[sceptic]

Scoring: IMP

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West North East South

 Pass  1NT   Pass  2♣
 Pass  2♦    Pass  3♠
 Pass  4♥    Pass  Pass
 Pass  

We play Stayman , Smollen and Texas Transfers, I chose Smollen as the route to go, would you do it differently and if so why

[whereagles]

Seems fine to me.

[luke warm]

sure, seems right to me... you have to see if there's a 4/4 spade fit, then let pard bid the heart game

[sceptic]

how would you bid it with a weak NT and how would you bid it with precision?

[Flame]

What does partner do with 3-2 in ♠/♥ when you bid a smolen 3♠ ?
if he suppose to bid 4sp on some hands then 3sp isnt right here.
anyway i dont understand what smolen helps you here, and would prefer bidding 4h instead.

[sceptic]

I would hope my pard realises I had game values and 5/2 in hearts would be ok better than 4/3 in spades

[Flame]

sceptic, on Oct 23 2004, 08:58 PM, said:

I would hope my pard realises I had game values and 5/2 in hearts would be ok better than 4/3 in spades

If that so then im asking, what the point in playing smolen, why show ur second suit when partner never needed to know about it ? just helping the opponents ?

[cnszsun]

Flame, on Oct 23 2004, 08:33 PM, said:

What does partner do with 3-2 in ♠/♥ when you bid a smolen 3♠ ?
if he suppose to bid 4sp on some hands then 3sp isnt right here.
anyway i dont understand what smolen helps you here, and would prefer bidding 4h instead.

At this situation North is expected to bid 3NT, then you can transfer to H with 4D, IMO.

[Flame]

cnszsun, on Oct 23 2004, 09:15 PM, said:

Flame, on Oct 23 2004, 08:33 PM, said:

What does partner do with 3-2 in ♠/♥ when you bid a smolen 3♠ ?
if he suppose to bid 4sp on some hands then 3sp isnt right here.
anyway i dont understand what smolen helps you here, and would prefer bidding 4h instead.

At this situation North is expected to bid 3NT, then you can transfer to H with 4D, IMO.

So what is the point of showing the spade suit ?

[luke warm]

showing the spade suit only shows opener that there's a game force on and responder has longer hearts... and cnszsun is right, with 3/2 opener is supposed to bid 3nt and responder will xfer to hearts, showing 4/6+

playing a strong club, the bidding would be pretty much the same
1c : 1d (0-2 controls)
1nt : 2c (stayman)
2d : 3s
3nt : 4d
4h

this assumes a fairly standard response structure after 1c and 1nt

[HeartA]

Flame, on Oct 23 2004, 09:37 PM, said:

cnszsun, on Oct 23 2004, 09:15 PM, said:

Flame, on Oct 23 2004, 08:33 PM, said:

What does partner do with 3-2 in ♠/♥ when you bid a smolen 3♠ ?
if he suppose to bid 4sp on some hands then 3sp isnt right here.
anyway i dont understand what smolen helps you here, and would prefer bidding 4h instead.

At this situation North is expected to bid 3NT, then you can transfer to H with 4D, IMO.

So what is the point of showing the spade suit ?

It is generally accepted that 4-4 fit is better than 5-3 or 6-2 (even 6-3). If pd has 4-card ♠, responder wouldn't show 6-card ♥ (and opp wouldn't know the length of ♥ and ♠ before opening lead). After opening lead, it will become dummy anyway.

[the hog]

"We play Stayman , Smollen and Texas Transfers, I chose Smollen as the route to go, would you do it differently and if so why "

Yes. Smolen does not apply to a 6-4!

[sceptic]

why not when It worked ok here?

[Flame]

sceptic, on Oct 24 2004, 06:39 AM, said:

why not when It worked ok here?

scpetic this might not be triable but this raize lots of question about why you use smolen at all. in this sequence your 3sp bid helped your opponents but it didnt help you at all. This could suggest that smolen is a bad convention, or that its being misused here, or that it just has its weakneses, or that smolen scope could and should be biggier, to include other types of hands, for example a one major suit (without 4 card in the other major) , this would take some presure off ur other bids (like transfer) and it will also help your smolen by not revelaing ur other suit to your opponents with no need.

[mr1303]

Surely if you play texas, then that is the way to do it. There's no point in using 2 bids to show the same thing. Stayman was the correct way to start, then after 2D, bid 4D, delayed texas. Otherwise you're wasting your time putting it on your cc

[mila85]

sceptic, on Oct 23 2004, 08:17 PM, said:

how would you bid it with a weak NT and how would you bid it with precision?

I play weak nt and I open major first.
My pard would open 1♣ and when he shows strong nt I will know he has 4333 or 5332 distribution
I can use some relays to explore possible slam but I guess that opps will also bid to make it us more difficult...

[Free]

I don't see the problem in this auction... I never heard that Smolen isn't used with 6-4's You found your correct game, which will make +2 if no ♠A lead and ♠ ruff, it's no slam, so what's the problem?

I think I would bid the exact way.

[inquiry]

1NT-2♣
2♦-4♦
4♥-pass

[Flame]

inquiry, on Oct 24 2004, 01:15 PM, said:

1NT-2♣
2♦-4♦
4♥-pass

good to see your posts again, it was too quite for a while.

[the hog]

Frederick, you made 12 tricks with the K of D a totally wasted card and you can't see the problem with a Smolen auction? How is partner suupposed to make an intellligent decision when you have shown him a 5-4?