[MFA]

Scoring: MP

(2♦)-pass-(2NT)-?

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Just a hand from today's city championships.

2♦ is 'bad' multi - they have 2M available to show a more solid (standard) weak 2.
2NT is an asking bid.

You know the opponents quite well. West is a fairly active bidder, it could be a 5 card suit, but he is not insane.
East is a very aggressive bidder, with a lot of flair, but sometimes overbidding. 2NT was bid 'a tempo'.

Ideas? (No leaping michaels has been agreed in this sequence.)

[Echognome]

I can think of two options.

1. Bid 4NT and if partner bids 5♦, bid 5♥. Partner will have to field your bid, but it will probably shut out the opponents.

2. Bid 3♣. The opponents are likely in a force after this and West will likely want to show his suit before any higher competition starts. Then if it goes something like (3♠) - P - (4♠) - ? you can then bid 5♥ (or if you are feeling conservative 4NT and pass 5♣ or correct 5♦ to 5♥).

I like option 2. because I am not overly worried about it going all pass.

[rogerclee]

3C in an attempt to get my suits in. LHO has spades on this auction a huge majority of the time, since RHO is so likely to have 2+♥.

[rbforster]

3♦ multi

[pooltuna]

MFA, on Apr 10 2010, 07:08 PM, said:

Scoring: MP

(2♦)-pass-(2NT)-?

---

Just a hand from today's city championships.

2♦ is 'bad' multi - they have 2M available to show a more solid (standard) weak 2.
2NT is an asking bid.

You know the opponents quite well. West is a fairly active bidder, it could be a 5 card suit, but he is not insane.
East is a very aggressive bidder, with a lot of flair, but sometimes overbidding. 2NT was bid 'a tempo'.

Ideas? (No leaping michaels has been agreed in this sequence.)

Well I see 4 options; pass, X, 3♣, & 3♥.

Pass: This lets you back into the auction with some idea of who has what but possibly at an uncomfortably high level. As the opps don't rate to bypass 4♠ you should have 4NT still available.

X: This tells partner it really is our hand but without being sure you really want to play 2NTX

3♣: This gets in your longest suits but not sure you will be ready to bid 5♥ over 4♠ and 4NT will then tend to show a shorter(maybe too much ) second suit

3♥: This gets in your major and makes the 5♣ call over 4♠ easier.

Personally I think I will risk LHO's psychic pass of 2NT and try and back into the auction. So pass for now.

[mcphee]

I am starting with 3C in the hope partner can raise or act. I know I may have to introduce H at a dangerous level, perhaps over 4S. RHO could easily be 4-4 majors increasing partners chances at C length. Anyway, I plan on being declarer.

[ONEferBRID]

I'm with a Tuna option: Hts first... then Cl ... edit: then Cl again.

[OleBerg]

6♣.

My plan is to set up hearts with a ruff (West can't ruff high), and finess East for his club-values. That should make 13 tricks. I am, however, always unlucky, so I underbid with 1 trick.

I am going to have to guess on this hand anyway, so i might as well give the opponents a guess too, instead of making a feeble attempt to introduce hearts, which East might easily control, since he bid 2NT.

[MFA]

Heh, not so many 'creative' suggestions, mostly just bidding one suit and then the other.

With this hand we can't realistically ever get to a situation where we can leave a final decision to partner. We can get him to take a preference, but he will practically never bid support us on his own.
Also the situation is interesting because at this point east doesn't know what suit west has. This may make it very tough for east to judge later, since he might have a much better support for spades than for hearts.

If we can make slam, which is very likely, I don't think being in game, even doubled, will give us many mps. So any bid we make at the 5-level should be thought of as a deliberate underbid.

But then again it's also annoying to go minus because of a unilateral shot.

I'm not very confident about good/bad tactics in these situations.

I tried 5♣ with the plan of redoubling if (hopefully when!) east doubled. Playing 5♣XX would be a good shot for a good score I thought, and it will be a tough situation for east not knowing his partner's suit. If east decides to bid 5 over 5 I'll continue to 6♣.
I'm not going to reveal yet if it was a succesful operation or not.

[hanp]

I would also bid 5C.

There is a lot to be said for bidding high before LHO can show their spade suit. RHO will likely have an impossible problem over 5C, and LHO won't be able to bid (either now or when RHO doubles), no matter what they hold.

I'm not very worried about missing a better heart fit. Of course it would suck to go down in 5C cold for 6H, but if partner has a good heart fit then they probably have an even better spade fit.

The level is another issue. It does sound like the opponents have most of the missing goods. Also, I think that 5C is preemptive enough.

