[awm]

Suppose your RHO opens 3♥ in first seat. Which of these hands do you think is most likely to lead to a bad result for your side at IMPs:

(1) A strong notrump. ♠Ax ♥AQx ♦Kxxx ♣ KJxx. Pass and you can easily miss a game when partner can't balance. Double and partner bids spades. I'd try 3NT, but could easily go for a four digit number or just drift down one or two when 3♥ wasn't making.

(2) A long minor. ♠A ♥xx ♦Kxx ♣ AKJxxxx. 3NT from partner's side might be cold, but if you gamble it out, it'll be wrong-sided. Double and partner bids spades. I'd bid 4♣, but could easily miss a cold notrump game here.

(3) A sound preempt. ♠KQxxxx ♥x ♦Kxx ♣xxx. Pass and you can easily miss game when partner has a weak notrump in balancing seat and passes it out. But if you bid 3♠, won't partner expect a better hand? You will not be happy if partner tries 3NT over 3♠, or looks for slam.

(4) 4♠ and 6♣. ♠KQxx ♥xx ♦x ♣AKJxxx. Pass and you could miss game; it's good opposite as little as ace-fifth of spades and out. It could even be a double game swing. Double with this hand and partner may well bid diamonds. Overcall 4♣ and spades may be lost forever.

(5) A huge hand. ♠KQJ ♥AQx ♦AKQx ♣AJxx. Slam might make, or it might not. It will be hard to have an intelligent auction to figure this out.

(6) A weak takeout. ♠Kxxx ♥xx ♦KQx ♣Axxx. Pass and you can easily miss game when partner has a balanced 13-14 with too many hearts to bid. Double could be headed for disaster when partner plays you for a better hand than this (or if opponents hold majority of the strength and just start doubling).

I'm not really interested in what people would bid with these hands -- in most cases there are only two reasonable options and it's just a matter of balancing potential disaster against potential disaster. The question is: which of these hands do you think is most likely to get you fixed?

[whereagles]

I'd go with hands 2 and 4. With 2 I'd probably bid 3NT and hope for the best, but 4 is even worse.. double draws diams from pard after which I get stuck. Can bid 4S if it gets doubled, though.

[han]

2 for me, 4 close second, I clicked on [3] by mistake.

By the way, I like our chances best with the first hand. At least it will give me the least worries.

[FrancesHinden]

Depends what you mean by "get you fixed". Hand 1 is, to me, a straight down the middle 3NT overcall. But this is also the only hand of the set which could go for a truly huge penalty. I can be -1100 against a partial in the other room if they didn't find the same 3H bid. The other hands mainly game swings at worst.

[Chamaco]

I chose:
1st choice: 4S+ long minor: it's easy to end up in the wrong strain, missing game/slam in the other.

2nd choice: weak takeout. With weak t/o shape, pard never balances.

3rd choice: "good preempt". Same problem as weak takeout: when we do have shape, pard hasn't and we can miss game. On the other hand, if we bid with a preempt over a preempt, many tumes we go for 3/4 digits...

[Fluffy]

Thes strong balanced because I bid it the same way as the 16 balanced.

[Chamaco]

Fluffy, on Apr 21 2005, 01:48 PM, said:

Thes strong balanced because I bid it the same way as the 16 balanced.

Some players agree to jump to 4NT with the strong balanced.
It does make sense to me, since it will allow to find slam more often than it goes off 1 when 3NT makes.

Using this agrement, this hand seems to me less problematic than the 3 hands I mentioned above.

[pclayton]

Not sure what you mean by 'worst' here - is it a hand where we rate to go for a number? Or one that has a lot of IMPs riding on it? Or just a hand where people make silly bids on?

1. 3N - its a minimum and we might get creamed.

2. 5♣ - A subset of the hands where we can't make 3N make 6♣. A lot of the hands where we make 3N we make 5♣. And there are some very specific hands where we make 3N from pard's side but not mine. Last, there are a few hands where they make 4♥ and 5♣ is cheap. So 5♣ isn't too bad and is a nice description.

3. Pass. This hand does not warrant initial action. Lots to lose.

4. 4♣. Very difficult!

5. Double and I'll cue after pard's response. Toughie as well.

6. Pass. Good example of getting fixed; happens to everyone.

[Winstonm]

For me hand #6 has the most potential for disaster -by either passing or bidding you may be taking way the worst of it.

[Fluffy]

Chamaco, on Apr 21 2005, 01:55 PM, said:

Some players agree to jump to 4NT with the strong balanced.
It does make sense to me, since it will allow to find slam more often than it goes off 1 when 3NT makes.

I wonder what do they do with minors.