[luis]

Scoring: IMP

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East opened 3s.
South bid 3NT and North passed.

Comments are welcome :-)

Luis

[whereagles]

Seems normal to me.. You can't get them all right.

Maybe if South doubles.. or if North raises to 4NT.

[inquiry]

Blame the director for allowing preempts. I have seen tournments where psyches are not allowed.. try to play in ones where preempts are not allowed...

Norht could make a move, but south's spade winner might be slow (QTx)... South might consider doubling since he can't hold up in spades very long, but not sure that helps either. So I guess you chalk this one up to this is why they preempt.

Ben

[pclayton]

luis, on Aug 13 2004, 02:05 PM, said:

Dealer: East Vul: None Scoring: IMP

♠ xx ♥ Axx ♦ xx ♣ AJxxxx ♠ Ax ♥ KQ8xx ♦ Axx ♣ KQx

East opened 3s.
South bid 3NT and North passed.

Comments are welcome :-)

Luis

You can have fun with hands like this :

Give them the actual North hand and asked what they'd bid. If the pass, give them the actual south hand. Tell them: "My God, you have 2 bullets and partner is contracting for 9 tricks, and you PASS?"

If they make a call (4♣ is my guess), show them this South hand:

♠ Kx
♥ Qxx
♦ AKQTxx
♣ xx

If this was the actual South hand, and we were assessing the blame on getting to a poor 4N or 5♦, the comments would be along the lines of: "Partner is bidding under pressure, give him some slack" .

[the hog]

Seems like a normal result to me, Luis. I would bid 3N, though I would prefer a third S. Partner has a pretty obvious pass - he has to cut thrunter some slack - wdo.

Actually your post raises an interesting point Luis - how does Nth continue if he has a good hand?

As the 3N bid can be based on a variety of hands, we play

(3?) 3N (P) 4C enquiry
Now 4D/H/S = 3N was based on a long running suit. (Their suit shows C)
4N = 3N was based on HCP - Now 5C = Baron, 5D/H = trfs, 5S says pick a minor.

What do you play here?

Ron

[Cascade]

The_Hog, on Aug 14 2004, 01:22 PM, said:

As the 3N bid can be based on a variety of hands, we play

(3?) 3N (P) 4C enquiry
Now 4D/H/S = 3N was based on a long running suit. (Their suit shows C)
4N = 3N was based on HCP - Now 5C = Baron, 5D/H = trfs, 5S says pick a minor.

What do you play here?

Ron

I like this Ron.

However I wonder if it is also important to distinguish the range since 3NT on this auction is one of the widest ranging bids in bridge.

[Trpltrbl]

Sometimes preempts just work, but I think that X with South hand is best. Ax isn't the best stopper, even though I can see 3 NT.
But North does have 2 aces and a long suit and possibly could make a 4 NT try.
But I think 3 NT is normal result on most tables.

Mike

[mikestar]

3N isn't so bad here--yes 7N is on ice if the hearts split, but if they don't, the only slam that makes is 6C. And the odds on the 4-1 heart split go up as preempter is likely to be short in hearts.

You'll have a lot of company missing it and a lot of the slam bidders may be minus.

[EricK]

East has made a good pre-empt. Well done to him.

It is not trivial to bid these hands to slam even without the opening pre-empt. At least not in a natural system. I can easily imagine many pairs languishing in 4♥, because they haven't diagnosed that there are two running suits. Especially if North does not consider his hand strong enough to bid 2♣ over 1♥.

Eric

[the hog]

Cascade, on Aug 14 2004, 12:14 PM, said:

The_Hog, on Aug 14 2004, 01:22 PM, said:

As the 3N bid can be based on a variety of hands, we play

(3?) 3N (P) 4C enquiry
Now 4D/H/S = 3N was based on a long running suit. (Their suit shows C)
4N = 3N was based on HCP - Now 5C = Baron, 5D/H = trfs, 5S says pick a minor.

What do you play here?

Ron

I like this Ron.

However I wonder if it is also important to distinguish the range since 3NT on this auction is one of the widest ranging bids in bridge.

I suppose you could add 4N = 17-19, 5C = 20-21, 5D = 22-23.

We haven't done this, yet, but there is no reason why not, Wayne.

[1eyedjack]

The_Hog, on Aug 13 2004, 08:22 PM, said:

As the 3N bid can be based on a variety of hands, we play

(3?) 3N (P) 4C enquiry
Now 4D/H/S = 3N was based on a long running suit. (Their suit shows C)
4N = 3N was based on HCP - Now 5C = Baron, 5D/H = trfs, 5S says pick a minor.

I suppose that you might give up on overcalling 3NT with a long running major as a source of tricks, and commit to 4M on those hands. It is rare that you can tell for sure that 3N is better at the time of bidding it. If you do that, you free up some lower level bids for balanced hand clarification.

[the hog]

"I suppose that you might give up on overcalling 3NT with a long running major as a source of tricks, and commit to 4M on those hands. "

No way!

[Fluffy]

That is one of those damn perfect fitting hands, still with perfect fit it seems than 6 should be reacheable since 7 looks like a good spot.

If you have to blame someone for that I think it should be South, sincee double is an option with his hand, but even after a double I am not sure 6 is reacheable anyway.

[Free]

7♣ is laydown imo, 7♥ not. Still, I don't like the 3NT bid. Too much can go wrong, and you have no sure length you can play. Partner didn't bid yet, but RHO didn't bid as well. First hand openers NV might be weak, ok, but Ax as stop is the absolute minimum.

I think I'd rather bid Dbl or 4♥.

Pass from North is quite obvious. Blame the Vulnerability, if you were V vs NV, I think you'd find at least small slam

[TimG]

Free, on Aug 19 2004, 02:06 PM, said:

7♣ is laydown imo, 7♥ not.

7♣ looks to need 32 hearts -- with hearts 4-1, you have 6 clubs, 1 spade, 4 hearts and 1 diamond = 12 tricks. So, my first choice would be 6♣, but if you're going to bid a grand, you might as well bid 7♥ (or 7NT).

Quote

I think I'd rather bid Dbl or 4♥.

If they had opened in a minor (and I held Ax in their suit), I would like double followed by minimum NT to show a somewhat flexible hand. But here, we're under extreme pressure because we're already at 3♠ (converting a forced 4m to 4N, is different from converting a jump to 4♠ to 4NT). So, 3NT looks normal.

North might make a move (4NT, perhaps), but given the pressure partner was under when bidding 3NT, probably best to just pass. I do think it's close, though.

Tim