[gwnn]

Scoring: BAM

(1♥)-1NT-p-?

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Your plan.

[Sambolino]

i'd bid 2s but i guess that's too dull

[jdonn]

I'm quite sure this is worth an invite, so I transfer and bid 3♠. If the thread title means I'm supposed to do something weird, I await seeing what it was

[ASkolnick]

2♦ Transfer to hearts, indicating a spade invitational hand, but allowing you to stay at the 2 level. Would be an interesting treatment and does not really lose that much.

[TimG]

3NT?

[Apollo81]

I would guess the weird action is either bidding 3NT, or transferring to spades and bidding 3NT. Actually I think the latter is pretty reasonable.

[mikeh]

I don't claim to (1) play BAM very often or (2) know how to bid like Zia (who, despite his reputation, seems to bid pretty normally in the vast majority of auctions, with most of his flights of fancy involving offbeat 1N openings). So I go with the dull transfer and raise... I agree that this is an invitational hand... it is not the same as after a 1N opening for three reasons. The first is that partner's upside is 18, not 17. The second is that he will know a lot more about the hand than after an uncontested auction and the third is that his strength is lying over the bulk of the opps' strength. The latter two factors will often be worth a trick in the play, so we should cater to that in the bidding.

Partner knows its BAM so it's not impossible to reach 3N on this sequence

[FrancesHinden]

I can see the merit of 3NT, but it's hardly impossible that 4S is making and 3NT isn't... you want to ask partner if he has the SK or not.

I'm boring, I would transfer to 2S and raise myself to 3S, showing an invitational hand with 6 spades. Looking at Kx KJ10x AQxx Kxx partner will know what to do.

[Free]

2NT asking for a weak doubleton: if p bids 3♠ you can pass, otherwise 3NT...

[mike777]

jdonn, on Sep 18 2008, 10:12 AM, said:

I'm quite sure this is worth an invite, so I transfer and bid 3♠. If the thread title means I'm supposed to do something weird, I await seeing what it was

ditto

[kenrexford]

This is sort of strange for me. And potentially sexy.

I incorporate into the response structure here the idea of checking back on stopper quality. Frr instance, a transfer to hearts, clearly insane (unless I want to expose psychics, but then I'd use Texas), is simply a cuebid asking if partner has a good stopper or a lousy stopper.

Using that theory, I might be induced to bid this strangely.

I could start with 2♣ as stayman. If partner bids 2♠, I just bid 4♠ and let them make a bad lead because they think we are 4-4 in spades.

If partner bids 2♦ instead, then I bid 3♥, showing five spades, but also implying four hearts. As this "shows" hearts, which is absurd, it actually operates as a cue, asking partner for extra help. This way, if partner has great hearts, he might bid 3NT.

However, that sequence seems to get us to the wrong contract, because I am showing stronger values than that. So, instead, I could transfer to spades and then bid 3♥, which shows the invitational hand with the same problem. Now, if partner bids 3♠, I can bid 3NT. This strange sequence suggests, IMO, invitational values BUT a trick source AND weak hearts, because of the alternative (Stayman and then asking Smolen) not taken.

Is that nuance going to be picked up? Hell no. Not unless discussed. But, maybe Zia and I went over this at some point...

[kfay]

I said transfer and invite via 3♠ but 3NT has definitely grown on me. Partner basically just needs the ♠K.

[Sambolino]

despite major posture, i'd never think of an invite with this hand at mp's or bam

[Mosene]

I think 3NT is more than reasonable - my guess is that is what he bid (maybe 4 spades?). You are very likely to have 5 or 6 tricks for partner. Partner can likely scrape together 3 or 4 tricks. with an unkown partner transfer and then 3 spades. With an understanding partner - 3NT (state of match matterse of course).

[benlessard]

If you want to gamble that the S run its seems better to pass 1Nt than to bid 3Nt. If the S run you will beat the pair in 2S more often then the hands where you need to make game to beat them.

[gwnn]

Zia transfered and bid 3NT! All this contract needed was KJx onside At the other table the European (I think it was T Bessis?) transfered and raised himself to 3 and that was passed. 1 point to the USA.

Partner's hand was along the lines of

xx
KJxx
Ax
AKxxx