mtvesuvius

4♠ - I pre-empt hands that are distributional when I have any excuse to. Sometimes it backfires, but that doesn't bother me: The amount of times I've won IMPs from pre-empting aggressively far outweighs the downsides IMO.

This is similar to another recent discussion about OBAR bids. Personally I like to bid fairly aggressive here, but even still, we have an amazing hand for partner. I think this is worth a 3♥ call, then 4♠. I want to set a forcing pass, as crazy as that may sound.

I agree with 2♥, and double seems fine. Over the double, North has a clear 3♥ call. South will now try 3♠, and North will bid 4♣... At this point South will probably bid 4♥ (unlikely) or 5♦, neither of which will make, but oh well.

Even though it's an 8 card suit, it's a crappy suit, and we have 1 or two defensive tricks... KQ doubleton in trump isn't something we want to be bidding on. When we go down less than 800, we were beating 4♠. When we are making, partner was taking an action. It's not like we have a spade void and are so worried about partner being stuck. Pass.

Umm, I have an opening bid. Guess what that means?! I have an opening bid! There is no such thing as a rule in bidding. There may be guidelines, but if they are abused, they are useless, pointless and bad.

4♠ for me. When I have favourable Vulnerability and a 7 card spade suit and some shape, I am bidding. Passing is ridiculous IMO

This looks like a textbook prism signals hand (Round Prism) -- Tough to find the defense, I doubt I'd find it at the table.

We hadn't discussed the meaning of 4♥, but I think it should be a somewhat ambiguous slam try, assumed to be for diamonds, however partner could also have a very strong hand with spades. I'm not really sure what's standard here, I was playing with a partner who I hadn't played with before, so we didn't have any detailed (meta)-agreements.

Opposite a working 0-8, especially if partner has hearts, I could envision slam. I think this hand is just barely good enough for a slam try... Give partner something like: xx Kxxxx Kxx xxx slam is on spades coming in, which is a pretty high percentage (4-2 or better spades and no worse than 3-1 trump) Qx Kxxx xxx xxxx is a really bad hand and slam is on spades coming in... Qxx Txxxx Kxx xx now is on a marked heart finesse The heart finesse is fairly marked, and also note that these hands have very little or no club wastage. That's the biggest feature we're looking for in partner's hand. The remaining values are much less important as long as partner has, say, 6 or 7 HCP scattered outside clubs. The reason partner's club wastage is so important is that once we lose the club trick, we're playing with a 30 point deck. We have 18 of those, and give partner 6 or 7 of them, and the rest rate to be onside most of the time, since the pre-empter usually won't have too much outside. Plus on many hands where partner has a doubleton diamond or ♣A, slam will have reasonable play as well. I'm not sure which hands partner will get excited on and which they won't, however I think that given the wide range of hands we can probably make slam opposite, it's worth at least a try. If partner signs off in 4M, I'll respect that.

Can you raise the limit beyond 10?

2♠ seems like plenty. I play 3♠ as pre-emptive (convinced by my other thread lol).

Wow, thanks Rain, my BBO $ was running low as well, nice to see you enjoyed my answer (and money is nice too LOL). Cool concept, it might convince me to log onto the web version for a few minutes to try it out :)

Umm, lol. Now that we actually know the auction, this is all a matter of agreements, I play DONT here, so would bid 2♥. Without agreements it's still better to bid 2♥, as you might be able to judge whether to run or not if you're doubled. Bidding 2♠ is unilateral, and gives up on hearts.

Double - If partner passes, we have plenty of defense, and are not very disappointed. Occasionally we'll miss a slam or something when that happens, but it's so rare. By doubling, you'll be able to show your strength later, and will be able to judge where to place the contract much better than any other call. If partner bids 3♦, you can bid 3♠ to leave 3N and 4♠ both in the picture. If partner bids 3♥ or 3♠, you can cuebid 4♣ on the way to 4♥ in case partner has a reasonable hand as well. If partner bids 4M, you can keycard. If partner bids 3N you have a guess, I'd start with 4♣ then.

[hv=pc=n&s=sk6hj764dakt643c9&d=e&v=b&b=10&a=p1d2h2sp3d3h(lol)4hp]133|200|Partner is a (real) expert... What's your call here?[/hv]

"Yes, hello, this is 911, what is your emergency?" "Ohmigod, I just opened this 4 count, help!!" "Sorry, is there a pass missing? We'll send someone right away! In the mean time, hesitate for at least 45 seconds to make sure partner doesn't bid again!" or if the pass is there: "Yes, hello, this is 911, what is your emergency?" "Ohmigod, I have two four card majors and partner made a slow takeout double!! What should I do?!?!" "Umm... Maybe you should bid one of them?" "But partner doubled slowly! Doesn't that mean I should pass with my defenseless 4 count with a clear 2M bid?" "Umm... Whatever makes you happy, but this is a clear 2♥ bid. Thank you for calling 911, have a nice day"

Would never play them, I'm very simplistic on defensive signalling, but was a fun (and very interesting) read... Thanks.

Timothy Leary is dead... No, no, no, no, he's outside, looking in...

3♥, any other bid will mis-describe the hand more IMO... I could try a heavy 2♥, but I think this is a bit much.

1. I think this is a clear pass. Stiff Q in their suit, two defensive tricks, scattered values etc... I think 5♣ will be wrong most of the time, and when it might be a decent save, we are beating 4♠ anyway. Definitely passing this. 2. Double.

I think this is a siding issue, but I don't see any realistic solution. I'd bid 4♥

I agree, but I think 3♠ suggests playing someplace other than 3N, probably 5♦. If I was completely confident that partner would bid 3N with a heart stopper now, I'd bid 3♠, but I don't think that it should be still looking for 3N.

Yep, I paused for a second to consider if 5♦ would be better, but partner has to have other values outside ♦, and if they have a heart stop, 3N is our destination. I don't think pass is right, and I open a lot of garbage...

We already have a "the hog", but we'd welcome "a hog" too :) I don't think passing 4♠ is a LA. I'd bid 4N I guess -- Planning on bidding 7 if we have all the keys and the trump queen. It'll be at worst on a hook, and when partner has a stiff, we're odds on.

Is it similar to an off colour joke?