[suokko]

Your partner has played less than one year but is good dummy player and fair enough defender. Too bad biding is just basic 5 card majors without any conventions or fancy bids. Opponents are one of the better sides (30+ years old partnership).

You hold A8x♠ QT8x♥ QJ9x♦ Qx♣. all love.

partner opens 1♠ first seat.

Tournament is small BAM event with 8 teams round robin, 6 boards against each.

[ArtK78]

I don't see any reason not to make a 3 card limit raise, however you go about doing that.

Presumably, you bid a forcing 1NT followed by 3♠. Of course, if partner should happen to surprise you with his rebid (2♥, for example), you may switch gears.

If you don't play forcing 1NT, the old fashioned standard way of bidding this hand is 2♦ followed by a simple rebid in spades.

[gwnn]

hi, could you for future reference put the suit symbols before the ranks, or not at all? it is a little confusing like this. I bid 3♠ which shows 10-12 and 3 a card fit, doesn't it?

[Phil]

What is 2N; oh I see it in the poll.

Looks like a good call at BAM.

[jdonn]

Phil, on Dec 7 2009, 02:10 PM, said:

What is 2N; oh I see it in the poll.

Looks like a good call at BAM.

No it doesn't. Raising spades looks like a good call at bridge.

[aguahombre]

jdonn, on Dec 7 2009, 12:12 PM, said:

Phil, on Dec 7 2009, 02:10 PM, said:

What is 2N; oh I see it in the poll.

Looks like a good call at BAM.

No it doesn't. Raising spades looks like a good call at bridge.

Yes it (raising spades) does, but the question was how to do that in OP's system, or lack thereof.
In the poll, several calls are explained. 1NT is not, so it isn't forcing.

This leaves only 2D followed by minimum spade bid if opener doesn't bid 2H -- that sequence would not be game forcing, apparently; and a raise of 2H to 3H would not be game forcing either, I guess.

[nigel_k]

It is between 2NT and a three card limit raise. I think NT will score better on average when partner is 5332 though it certainly could be wrong. I will rebid 3NT over 3♣ and 3♠ over 3♦. Since it's BAM we don't have to worry about going against the field by playing NT instead of spades.

[Phil]

jdonn, on Dec 7 2009, 02:12 PM, said:

Phil, on Dec 7 2009, 02:10 PM, said:

What is 2N; oh I see it in the poll.

Looks like a good call at BAM.

No it doesn't. Raising spades looks like a good call at bridge.

BAM ain't bridge

Two of your ex-pard's reached 3N in the Reisinger yesterday with

Axx Kxxxx Ax AKx

opp

QTxx AJTx JTxx x

and this was after a club overcall.

Assuming they aren't nuts, how bad can it be to suggest 2N on the actual hand?

By the way, from what I can tell, a lead penalty let Nik make 660 LOL.

[jdonn]

Phil, on Dec 7 2009, 02:34 PM, said:

Assuming they aren't nuts
...
Nik
...

LOL

[mike777]

suokko, on Dec 7 2009, 01:23 PM, said:

Your partner has played less than one year but is good dummy player and fair enough defender. Too bad biding is just basic 5 card majors without any conventions or fancy bids. Opponents are one of the better sides (30+ years old partnership).

You hold A8x♠ QT8x♥ QJ9x♦ Qx♣. all love.

partner opens 1♠ first seat.

Tournament is small BAM event with 8 teams round robin, 6 boards against each.

2s constructive raise for me, just short of a 3 card limit raise.

[Jlall]

jdonn, on Dec 7 2009, 02:40 PM, said:

Phil, on Dec 7 2009, 02:34 PM, said:

Assuming they aren't nuts
...
Nik
...

LOL

hahaha.

There is something to be said for raising to 2S on this hand depending on your opening bid style I think.

[Fluffy]

it doesn't matter if its BAM or not, partner doesn't know how to card play, if your goal is to maximize your results you have to bid NT now. I would try 2NT if he knows anything about invitational sequences, 3NT otherwise.

[hanp]

gwnn, on Dec 7 2009, 02:09 PM, said:

hi, could you for future reference put the suit symbols before the ranks, or not at all? it is a little confusing like this.

You are such a hand diagram fascist.

I would make a 3-card limit raise btw.

[andy_h]

The 3 card limit raise.

[suokko]

Comment from one of the opponents after I did put down the dummy: "You don't much value queens!".

Hands and what happened at table:
I don't remember all the cards to smallest detail. Specially opponents heart holdings were unclear because of early claim.

Scoring: BAM

1♠-2♠;ap

---

Lead was small club so I suspect RHO holding at least one of heart honors and was looking for passive lead.
Defense got 2 spades + club over ruff + diamond king for +140 scores. Opponents at other table did bid 4♠ down one so anything staying out of game wins the board.

I evaluated this to be very bad invite and something good might happen after 2 spades so I bid it. Too bad there was no balancing action when opponents held so much values in ♠.
After tough ATT was biding NT with slow values in side suits. At least this time NT is not good when defense has chance to get 5 tricks before declarer making 9.

Looks like I'm nut for biding 2♠ but at least it worked here. Invite would lead to game level which is doomed in this board.

[jonottawa]

This is an interesting hand from a double-dummy perspective. Not sure why you find it interesting from a bidding perspective since 2N, 3N, 2S, 3S and 4S are all perfectably reasonable contracts.

[Jlall]

Pretty sure partner is not supposed to accept a 3 card LR with that hand, bad trumps especially are not good for a 5-3 fit...

[Fluffy]

but bad trumps are great when partner is suposed to hold 4 of them.

[suokko]

Jlall, on Dec 9 2009, 08:45 AM, said:

Pretty sure partner is not supposed to accept a 3 card LR with that hand, bad trumps especially are not good for a 5-3 fit...

Would you accept if you just knew that partner has 3+ card support and invitational values? I know it would be better to have different bid for 3 card raise but there was none this time.

If making invite in NT then openers hand is a lot worse and should not raise to game but unknown length of spade support probably should just raise to game.

@jonottawa: yes. contracts are reasonable but if I saw partner's hand while biding I wouldn't want to end to game level in spades. It would be interesting play problem in 4 spades with heart lead. You have bad entries and chance to lose trump control if all hearts are offside.

I mainly posted this as biding problem to see if anyone else would just do constructive raise after strongly surprised comment from the opponent.

So contract is 4♠ and you get ♥x lead. What is the best line and how good odds you have for it?