[inquiry]

Dealer: West Vul: All Scoring: IMP

♠ AK86 ♥ Q9 ♦ AK74 ♣ 765

You are south in the "4th seat". What is your call? West North East South 1♠ Pass Pass Your bid

[neilkaz]

Ben, the poll question indicates the opening bid was 1C but the bidding given shows it as 1S

.. neilkaz ..

[han]

1NT if it is 1♠.

[jtfanclub]

neilkaz, on May 5 2008, 05:11 PM, said:

Ben, the poll question indicates the opening bid was 1C but the bidding given shows it as 1S

.. neilkaz ..

Must be 1♠...otherwise I'll be unhappy that 1♠ isn't a poll option (seems obvious to me).

Assuming that 1♠ was the opening, I'll take a shot with 1NT. The other option, doubling and then bidding 2NT, I don't feel strong enough for.

[Vilgan]

Easy 1NT for us. we play a balancing 1 NT as 11-14 over a minor or 11-16 over a major. This is a good 16.. but so many values in their suit, there is no rush to upgrade this or do anything special imo.

[P_Marlowe]

X, the only alternative is 1 NT.
But this could be 10-14 bal., i.e. I am a whole Ace stronger
than partner will expect.

If partner jumps to 2H, I am not worried, we will have enough
power to play game, the jump should show at least 10 HCP,
i.e. I have an easy stopper asking 3C bid.

With kind regards
Marlowe

PS: After a 1S opening bid, ..., I would go with 1NT, after
a mayor suit opening bid, it makes sense to play a bal. 1 NT
overcall as 12-16, although we dont play this yet.

[jtfanclub]

P_Marlowe, on May 5 2008, 05:31 PM, said:

If partner jumps to 2H, I am not worried, we will have enough
power to play game, the jump should show at least 10 HCP,
i.e. I have an easy stopper asking 3C bid.

Nope, there's a typo in the original.

Pretty sure the opening bid was meant to be 1♠. So then 2♥ is not a jump.

[Echognome]

1NT for me as well. You do get that awkward range of about a good 16 up to about a good 18 count where you have to double then bid NT. I don't understand 2NT as an option. Doesn't that show a balanced 19-21? I mean obviously this is just a case of discussing with your partner your NT ranges in the balancing seat.

[jdonn]

I usually try to agree with my partners 11-14 over minors and 12-16 over majors. I agree with Justin 11-16 is too wide, you might even argue 12-16 is too wide but the alternatives aren't so smashing either. I really have no big qualms passing out random flat 10s or bad 11s that others like to bid 1NT with, if I can't double. Here I would bid 1NT.

[mike777]

dbl
optimistic.

[pclayton]

Ben I'm assuming you meant LHO opened 1♠ rather than RHO opened 1♣.

1N is fine. I don't mind 11-16 NV but there aren't a lot of 11 counts I would make this call with at any colors.

[the hog]

X as 1NT would be 11-14. Don't like it that much but there it is.

[inquiry]

Bid was 1spade then two passes... then your turn to bid with the shown hand....

[whereagles]

Jlall, on May 5 2008, 11:22 PM, said:

I don't include 16 in my 1N range so X, ugly as it is. I don't like an 11-16 range either, that just seems too wide.  Given RHO's pass of 1S I am fairly optimistic about our game chances.

Agree on abstract, but not on this hand. The reason is we're too long in spades. Pard, being spade-short, would have bid if he had some values, so he's probably weakish. That would force us to 2NT over his likely 2♥ reply to the dbl and we're probably overboard at that level.

Not being fairly optimistic about our game chances, I would make the deliberate mastermind underbid of 1NT. One could try an against-the-field PASS as well.

[kfay]

1NT wtp?

[brianshark]

Bid as per your agreed range. If you don't like it, complain about your balancing 1NT range after the round/session. That's my WTP response.

I play 10-14 or 11-14 with most so I double.

[neilkaz]

I regard a balancing 1NT as a very ugly bid and to be honest I have rarely had a happy ending (normally PD is confused, forgets the range, hangs me for balancing etc etc). Other times opener has a hand where he would have jump rebid 2NT and I am in trouble if no 4-4 fit can be found. Thus I strive to not do it with yucky min's.

Since the opening bid is 1M, it is OK to be up to 16 HCP for a balancing 1NT since unlike after a 1m pass around, I cannot pull PD's response to my double to 1NT.

1NT .. neilkaz ..