it's tough.