I wouldn't redouble when 5C gets doubled. For one thing, I have no idea if we are making, and 5CX-1 or -2 could still be a good score. When 5CX makes it will score quite well usually, and it will beat most contracts but slams.

[hanp]

I think both MFA and Oleberg are overestimating the chance of making slam.

[pooltuna]

hanp, on Apr 12 2010, 10:02 AM, said:

I think both MFA and Oleberg are overestimating the chance of making slam.

So you are saying the probabilty of partner holding

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or similar is miniscule?

[OleBerg]

MFA, on Apr 12 2010, 02:01 PM, said:

I tried 5♣ with the plan of redoubling if (hopefully when!) east doubled. Playing 5♣XX would be a good shot for a good score I thought, and it will be a tough situation for east not knowing his partner's suit. If east decides to bid 5 over 5 I'll continue to 6♣.
I'm not going to reveal yet if it was a succesful operation or not.

I don't like your plan, mainly because of who you are. Everybody will expect your bids to be somewhat sensible, so if you redouble or bid 6♣, they might smell the rat.

The plan would be much better for a person with a questionable reputation (bidding wise).

And I really don't think "mixed-strategy" arguments aplly here; it is highly unlikely your oponents in that tourney will even be aware of them

[hanp]

Tuna go troll somebody else please.

It is possible that RHO has psyched the 2NT call but in that case RHO probably has length in both majors. Therefore it seems unlikely that partner has a 10-count including QJx of hearts.

Of course I didn't say that the chance that we have slam is miniscule. If partner has 4 or more clubs then we likely will make slam and 3 may be plenty. However, I don't think it is very likely, as MFA said, and if RHO doubles 5C then that makes it less likely. In that scenario I am content to play 5CX.

[pooltuna]

hanp, on Apr 12 2010, 10:35 AM, said:

Tuna go troll somebody else please.

It is possible that RHO has psyched the 2NT call but in that case RHO probably has length in both majors. Therefore it seems unlikely that partner has a 10-count including QJx of hearts.

Of course I didn't say that the chance that we have slam is miniscule. If partner has 4 or more clubs then we likely will make slam and 3 may be plenty. However, I don't think it is very likely, as MFA said, and if RHO doubles 5C then that makes it less likely. In that scenario I am content to play 5CX.

I missed what estimation of slam they proposed but if you assume slam is good when partner holds the ♣K or ♥Q then that rates to be 55% certainly within the bounds of worrying about missing a slam. BTW my grandmother was born in Djocdjacarta the same year Krakatoa blew and afterwards lived much of her life in Wassenaar. So I know where you live

[jdonn]

I'm fine starting with 3♣ and trying to get both suits in, and interestingly regarding the comment about overestimating slam I'm inclined to force to slam on many auctions here. The other option I like is overcalling 6♣, it has a fair shot to make, it makes the opponents take an awful guess, and it hides my hand well. But ugh we could just be making 6♥ only!

[MFA]

hanp, on Apr 12 2010, 05:35 PM, said:

Tuna go troll somebody else please.

It is possible that RHO has psyched the 2NT call but in that case RHO probably has length in both majors. Therefore it seems unlikely that partner has a 10-count including QJx of hearts.

Of course I didn't say that the chance that we have slam is miniscule. If partner has 4 or more clubs then we likely will make slam and 3 may be plenty. However, I don't think it is very likely, as MFA said, and if RHO doubles 5C then that makes it less likely. In that scenario I am content to play 5CX.

We have no reason to think 2NT might be psychic. We just have a 13 count, so everything looks normal. East is a favourite to have a somewhat balanced hand with at least two cards in each major.

One of the ideas behind 5♣ is to guard against that we don't have slam. I don't trust east to be able to judge the situation at all over 5♣ undoubled. Basically I play east to double 5♣ just about always. We could easily still have 12 or 13 tricks in clubs, even after a double. So if east figures out to run from 5♣XX, I think we will have an excellent chance in slam, because if he is very strong in clubs he definitely wont run. So in a sense I hope to play 5♣XX when there are 11 tricks and slam when there are 12 tricks.

But there are many things that could go wrong. I admit.

So, hell, I don't know. That's why I posted.

[gwnn]

This is a very interesting hand. Any chance you could tell us when you will reveal what happened? I will mark the date in my calendar.

[hanp]

I don't agree with myself anymore.

[Fluffy]

bidding 3♣ risks being passed out if 2NT was a psyche you won't like that scenario.

better than that seems to me to pass first, then bid 3♠, 4♠ or 4NT to show 2 places to play.