[keylime]

You are dealt a nice assortment, red on white, against unknown opps:

Kx
K98xxx
AKQxx
void

...and RHO OPENS 3D in first seat. Your choice?

[the hog]

3H

[jdonn]

3♥, not sure what the alternative is. I could certainly imagine the next player or two having a bidding problem though, or us on the next round.

[han]

3H, flirted with pass for a second, but not very seriously.

[655321]

3♥, flirted with 4♥ for a second, but not very seriously.

[Codo]

3 ♥ flirting with disaster for more than a second and always seriously.

[dake50]

Will partner go 4H with SA(SQ) +HQ10x over 3H?
NO, so 3H is inadequate to show this game potential let alone slammy opposite SA +HAxxx.
Must try 4H. hope my luck is in if partner misfits, but placing partner well if slammy.

[pclayton]

3♥. This won't end the auction (well maybe the double on my left will).

[mikeh]

dake50, on Feb 7 2008, 10:58 AM, said:

Will partner go 4H with SA(SQ) +HQ10x over 3H?
NO, so 3H is inadequate to show this game potential let alone slammy opposite SA +HAxxx. 
Must try 4H. hope my luck is in if partner misfits, but placing partner well if slammy.

I can sort of understand the desire to bid 4♥, but the problem is that it shows an entirely different sort of hand: in particular, a much, much better suit. Thus partner with the obvious diamond shortage and lots of black honours will move to slam on woefully inadequate trump: AQxx xx x AKQxxx... I'd be hoping for 7♥ and would want to call a psychiatrist when 6♥ got doubled and failed by 2 or 3 tricks

[Gerben42]

As both partner and LHO are short in ♦ and are thus likely to have some ♥, bidding more than 3♥ is both dangerous and unneccessary. Partner will raise when he has support, and the breaks won't be so great that I expect to make much more tricks than what partner can bid.

If LHO doubles, we saved 300 points...

[Apollo81]

To me this is between 3♥ and pass. Given that we're red on white I think I have to overcall so we don't miss game.

[keylime]

K. 2nd part of the hand.

Let's say you did what I did, and passed (not saying it's right). It goes..P - P - 4♣ by pard, who is unpassed. Back to you.

[pclayton]

keylime, on Feb 7 2008, 10:22 AM, said:

K. 2nd part of the hand.

Let's say you did what I did, and passed (not saying it's right). It goes..P - P - 4♣ by pard, who is unpassed. Back to you.

4♥. Is there an option here?

[jdonn]

pclayton, on Feb 7 2008, 01:36 PM, said:

keylime, on Feb 7 2008, 10:22 AM, said:

K. 2nd part of the hand.

Let's say you did what I did, and passed (not saying it's right). It goes..P - P - 4♣ by pard, who is unpassed. Back to you.

4♥. Is there an option here?

Promising a club fit? Blasphemy!

[mikeh]

Sorry, but with great respect to Justin and to Dwayne, I do think that passing 3♦ is 'crazy' at this vulnerability. If partner reopens with a double, I may be defending for 1100 when we are cold for 2220! And if I choose, in that scenario, not to go for the throat, just how am I going to find out if we can make a grand?

As it is, I have been asked to fill in for the trappist monk (I like that: sworn to silence, and trapping at the same time ) who passed.

I suspect that partner has short(ish) hearts, but so what? I can't not bid 4♥ now.

I suspect that part 3 of the problem won't be long coming. I also suspect that my own choice of 3♥ over 3♦ wouldn't have worked out perfectly either... partner may well be bidding 4♣, and I'd be back rebidding my moth-eaten suit... at least he'd know I have a real hand

BTW, if 4♥ promises a club fit, then that makes the original pass even crazier because just wtf can I bid now???? 4N????? Pass?

Time to haul out the descriptive puke if 4♥ promises clubs.

BTW, I don't think it does: why can't I have some 2=7=3=1 with a weakish hand?

[pclayton]

jdonn, on Feb 7 2008, 10:49 AM, said:

pclayton, on Feb 7 2008, 01:36 PM, said:

keylime, on Feb 7 2008, 10:22 AM, said:

K. 2nd part of the hand.

Let's say you did what I did, and passed (not saying it's right). It goes..P - P - 4♣ by pard, who is unpassed. Back to you.

4♥. Is there an option here?

Promising a club fit? Blasphemy!

Kill me now.

[whereagles]

I would pass 3♦. I learned the hard way that 1-suiters with extreme length in opps' suit usually find pard with a 66 in the remaining suits. Might bid 3♥ in some occasions but would NEVER EVER shoot 4.

Anyway, having bid 3♥ and heard 4♣, I guess I must now bid 4♥ and pray.

[jtfanclub]

dake50, on Feb 7 2008, 10:58 AM, said:

Will partner go 4H with SA(SQ) +HQ10x over 3H?
NO, so 3H is inadequate to show this game potential let alone slammy opposite SA +HAxxx.
Must try 4H. hope my luck is in if partner misfits, but placing partner well if slammy.

Well, my partners aren't experts , but IMPs, vulnerable, I think they'd need a lot less than SA + HQTx to bid game. Heck, some of my very non-expert partners would bid 4♥ with four hearts and a 0 count (and a diamond void, of course). There's just no line for them...if we have a fit and the hand with shorter trump has a side void, either we're bidding game to make or we're bidding game to sacrifice, and often they don't care which.

But I'm sure that once they become experts they'll become far more staid and respectable and will pass hands like the one you mentioned without a second thought.

[keylime]

Mike,

After recollection today at work, I realized that crazy is a mild understatement to my decision making. Frankly, I likely deserve the phrase "Dwayne, why do you hate on your pard so?" and "Dwayne, did you have a bad day?".

The rest of the auction: ... 4C - 4D by me - 4S by pard - 5H by me - 6C by pard (down two aces) - 6NT crack. Oh yeah, 3 aces off.

Common sense, which at the time I did not have in abundance due to dinner, is to cater to pard holding clubs and taking the bull by the horns.

I really think that I hung pard by failing to bid 3H on the hope that he could find a double.