[pclayton]

♠KTxx ♥AJT9xx ♦x ♣9x

r/r, all vul, MPs

Weak 2♦ on your right.

[Gerben42]

The potential is so nice I'm going to overbid 2♥

[neilkaz]

There's too much disparity between a rather good 6 carder and a mediocre 4 carder and I'd hate to hear a ♣ response with this real min.

Although we're red/red it is MP's and I'll stick my neck out with 2♥ and if we go for 500, lets hope the opps have a game. I don't like goign for 200 here X'd or not but this is MP..I'll risk what I consider to be a min 2♥.

If I double, PD will expect a bit more and I fear were often going for 500 in 4♠x rather than +140 in 3♥. Other times he may make a penalty pass and opener will be playing for an OT.

2♥ just barely .. neilkaz ..

[andy_h]

nice suit and shape. we might not be able to get into the auction later, so I bid 2H.

[FrancesHinden]

The technically correct bid is to pass.
I know I want to bid 2H. I really really do.
But when do you not have enough to overcall?

[ArtK78]

There has to be some point below which you just cannot act immediately over a preempt.

I pass and hope to get a second chance. If I bid partner will play me for a much better hand.

[han]

Any engineers around that can explain what "technically" means in this context?

Must admit I would also bid.

[kenrexford]

Perfect 1♥ overcall.

Well, it's still right.

[655321]

2♥, but prepared to accept the blame .

[NickRW]

han, on May 23 2008, 09:06 PM, said:

Any engineers around that can explain what "technically" means in this context?

Er, nope, not an engineer.

It is true that if partner has quite a good hand we could end up in a poor game. But it seems to me that it is more likely that pard has an indifferent 11 or so and maybe something like a 3235 shape and won't bid - so we could be defending a crummy 2D contract when we could have chances for 2H ourselves - so yes I bid and take the blame if we're one off in 4 or whatever might go wrong.

[han]

I think if partner raises to 4H then we often have good play.

[gnasher]

I think if partner bids 3NT we will often have bad play.

[awm]

There are many hands like ♠Ax ♥Kxx ♦xxxx ♣Axxx where partner has no business balancing and yet 4♥ has good play. There are also many weaker hands where 2♥ is cold and 2♦ is also making (give partner same hand without the ♣A). So I feel like I really have to bid 2♥, even though there are possible misfits where partner bids 3NT and it goes down a bunch. At least the heart spots are good enough that hearts might be a source of tricks.

[jdonn]

han, on May 23 2008, 06:40 PM, said:

I think if partner raises to 4H then we often have good play.

Partner raising to 4♥ is about the best thing that could happen. This hand is easily worth the overcall once it finds a good fit.

[pclayton]

I wasn't faced with this but I came across this in analyzing a set of hands for a lesson. At first I thought it was a pass, but then figured it was better to overcall, not only because we have both majors, but because we have the short diamonds. The intermediates don't hurt either.

I think its wrong to pass this hand in 3N

[kenrexford]

A couple of people have hit both sides of one issue that I don't get. How, precisely, does one get to 3NT? I agree with pclayton. There is no auction to 3NT. 3NT might be bid along the way, of course. By partner. He is so cute when he does that.

[whereagles]

it's a 2♥ wtp to me

[rbforster]

kenrexford, on May 23 2008, 04:39 PM, said:

Perfect 1♥ overcall.

I know I've been underutilizing the extra space afforded by conventional treatments of insufficient bids. So does 1♥ (oops!) 2♥ show the stronger or weaker hand? If you mistook the 1♦ by your RHO and jump overcalled that would suggest playing a direct 2♥ as weak while a corrected 1♥->2♥ as sounder. Of course the sound overcall comes up more than the weak one in practice and you don't want the opponents catching on too quickly so it might be right to reverse them on frequency grounds.

[gnasher]

kenrexford, on May 24 2008, 03:46 AM, said:

A couple of people have hit both sides of one issue that I don't get. How, precisely, does one get to 3NT? I agree with pclayton. There is no auction to 3NT. 3NT might be bid along the way, of course. By partner. He is so cute when he does that.

I've counted the posts that mention 3NT, and there are only two, so I suppose I'm one of the couple of people. I didn't actually say we'd play in 3NT - I'd convert it to 4♥, but that wouldn't help much opposite some 3244 14-count like Qxx Qx AQxx A10xx.