[han]

Scoring: IMP

(p) - p - (2D) - p
(p) - ??

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Would you?

[kfay]

I would. I think I'll bid 2♠ but I can be swayed towards double.

[NickRW]

kfay, on Sep 27 2008, 05:14 PM, said:

I would. I think I'll bid 2♠ but I can be swayed towards double.

Ah well, I must admit my first reaction was, "you must be crazy bidding anything." So I showed it to my sons and one said, "double" and the other said "2♥". So that makes one vote each.

Actually I think it is maybe a good hand for a sim - maybe I'll do one later.

Nick

[P_Marlowe]

Pass.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[awm]

I suspect this is the sort of hand where it is extremely likely that you can make a major suit partscore, possibly with opponents making their 2♦ contract also. But if you balance, far too often partner will raise you to a failing game, to the degree that it might be better to pass and hope for a plus score defending.

I'd pass; I think balancing 2♠ will work out occasionally. I don't like double at all; much too likely to defend 2♦X making or reach a stupid 5-2 club fit with 5-3 in one or both majors.

[ArtK78]

awm, on Sep 27 2008, 04:12 PM, said:

I suspect this is the sort of hand where it is extremely likely that you can make a major suit partscore, possibly with opponents making their 2♦ contract also. But if you balance, far too often partner will raise you to a failing game, to the degree that it might be better to pass and hope for a plus score defending.

I'd pass; I think balancing 2♠ will work out occasionally. I don't like double at all; much too likely to defend 2♦X making or reach a stupid 5-2 club fit with 5-3 in one or both majors.

Agree with Adam.

It is also the type of hand where you know that if partner passes, you probably can't make your bid, but if partner raises, you know that you had play for your bid but you will go down at the level that partner bid.

[the hog]

Pass

[fred]

In my experience the only ways to get a plus score in this kind of situation are:

1) Pass 2D and hope they are going down

2) Double 2D and hope they are going down

Bidding invariably leads to a minus score - awm does a good job of explaining why this is the case.

While it is quite likely that partner would be happy to defend 2D doubled, I am not willing to bet on him being able to beat it in his own hand or on my hand being able to contribute anything to the defense.

So I would Pass.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[Free]

I would've opened 2♥ to show a weak hand with 44+M... Now I think the best choice is pass.

[jdonn]

I agree with Fred, as well as his agreement with awm. It's just one of those things that sometimes your strength is split in such a way that you can't afford to bid because it's too hard to stop at the level where you can make.

[barmar]

Where are all the points? Obviously, partner has a decent hand, and probably some ♦, but he didn't have enough to make a 2NT overcall. That gives him 14 HCP, so the opponents may have the majority of the HCP -- RHO probably has a maximum pass, and LHO has a heavy weak 2 (this is pretty common in 3rd seat, since you're not worried about missing a game, and it may induce the opponents to overbid).

However, partner might have a better hand, but no ♦ stopper, so he couldn't bid 2NT. Even so, there's still no reason to believe you'll do much better by bidding than defending. This would be a more difficult decision at MP, since your partscore could score better than setting them.

[helene_t]

p could easily have 17 points if he has length in diamonds, which he must have.

[Codo]

I cannot construct many hands where partner has 17 HCps, length in diamond and no bid. Maybe something like x, akxx,AKxx,Kxxx? But I think this hand is unlikely enough, so I would play partner for a worse hand.
And even if he owns 17 HCps, we have 21 to 19, so no need to get too excited. We need to find a fit at a playable level to compete. Impossible for me.

I agree with Adam. I have no bid to show my 5/5 hand, so I pass.