[hrothgar]

Here's a couple hands from a recent tournament where partner and I are having some disagreement regaridng the right action:

Hand 1

IMPS

White versus Red

You hold

J86
Q8543
A9873
Void

(2S) - P - P - ???

Your call = ?

Hand 2

White versus White

You hold

AT9
KJT97
6
J653

P - (1S) - ???

Your call = ?

[pbleighton]

1) Pass. -200 more likely than not.
2) Tough - 2H, and 3H both have something to recommend them.
2H - the third spade makes the opps fit less likely.
This is after I thought about it. At the table, I probably bid 3H

Peter

[the hog]

Pass the first board
Pass on the second

[mikestar]

Pass the first hand, the suits are too raggedy.

On the second hand I prefer 3H though this depends on your overcalling standards. With 8 losers, AT9 in the enemy suit, and good trumps balaned by poor clubs, I don't don't think its good enough for a two level overcall. There will be too many hands where partner takes a shot at game over 2H and 9 tricks are the limit.

[hrothgar]

Sorry all

Hand 1, we're White versus red
Hand 2 is 3=5=1=4 shape, NOT 3=6=1=4

[pbleighton]

Well, weren't we unobservant....

Pass.

[EricK]

I pass on both

Eric

[twcho]

Pass with both hands

[mikestar]

Yes, quite unobservant--pass with both.

[Chamaco]

Pass w/ both hands.

[Flame]

pass
pass

[inquiry]

Board one, clear pass

Board two, pass or 3H... and yes, I see there is only 5 hearts in the hand. I would not consider bidding 2H, but I might bid 3.

Ben

[EricK]

inquiry, on Aug 5 2004, 12:37 PM, said:

Board one, clear pass

Board two, pass or 3H... and yes, I see there is only 5 hearts in the hand. I would not consider bidding 2H, but I might bid 3.

Ben

At this vulnerability, that seems a little frisky.

You're not playing inherently destructive methods are you?

Eric

[inquiry]

EricK, on Aug 5 2004, 08:39 AM, said:

inquiry, on Aug 5 2004, 12:37 PM, said:

Board one, clear pass

Board two, pass or 3H... and yes, I see there is only 5 hearts in the hand. I would not consider bidding 2H, but I might bid 3.

Ben

At this vulnerability, that seems a little frisky.

You're not playing inherently destructive methods are you?

Eric

Well.. I did say PASS first, or 3H. Most of the time I pass with this hand, and if partner wasn't a passed hand, I would surely pass. Sometimes, however, especially at matchpoints, the mood strikes to me create action and I feel like I shoudl do something. If I was going to do something on th is hand, (espeically late in an event and we need imo another board) that something would be 3H, since I have no desire to try to encourage partner to bid. 3H here has some protection due to the nice quality of the suit,, If you reverse the majors, and have them open 1H, I would surely bid 2S. I don't think 3H is a horrible bid, in fact I sort of like it.

Do I play destructive methods? Hmmm. I guess so, in a way. I often follow the 5421 preempt style. Where if we are not vul, and they are vul, I will preempt with as many as down five being likely if partne contributes nothing. If neither are vul, down four, if both are vul down two, and when I am vul and they are not, my preempts should be down no more than one normally. However, after my partner has passed, I have been known to preempt even not vul with very nice hands that most would consider much too strong to preempt on. That is, I try to be somewhat unpredictable.

Ben

[Flame]

why is 2h worse then 3h ?
Imo 2h is a little bit better then 3h.
My diffence is nice vs a spade contract, especially when im likely to get a ruff.
If their fit is in a minor suit, my 3h would give them a nice alternative of doubleing my 3h.
I would pass this, but 2h is imo closer then 3h.

[luis]

Contribute to the ecology, use the green card.

Luis.

[paulhar]

Wow - do you demand respect! When I post a problem, I get maybe three answers

First one's not even close, if I reopen, the opps might stumble into their mammoth club fit; partner's inaction over 1S probably means we're not missing much. (I'm assuming normal overcalls and takeout doubles - if MOSCITO does something different, maybe I'm making bad assumptions about partner's hand)

Second one - I have an eight loser hand - normally like a 7-loser hand for a 2-level overcall. Also, the three cards in their suit is a minus...

So, I see that with 16 HCP opposite their 24, it's your hand THIS time, but most times you bid or reopen with your 16 vs their 24, the bonanza is going to be for their side. I would assume that very few get to 4H, nothing works on every board. Chalk it up to the fine preemptive effect of the opponent's 1S bid

[hrothgar]

Thanks for all the responses. Free and I had a disastrous outting yesterday, in which everything that could go wrong did go wrong. [For example, I screwed up a step in a relay sequence and ended up placing a game contract in the wrong suit] I didn't bother to check our score, but I'm quite sure that it was in the 20s...

From my perspective, one of the big take-aways is that I am trying to convince Free that he is allowed to pass on occassion. Indeed its often better to do so.

Example 1:

Hand 1:

---

Our auction progressed

(2S) - P - (P) - X
(P) - 3♣ - (X) - XX
All Pass

3♣XX didn't fare especially well. Free and I had never discussed whether this XX is for business or not. From my perspective, the XX should show a strong balanced hand, however, this probably relates to a difference of opinion regarding whats necessary for a balancing double...

On hand 2, Free chose a 2♥ overcall. He eventually declared 3♥ beautifully for a substantial gain. However, I still think that the decision to overcall is highly questionable.

[inquiry]

First double iwth club void is wrong, RDBL is even worse. Simply bid 3♦ as pass/correct here. That is, don't ask partner to rescue you, start rescuing yourself.

Bet 3♣Xx wasn't a huge success...

[hrothgar]

inquiry, on Aug 5 2004, 06:28 PM, said:

First double iwth club void is wrong, RDBL is even worse. Simply bid 3♦ as pass/correct here. That is, don't ask partner to rescue you, start rescuing yourself.

Actually, I think that you're fixed as soon as you chose to double with this hand.

I don't think that 3♦ can be reasonable interpreted as pass or correct

In theory, there are a fairly limited number of hands that are shown by the double:
If you're doubling without club tolerance, then almost by definition you have a strong single suited hand...