Jump to content

Penalty passing


mr1303

Recommended Posts

[hv=d=e&v=b&s=saq9xxhqxdaxxxckx]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

 

East deals and opens 2S, a weak 2. You decide to pass (agree?) and partner reopens with 3C.

 

Not really fancying anything to flash, you settle for a mundane 3NT (agree?)

 

Partner now comes back to you with 4C. What now?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Shoot partner.

I believe this to be a good idea just on general principals. There have been far too few bridge-related murders lately! (Oh, where is Don Von Elsner when we need him the most?!) And, if investigators ask who the culprit is, as is customary and accepted practice in Bridge, blame partner (none of this apportion the blame debate! Be definitive!)

 

 

It sounds like P has a long broken club suit with shape and is concerned about entries at NT. 4 seems like a reasonable slam try: gives partner the chance to Q 4. The idea that any bid past game commits the partnership until another plausible game is bid seems to make sense.

 

Questions: 1) what would 4NT after P's 4 mean? & 2) what does 4NT by the 3NT bidder mean after having first Q-bidding 4 over 4 and getting a response? (hopefully something other than pass) RKC for clubs, or something else?

 

DHL

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If pd took me to 4 Club because he was too weak for 3 NT, I will shoot him too.

 

He told us already that his suit was not solid, he did not bid 3 .

 

And lets say he has the hand whereagles mentioned: There is no way to beat 3 NT, so why should he pull?

 

 

So 4 Diamond now is clear cut for me.

 

Maybe pd bid 4 Club on x, AKx, xx, AQJxxxx.

 

Have fun in 4 Club +3.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. If pd took me to 4 Club because he was too weak for 3 NT, I will shoot him too.

 

2. And lets say he has the hand whereagles mentioned: There is no way to beat 3NT, so why should he pull?

1. You'd have to shoot me from behind. Face-to-face, you'll never make it :) Joke aside, there are technical reasons why pard can, and in some cases should, pull 3NT to 4 because he's weak. The reason is we passed 2 and therefore our hand usually does not have more than 16-17 hcp. Typically, when 2nd seat passes and then bids 3NT, he has a 13-14 hand with spade stop. If balancer has a broken 7 club suit, it is possible that he wants to pull 3NT if he judges his clubs might not run.

 

Unless you have a specific agreement that 3NT is not "pullable", I think 4 can be a WEAK bid, not a strong one.

 

2. Ok, ok. Maybe this isn't a good example. Just tweak a bit the hand then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[hv=d=e&v=b&s=saq9xxhqxdaxxxckx]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

 

East deals and opens 2S, a weak 2. You decide to pass (agree?) and partner reopens with 3C.

 

Not really fancying anything to flash, you settle for a mundane 3NT (agree?)

 

Partner now comes back to you with 4C. What now?

4C should be bid based on a very good hand, so this hand is very slamish. There is no point to bid 3C then pull partner's 3NT with a weak hand with long and weak clubs. In that case, you shouldn't balance 3C.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[hv=d=e&v=b&s=saq9xxhqxdaxxxckx]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

 

East deals and opens 2S, a weak 2. You decide to pass (agree?) and partner reopens with 3C.

 

Not really fancying anything to flash, you settle for a mundane 3NT (agree?)

 

Partner now comes back to you with 4C. What now?

4C cannot be non-forcing. Bid does not exist. 4C must be too strong to pass 3N. So advancer bids 4D, expecting to end up in at least 6C.

 

I would probably bid 2N initially because I hate backing into auctions, but I don't think passers are "wrong".

 

4N over 4C is to play. 4N over advancer's 4D is RKC.

 

Since I have the K, partner's suit is at least a little broken, but other than that, overcaller's suit quality is unknown.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4C cannot be non-forcing. Bid does not exist. 4C must be too strong to pass 3N.

Look, if you define

 

(2) p (p) 3

 

as a potentially heavy hand, say 17-18 as max, then what you say might make sense. But if you put a limit of, say 14-15, to the 3 bid (with more, dbl + bid clubs), then things might not be so clear.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4C cannot be non-forcing. Bid does not exist. 4C must be too strong to pass 3N.

Look, if you define

 

(2) p (p) 3

 

as a potentially heavy hand, say 17-18 as max, then what you say might make sense. But if you put a limit of, say 14-15, to the 3 bid (with more, dbl + bid clubs), then things might not be so clear.

assuming you don't bid 3C on complete garbage, what kind of hand would want to pull 3N to 4C?

 

3C is roughly 10-17 or so (I don't understand why you limit it to 14-15)

 

3N'er is roughly, what? 10-15 or so (with more and spade stopper, would surely bid over 2S)

 

So if 3C is based on 10HCP and a broken suit, how do you know that 3N is not based on 15 HCP and filling honors? So it makes no sense to pull. If 3N is based on 15 HCP with no club honors, 4C is not going to do much better. Might as well go for the game bonus and level lower. This is not like after a 1N opener, responder is sitting with C-Q10xxxx and out and should pull 1N to 3C. Overcaller has some values for the 3C bid.

 

Therefore, 4C has to be forcing with slam interest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyway, partner intended 4C as I have a pile of rubbish. I took it as slammish, and had the following auction:

 

2S P P 3C

P 3NT P 4C

P 4D P 4H

P 4S P 5C

P 6C

 

I forget how many off it went, but partner had the following:

 

S x

H Jxxxx

D x

C AJxxxx

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyway, partner intended 4C as I have a pile of rubbish. I took it as slammish, and had the following auction:

 

2S P P 3C

P 3NT P 4C

P 4D P 4H

P 4S P 5C

P 6C

 

I forget how many off it went, but partner had the following:

 

S x

H Jxxxx

D x

C AJxxxx

Goes to show why one shouldn't ever play 4 as weak. 3N had reasonable chances on this hand: 3-2 clubs with the Q onside and it is cold (of course, when the Q is offside, it may be bloody, but it can hardly be worse than 6 :) )

 

BTW, wild horses couldn't get me to balance with that hand. But if I were asked to fill in for the incurable optimist who thought that 3 opposite a partner known to be long in spades was correct, I surely wouldn't revert to my (customary) pessimism and assume both that I had f**ked up and that partner would incorrectly read my 4 as weakness

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...