[cccheung]

In a 8 boards serious team game, I have this monster hand.

Scoring: IMP

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Bidding goes:
1♥ (X) 3♥ 4♠

Partner's 3H is pre-emptive, what is your plan to bid?

[cherdano]

I like 6♥. Since we are red vs white, this should have chances.

[jdonn]

I would bid 5♥ since I think they are very likely to sac if I bid 6♥ now, and that 6♠ is probably a good save vs even 4♥. I wouldn't be surprised to get 680 in 5♥ and win the board against 300 in 6♠X.

[Sambolino]

jdonn, on Sep 19 2008, 01:49 AM, said:

I would bid 5♥ since I think they are very likely to sac if I bid 6♥ now, and that 6♠ is probably a good save vs even 4♥. I wouldn't be surprised to get 680 in 5♥ and win the board against 300 in 6♠X.

right, this makes much sense, on the way to 6hx

[han]

I bid 5H, planning to be pushed to 6H.

[mikeh]

I also go with the 5♥ attempt to walk the dog.. altho this is a pretty well-known situation and i don't expect it to fool good opps very often.

But I don't see any good alternative. I would like to involve partner in the decision over their 'save' in 6♠, since that save may be making, but I don't see any way of doing so... oh, I can come up with different calls, but I can't see why partner will ever work out what I am trying to convey, and any call could be misconstrued.

There is one small point that confirms me in my choice... in the unlikely event that we get passed out (maybe the opps are afraid we'll bid slam), +680 may be the best score attainable... they going -100 or -300 at worst.

[jdeegan]

Imho, this is a pure tactical problem where the best action depends on the state of the match and the disposition and quality of the opponents. Personally, I have observed that "walking the dog" hasn't worked well against expert opponents. You might even consider some exotic calls like 5♦ or 6♦.

[jdonn]

I want to note as the first vote for 5♥, and others who bid it might have had slightly different reasoning, I wasn't trying to "walk the dog" (which I take to mean, buy the hand in 6♥ by getting there slowly.) I was just trying to buy the hand period. I'm quite happy to buy it in 5♥ making an overtrick (or maybe it just makes 5!) if I think the opponents have a profitable save vs. our game at the 6 level. There are certainly many times they will sac over 4♥, intending to sac over 6♥ if we bid it but otherwise let us play 5♥.