Protect?

[Finch]

[hv=d=w&v=b&s=sk109xhdk9xxxca9xx]133|100|Scoring: IMP

1♠ P P ?[/hv]

 

Well?

[pbleighton]

Pass. Pd has to have the perfect passed hand for us to have game, and my pds never do.

 

Not vul, or at MPs, I might bid 2D. Vul at IMPs, I don't strain to compete for partscores.

 

Peter

[jillybean]

pass, bidding here gets me into trouble more often than not

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

 

I would pass.

 

Due to a lack of a bid,

which would get both minors in

the picture.

NT is out, X is out, and 2D does

not really appeal to me.

 

With kind regards

Marlowe

[brianshark]

No reason to think declaring is better than defending. Pass.

[hrothgar]

Simple hand, really painful decision.

 

I am reluctantly going to base, because any bid that I make is likely to put us in a lot worse spot than defending 1♠.

 

If I double, partner is going to bid Hearts

If I balance with 1NT, partner is going to show Hearts

If I bid Diamonds, partner is going to expect a suit

 

Give me a stiff Heart and I'd be willing to gamble 1N. As is, I'm passing.

If I were forced to bid with the given hand, I probably bid 1NT

[whereagles]

Pass.

 

This is almost a textbook example of judgement call: pard is short in spades, yet he didn't double. He must be weakish and you should thus pass. To act here is to give LHO a chance to bid his hearts. It wouldn't be surprising to see it go

 

(1♠) pass (pass) 2♦

(2♥) 3♦ (4♥) ??

[HeartA]

Another pass here.

[gwnn]

I have 4 gorgeous trumps and no real offensive values (♣A and ♦K are roughly of the same value in off/def.) - pass is most obvious

[pclayton]

Auto pass. Weak diamonds and strong spades. Where's our plus position if I bid?

 

And where are the hearts?

[jikl]

Pass here also.

 

Sean

[pbleighton]

Frances:

 

Well? :)

 

Peter

[Walddk]

Pass without much thought. It's usually wrong to sell out at the 1-level; this hand is a perfect example of the exception to the rule.

 

Roland

[Finch]

Pass.

 

This is almost a textbook example of judgement call: pard is short in spades, yet he didn't double. He must be weakish and you should thus pass. To act here is to give LHO a chance to bid his hearts. It wouldn't be surprising to see it go

 

(1♠) pass (pass) 2♦

(2♥) 3♦ (4♥) ??

Ah, well, yes and no...

 

[hv=n=sajxhxxxdaxxxcj10x&w=sqxxxxhakxxdjxckq&e=sxhqj10xxxdqxcxxxx&s=sk109xhdk9xxxca9xx]399|300|[/hv]

 

It's true the opponents are making 9 tricks in hearts.

However after the opening bid and the pass, you will make 12 tricks in diamonds.

 

Table 1 (our team NS):

 

1S P P P

NS + 200

 

Table 2 (our team EW):

1S P 1NT 2D

2H 3D 4H all pass

 

NS + 100

 

3 imps in

[gwnn]

IF you realize LHO has KQ doubleton. :) (you don't really know about RHO's QJ of hearts, do you?)

[Walddk]

[hv=n=sajxhxxxdaxxxcj10x&w=sqxxxxhakxxdjxckq&e=sxhqj10xxxdqxcxxxx&s=sk109xhdk9xxxca9xx]399|300|[/hv]

 

Table 1 (our team NS):

 

1S P P P

NS + 200

Passing the East hand is a major crime and at the table where he responded 1NT, I don't understand the 2♦ overcall on K9xxx. You don't require much of a suit for a 2-level overcall in England it seems.

 

It deserves to go for 800 against nothing.

 

Roland

[whereagles]

I don't understand the 2♦ overcall on K9xxx. You don't require much of a suit for a 2-level overcall in England it seems.

 

It deserves to go for 800 against nothing.

Not really. Pard is marked with short spades and thus should have some support for diamonds.

