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One from last night-5


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I think we are not making 5 but that we will not go down a lot. Something like -500 and -800 I would think. I also think they are making 4 for -620 to -650. If I bid 5, it will not be a disaster UNLESS we can defeat 4.

 

It is difficult to determine total tricks for LOTT on this sped up auction. I usually play partner for a six card minor when he overcalls at the two level, so we probably have a 9 to 10 card fit. Howver, my weak diamonds mean partner may have strong five card suit instead of six. They have an 8 to 10 card fit in spades. Let's say we average 9.5 fit and they 8.5, for a total trump count of 18 (it could be 19 or 20). If this estimate of 18 is right, pass is cleary correct according to LOTT.

 

My short spade suggest partner is likely to be short in hearts or clubs, unless he overcalled on 3-x-5-x, 2-x-6-x, where x = 2 or 3, or he is 2-2-5-4. When partner is short in either of the suits where I have a queen, the queen is potentially useful on defense but useless on offense. This suggest defending. And when he is not short, then his "balanced" overcall must be based on failry substantial values, and we would rather take or chances defending.

 

All in all, it seems like a clear pass to me. The rewards when you are right (say -500 versus -620) are nice, but not great at imps. However, the penalty when you are wrong -500 versus +100 when 4 goes down are not. This is fairly close, if I was not vulnerable and they were vulnerable, I would probably take the push to 5. For one thing, under those conditions, they are more likely to bid 5 over 5 as they would anticipate a minimal penalty at those conditions.

 

One last problem with bidding 5, it might convince the stronger of the two hands that his partner has a distributional control and help them find a magic 6 contract. I would not worry too much about this, but it is at least a concern. Anyway, I would pass at this colors.

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5 for me. Thinking is I rate to make 1 trick on defense. I can hardly believe pard will contribute with 3 tricks to beat 4, so I might as well try the save.

Why? Your partner made a 2/1 overcall, vulnerable, across a passed hand. I'm not sure how strong a hand you can have in that situation, but it's strong. A 20 count wouldn't be a shocker, if he's short in hearts.

 

RHO made a pre-empt, so I don't now how many HCP he has, but it isn't much. Your long clubs should be of some help on defense.

 

I pass. I'm not sacrificing when I'm not at all sure they're going to make.

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Pass. Bidding 5 is for matchpoint freaks. With normal overcalls, we are certainly -500 or -800 against their probable 620.

 

On the other hand, there is a subset of hands where we beat 4 by a trick. Maybe 5 is -1 in that case, but I'd rather take my plus. In other cases, 4 will be touch and go; maybe we beat it and maybe we don't.

 

If pard doubles 4, I think I'd pull however, since it now feels like its our deal, even though -1 in both contracts seems likely.

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Something seems sort of inconsistent here. It seems like you have two choices:

 

(1) Pass, hoping partner can beat this.

(2) Bid 5, hoping 4 makes (if 4 makes, 5 is very likely a good sacrifice).

 

The action that seems very weird is to select pass (hoping partner can set), then when partner doubles (announcing that he thinks 4 will go down and basically supporting your initial decision to pass) to bid 5.

 

You're not going to get a lot of good scores this way, since you'll end up defending 4 when it makes (and 5 was a good sac) and the vast majority of times 4 is failing partner will double and you'll run out to 5.

 

I'll go with the direct 5 bid, right or wrong. Sometimes even when it's wrong opponents will bid 5 for me.

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Something seems sort of inconsistent here. It seems like you have two choices:

 

(1) Pass, hoping partner can beat this.

(2) Bid 5, hoping 4 makes (if 4 makes, 5 is very likely a good sacrifice).

 

The action that seems very weird is to select pass (hoping partner can set), then when partner doubles (announcing that he thinks 4 will go down and basically supporting your initial decision to pass) to bid 5.

Partner's double is not a pure penalty double for me. It just shows a very good hand, as good as a 2 bid can get. So if he doubles, I am bidding 5 since it may make, and we are still not sure to beat 4.

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I'll go with the direct 5 bid, right or wrong. Sometimes even when it's wrong opponents will bid 5 for me.

This is the key, for me.

