What to do?

[hrothgar]

Indy IMPs

White versus White

 

Partner is a random "World Class" player

You have no agreements

 

You hold

 

♠ T9843

♥ K52

♦ 976

♣ A5

 

The auction starts

 

1N - (P) - 2♥ - (P)

2♠ - (P) - P - (3♦)

3♠ - (P) - ???

 

What's your call?

Do you consider it clear-cut?

[awm]

Pass.

 

Partner has something like a 2.5 spade bid. This is often a minimum 1NT opening with four trumps, or perhaps a max with three trumps. With flat shape and no spade honors (and a good chance that spades are breaking badly since this makes LHO's balancing call more appealing) I think pass is the right choice. It's also good to "stay with the field" here since we were about to pass out 2♠ and so it's unlikely many tables will bid four (i.e. I expect a push or small gain by passing and bidding four spades is a much higher-variance action).

 

However, this is not particularly clear-cut and I can certainly envision hands where 4♠ is excellent.

[mike777]

4S

 

Wierd, surely with a p/u world class partner they would break the transfer and bid something else with superaccept? Even with no agreements one should be able to understand superaccept in some form. Now partner has bid 3s so I guess partner has:

 

AKQ=Axxx=xx=Kxxx or AKJ=AJxx=xx=Kxxx

[Guest Jlall]

pass...not clear at all. I hate my shape and partner didn't super accept so I'm going to go quietly.

[Al_U_Card]

In his "world" does he get to know exactly what your hand looks like based on the auction? Seems that he has taken liberties that require him to have a really nice hand with a doubleton D and likely 4 reasonably good S. Since you have no wastage in D, perhaps a 4S bid can be based on his "vision"?

[Trpltrbl]

Pass, NV and pd didn't make any try over my transfer.

He is just competing with a 4 card suit.

 

 

GBB ;)

[mikeh]

Pass

 

I was willing to play a partscore before the 3♦ bid. While I expect xx in ♦ from partner, it is entirely possible that the first three tricks will be high ♦, another ♦ and a third round through partner. Thus even if he has AKQ or AKQx we may well lose a trump trick to Jxx... or lose a trick to Qx when partner held AKJx.

 

There is a psychological aspect as well. If I bid game and make it, I will feel good and the opps bad. If I pass and miss game, I will feel okay, and the opponents will be relieved but stressed. If I bid game and it fails, the opps will be on top of the world, I will feel badly, and partner will lose faith in me.

 

the downside of bidding game and failing outweighs the upside of bidding and making.

[Fluffy]

Pass of course

[Blofeld]

Pass.

 

I'm expecting three decentish spades and a doubleton diamond.

 

Could be massively wrong, of course. :P

[luke warm]

i'd pass, but i really don't like the 3S bid.. superaccepting is one thing, you haven't passed 2S yet... but now? besides, i'm not vulnerable

[Free]

obvious pass: he didn't super-accept and i'm still minimum and balanced...

[Double !]

Pass

 

OK, what inference am I missing? I didn't feel my hand was worth a game try and P didn't use some form of super-accept? How's the hand going to play, especially if P can't pitch a diamond from my hand and, instead, needs to ruff in his hand (and get over-ruffed)?

 

DHL

[hrothgar]

I decided to bid 4♠...

 

For what its worth, my logic was the following:

 

1. I considered my hand to be a borderline pass over partner's 2♠ advance. For me, the most significant issue was that my honor were sitting in short suits.

 

2. Partner made a free bid over LHO's 3♦ overcall knowing that I was unwilling to make a game try. To me, this suggests a godd hand with a high ODR. Partner should have xx in Diamonds and good support in Hearts.

 

3. My hand has just revalued enormously. My xxx in Diamonds is sitting opposite shortage. My controls are support partner's HCPs. Accordingly, I figured that there was a decent shot at game and went for it.

 

Partner's hand was:

 

[hv=s=sakq6hqt84datcq83]133|100|[/hv]

 

Sadly, 4♠ was down 1. Partner was a wee bit miffed at my concepts regarding plastic valuation...

[whereagles]

4♠ is fine. At worst it's on a finesse of the heart jack.

 

Pard could have saved you the trouble of thinking if he had superaccepted :huh:

[P_Marlowe]

Pass, clearcut in the situation you described, but even

in my partnership I would pass.

 

3S is just competitive, he could have bid a super accept,

he did not.

He could have made a game try X, he did not.

 

... of course you played an individual, and you have

no clue, how good your partner is, ... and the same is

true the other way round.

 

Marlowe

[joker_gib]

Pass, clearcut in the situation you described, but even

in my partnership I would pass.

 

3S is just competitive, he could have bid a super accept,

he did not.

He could have made a game try X, he did not.

 

... of course you played an individual, and you have

no clue, how good your partner is, ... and the same is

true the other way round.

 

Marlowe

Totally agree ! :huh:

 

Alain

[Jurek S]

Pass, not really clear-cut but I don't use "super acceptance" response on transfer.

[Al_U_Card]

Partner's hand was:

 

[hv=s=sakq6hqt84datcq83]133|100|[/hv]

 

Sadly, 4♠ was down 1. Partner was a wee bit miffed at my concepts regarding plastic valuation...

Not sure why he wouldn't super-accept with that max hand AND 4 trumps.......your hand would raise to game after the super-accept so you reached the expected contract. I guess he was good enough to realize that opposite the best hand you could hold he couldn't make game if you invited on a min so ......

[whereagles]

Probably pard devaluated the heart and club queens. And rightly so, in my opinion.

[jdeegan]

:huh: Pass with some reluctance. I already have a bad enough reputation as a hangman, and partner did not super accept. For all I know, partner is a LOTT freak with four pieces of trump and no diamond honors.

 

Diamond hooks (if any) are probably on, but spade hooks (if any) are probably off. Put my king over in the trump suit and ........................I dunno. The 3♦ call may have improved partner's hand enough to make ten tricks a fair bet, but unless the trumps are solid (i.e. no losers or missing just the ace or ace king) I am concerned that the diamond good side will have a spade bad side.

[pclayton]

I'm past the point of always making a 'disciplined' pass in these circumstances. If we get balanced into game and there is new information about the hand that is made evident by the opponents balancing call and partner's subsequent action, then I'll bid the game and happily take the charge if I'm wrong.

 

In a KO match, bidding games like this can have a detreimental effect on the opponents morale. :) :D Unfortunately, games bid in this fashion get doubled 'on principle' quite often.

 

Pard's actual hand fits this auction. I don't like a superaccept with such soft values, but a push to 3♠ looks OK. Richard, I'm not sure I'd take the same infererence about pard's heart cards on this sequence, or even the dub diamond, but NP.

 

The 10♥ makes the game playable, and its barely acceptable NV. Pard would make the same 3♠ call without the 10 spot, and game is really a dog then. Of all the cards that are a little dissapointing, its the ♠Q which doesn't pull its weight. Exchange it for the ♥J and game is better.

 

At the end of the day, you are NV. Your WC pard probably picked up 3 IMPs by taking the push, so lets respect his judgement and pass.

[Al_U_Card]

Could the auction (up to 3D at least) occur if the transfer hand had, say, 0 or 1 or 2 hcp? I think that 3S dbld would go for quite a bit unless pard has the magic hand that he has just shown (but didn't happen to have.....some expert) When you bid pard's hand, make sure that you are bidding what he SHOULD have and not what he needs to have to make your gamble pay off.