 

Statistically, that is :)

[Walddk]

Not really. Pard is marked with short spades and thus should have some support for diamonds.

I disagree. It is much more likely that responder is short in spades after his 1NT. It is perfectly normal to see spades divided the way they were at the table. 3 with North, 1 with East.

 

Roland

[Blofeld]

Passing the East hand is a major crime and at the table where he responded 1NT, I don't understand the 2♦ overcall on K9xxx. You don't require much of a suit for a 2-level overcall in England it seems.

I think this is a little unfair on the English ... say rather that some people don't require much for a two level overcall; I'm English and it wouldn't even occur to me.

 

On the balancing problem I pass, on balance.

[Finch]

Passing the East hand is a major crime and at the table where he responded 1NT, I don't understand the 2♦ overcall on K9xxx. You don't require much of a suit for a 2-level overcall in England it seems.

 

It deserves to go for 800 against nothing.

 

Roland

While I agree with your sentiments, it's only fair to observe that

i) the players who passed the East hand and overcalled 1NT with 2D were not on my team.

ii) We gained 89 IMPs in the first 14 boards of this match so it's probably a valid conclusion that this team are not entirely representative of expert English bidding.

 

(this hand came up in the top division of our local league. the difficulty with the league is that the county doesn't have a huge amount of strength in depth so while the league has 7 teams, there are basically 5 who can play bridge plus the 2 who were promoted from the second division, lose all their matches heavily and then get demoted again. I don't set the conditions so this isn't my fault!)

[Free]

Pass, no reason to bid...

[Robert]

Hi everyone

 

Pass. Since the question was given as a problem, I 'guessed' that bidding might be better. Pass.

 

Bridge is a game of making the percentage bid and sometimes the best chance fails.

 

People overcall(bid) in the sandwich postition(and other times) with either bad suits or indifferent suits all of the time. They also do not get doubled as often as they should because they are playing with players of their own level.

 

As the level of the game goes up, the doubling 'percentage' tends to rise.

 

You must have played against a somewhat weaker team to win by 89 IMPs over 14 boards or were very lucky. I once played with several of my bridge group in a team game against a 'bad' team. I called in the score and the person running the league asked me to repeat the final score. 123-3

 

Partner may have some diamond support, however, after dummy tables 'xx' this holding might not help if opener holds AQJx or AQxx and his partner 'reopens' with a double holding 2425 and decent values for his 1NT reply.

 

Some bids pay off and some bids go for 800 opposite nothing. At IMPS I try and avoid the minus 800s whenever they might appear to be a doubtful result. Even playing MPs, my 2/1 bids in the sandwich position show good suits.

 

Regards,

Robert

[1eyedjack]

Passing the East hand is a major crime

I think that it is in part the reliance on this attitude that makes it so attractive to open 1st seat with 1 of a suit on GF values, lacking a strong 2 bid available except possibly for 2C, which is often not recommended with some distributional, ie 2-suited hands.

 

Personally I think it is quite marginal whether or not to protect, and I would not criticise someone for choosing either option.

[helene_t]

Pass. Make the hand an ace stronger and I still pass.

[whereagles]

Not really. Pard is marked with short spades and thus should have some support for diamonds.

I disagree. It is much more likely that responder is short in spades after his 1NT. It is perfectly normal to see spades divided the way they were at the table. 3 with North, 1 with East.

Well, let's give this issue some numbers. The nr. of spades each hand has is a conditioned probability problem. There are 34 unknown cards (26 pard/RHO, and 8 LHO) and 4 undistributed spade cards.

 

LHO will have 8/34 * 4 = 0,94 extra spades on average

RHO and pard will both have 13/34 * 4 = 1,53 spades on average

 

So spades will statistically break 6/2/1/4 or 6/1/2/4 on average. (Notation: LHO/pd/RHO/we)

 

We can do the same thing for diamonds and come up with the following conditioned probability odds of...

 

2/3/3/5

 

E.g. statistically, the expectation is that pard will have 3 card support for diamonds on average.