 

If you approach the game on the basis that the opps will always do the right thing under pressure, then you shouldn't bother playing the game.

 

Nobody knows whose hand it is. Even LHO, if he has a big hand, is going to be worried that maybe he has no cashers... would it surprise anyone Other than you, since you actually hold the hand B) ) if the 5 bidder were void?

 

While I doubt that we are making, and I would never perpetrate the pass and bid scenario advocated by several, I am morally certain that no-one else at the table knows exactly what to do either.

 

But, when bidding for this reason, do it in tempo. If you find that you have broken tempo, pass.

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5 rates to be a bad sacrifice and 500/800 vs. 620/650 doesn't deserve the risk.

4 rates to be usually to be a maker, but we have small defensive chances, especially if partner is short in clubs or has a trump trick. The only real advantage is that opps might bid 5 and go down

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I'll venture a guess that if 4S can be beaten it will be by taking one diamond, one club, and two hearts. How likely? I suppose 4S has a good shot at making.

 

I doubt they will bid 5S over 5D, I think they will double. I doubt it will go for 800, my guess is 500.

 

LOTT seems not very useful here, as is often the case. Even if I believe that the total number of tricks equals the total number of trump, I wouldn't want to place a heavy bet on the total number of trump. Maybe 19.

 

Oops, almost forgot: I pass

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I'll venture a guess that if 4S can be beaten it will be by taking one diamond, one club, and two hearts.

I'd put even money that partner has a spade trick. We have a singleton, and they're certainly sititng in the right place.

I'll take you on! I ran a quick simulation of 50 deals. I excluded 3 that didn't look as if anyone would duplicate the bidding (1 held a defensive trick but had 'overcalled' on K8xxx of s, which seemed unlikely, the other two held no defensive trick in trump) and the results were 15 hands on which partner held 1 or (in a couple of cases) 2 trump tricks and 32 in which he held none.

 

I ran it too quickly to analyze whether the save was a winning decision, and I suspect that more careful analysis would have excluded some of the 4 calls, but those exclusions would not have greatly changed the frequency of holding a defensive trump trick.

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I'll take you on! I ran a quick simulation of 50 deals. I excluded 3 that didn't look as if anyone would duplicate the bidding (1 held a defensive trick but had 'overcalled' on K8xxx of s, which seemed unlikely, the other two held no defensive trick in trump) and the results were 15 hands on which partner held 1 or (in a couple of cases) 2 trump tricks and 32 in which he held none.

Really! I stand corrected.

 

Out of curiousity, what did you use for the range of the 2 bid?

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I'll take you on! I ran a quick simulation of 50 deals. I excluded 3 that didn't look as if anyone would duplicate the bidding (1 held a defensive trick but had 'overcalled' on K8xxx of s, which seemed unlikely, the other two held no defensive trick in trump) and the results were 15 hands on which partner held 1 or (in a couple of cases) 2 trump tricks and 32 in which he held none.

Really! I stand corrected.

 

Out of curiousity, what did you use for the range of the 2 bid?

The constraints were:

 

opener: 11-20 hcp, 5+

overcaller 10-18 hcp, 5+s, no more than 4 cards in any one side suit

responder 3-9 hcp, 5+s

 

Now, one can obviously construct hands outside of these constraints that some percentage of us would bid on, but I wanted a quick and dirty sample. As it was, some hands were clearly outside what I think most would require, and I suspect that several more would be criticized to some degree. But, given that I got 50 hands to work with, and the margin was more than 2-1 against partner holding a trump trick, I'd say that the implications are clear.

 

Now, if we allow 4 calls on 4 card support (and there are some rare hand types that would, in my view, allow this.... QJxx xx x KQxxxx is one such hand), then I suspect that the odds would get closer to 50%, but not by enough to make me reconsider my bet: after all, the great majority of weak 5 card fits will blast 4 while only a small minority of 4 card fits would.

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I see. I guess I'm more used to people bidding 4 with only 4 in IMPs, especially if they have a ruffing value. Perhaps that's just where I hang out. Also, 4 card support is far more common than 5 card support, so even if a smaller % of 4 card supports go straight to 4, that doesn't mean that he's more likely to have 5 card support than 4.
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