[Wackojack]

Scoring: MP

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You open 2♣= game force, LHO overcalls 2♠, partner passes, RHO bids 3♠. Over to you.

Would 4♠ be showing an ace or void and double a singleton? If partner responds 4♥ to your pass or double or 5♥ to your 4♠, what action do you now take?

[junyi_zhu]

Wackojack, on Nov 17 2004, 05:15 PM, said:

[ONEHAND=South,None,MP,,AQJ86,AKQ106,AQ8]

You open 2♣= game force, LHO overcalls 2♠, partner passes, RHO bids 3♠. Over to you.

Would 4♠ be showing an ace or void and double a singleton? If partner responds 4♥ to your pass or double or 5♥ to your 4♠, what action do you now take?

It depends on your partnership agreement. If you play pass to show either weak or penalty oriented hands, you should probably bid 4D to show H+D.
With D one suiter, you can either double 3S or bid 5D yourself if you don't want to
defence. 4S can be too high facing a broken partner. Double is also bad with a void.

[luke warm]

i bid 4s... don't know what it shows, it just asks partner to bid... if he bids 5h, i raise to 6

[pclayton]

Similar to Junyi I'd like to know what the initial pass shows. If it shows values, I'm forcing to 6 of a red suit; expecting to find at least one useful king, and exploring for 7 at the same time. If pass shows a minimum, I'll subside in 5 if necessary.

[inquiry]

This hand looks very familiar. When I held it, or one like it, I bid 4♥ with the clever plan of carrying on to 5♦ over their possible 4♠ sacrafice. If this is the hand, what happened to me was that when LHO bid 4♠, my partner bid 5♥. How could I, given parnters raise to five, not bid 6? Sadly on 11 tricks.

Upon reflection, 4♥ wasn't horrible, but a forcing pass here or a creative 4NT (pick a suit), where I pull 5♣ to 5♦ seems about right. If partner has a little something after this we get to 6, and if not, we should be in five of our best fit.

So if not playing Misho's meta overcalls (where I can bid 4♦ here to show red two suiter), I am leaning heavily towards 4NT over 3♠, certainly this has to be better than 4♠ at least. But in the real world, I actually bid 4♥.

Ben

[PriorKnowledge]

4H is OK, but I like pass better.
Pass is forcing. After opening 2C, your side is commited to game or dbl of opps.

4S bypasses 4H, so pass is better.

My question is: What does responder's original pass show? If you don't have an agreement, you should. Some play that dbl is weak and pass shows more. Others play it the other way around.

[HeartA]

I voted for 4S. If 4NT is on the list, I would vote for it. I didn't want to vote for "Other", because it is too broad.

[the hog]

Jlall, on Nov 18 2004, 08:54 AM, said:

PriorKnowledge, on Nov 17 2004, 04:44 PM, said:

Pass is forcing. After opening 2C, your side is commited to game or dbl of opps.

this is definitely NOT standard. If it goes 2C p 2D p 2N that is forcing?

Perhaps not standard, but this is certainly a sensible agreement to have if your 2C openings are normal.

[Wackojack]

Scoring: MP

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Thanks for the opinions. Bidding: 2♣-2♠-p-3♠, ?. We play:
Pass after intervention over 2♣ = 0-4HCP
2♣2♦2NT = 23-24HCP

I like Luke Warm's simple approach to bid 4♠ and then 6♥ over partner's 5♥. Even opposite ♥xxxx slam looks a reasonable prospect. However, it would have been better had the contract been right sided.

The downside of bidding 4 of a suit is that partner would expect a single suited hand of at least 6 cards so would not correct.

At the table I doubled (no one voted for this) although I see the danger of partner passing as minimal and if he does it may well give us the only plus score say QJ10xx, xx,xx,xxxx. After the double partner bid 4♥ and 12 tricks rolled in after a spade lead. I think after this I should have bid 5♥ or possibly bashed 6. Anothe thing in favour of double is that if partner has diamonds it does give him the choice of bidding 4 or 5 according to distribution. Over 5♦ I would go 6♦.

Pass seems to have the same benefits as a double but without the downside of a possible penalty pass from partner. But wouldn't partner think that I had a balanced 23-24 and pass with a balanced yarb?

inquiry Posted on Nov 17 2004, 03:12 PM
This hand looks very familiar. When I held it, or one like it, I bid 4♥ with the clever plan of carrying on to 5♦ over their possible 4♠ sacrafice. If this is the hand, what happened to me was that when LHO bid 4♠, my partner bid 5♥. How could I, given parnters raise to five, not bid 6? Sadly on 11 tricks.
Upon reflection, 4♥ wasn't horrible, but a forcing pass here or a creative 4NT (pick a suit), where I pull 5♣ to 5♦ seems about right. If partner has a little something after this we get to 6, and if not, we should be in five of our best fit.

Sorry the quote is not boxed. Difficult to see how a slam would fail if partner voluntarily bids 5♥ ove 4♠. Also if 4NT is pick a suit, how is this different from 4♠?