Unbelievable

[hrothgar]

Here's a real freak from this weekend

 

IMPs, Red V White

Dealer South

 

♠ AKxxxx

♥ 98xx

♦ Ax

♣ x

 

♠ x

♥ Jx

♦ xx

♣ AKQJxxxx

 

I opened 3N in first seat, followed by three passed

LHO lead a Diamond. I cashed 11 tricks.

 

The only reason that I post this is the following:

 

I can't recall the last time that I ever saw a Gambling 3NT opening that worked... This bid never comes up. When it does, you invariably have wrong sided the contract or the opponents find a great save or what have you...

[cherdano]

I am surprised about your experience. Every time a gambling 3N has come up for me (very rarely, I know) it led to a good score. For example partner knowing exactly whether he should save in 5m over their 4M.

[helene_t]

Funny, I can't remember the last time it didn't work. Might be my selective memory.

[whereagles]

I can. Last time I bid it, the suit didn't break (pard had a sing) and, instead of making, it went 2 down doubled :)

 

But it was the 1st time I've had a gambling 3NT and the suit didn't break, though. I've seen like 20-30 such openers before this happened.

[Fluffy]

I have seen it working badly many times, but the last time I saw it on the NEC cup it was just a flat board with dummy presenting ♠Axxx, ♥Axxxx, ♦K10x, ♣x

[jdonn]

I see it consistently work terribly. Even here nothing was gained. I often play it though simply because it's the easiest thing to quickly agree there, and because I hate namyats as well.

[rogerclee]

I see it consistently work terribly. Even here nothing was gained. I often play it though simply because it's the easiest thing to quickly agree there, and because I hate namyats as well.

I feel this way too, about both Gambling 3N and Namyats.

[pclayton]

You may or may not get to 3N here. My sense is the auction may be a struggle.

 

I'm not a big fan of Gambling 3N either, but I like it better than broken minor, and a lot better than ACOL.

[kenrexford]

I once opened a Gambling 3NT, and partner, who was told to pass if she felt confident about the side suit stoppers, passed because of her side suit stoppers. Her void in my suit was of no concern to her. This turned out to be a fair assessment when my RHO decided to attack dummy's weak suit at trick 2.

[Guest Jlall]

IMO people do it with way too wide of a range (to increase frequency lol...why should a 3N opener be frequent?). If you stick to doing it with hands like you had in the OP I think you will get good results.

 

BTW I think responding hand has a tough problem opposite a partner who is disciplined at r/w and will always have 8. If partner has short hearts you need to pull to 5C, but if partner has 3 hearts you need to pass. I think I would have bid 5C with the responding hand. Of course if partner can have AKQxxxx then that wouldn't be a very good bid :)

[inquiry]

I did a Bridgebrowser search to see how well opening 3NT bids with at least a seven card suit did. The average results were not winners.... -0.75 imps and only 48.07%, but from the plot function it was clear most of these bids fell well outside of the classical definition of a gambling 3NT... hcp ranged from 3 to 24. Needless to say, suit quality was highly variable.

 

so i did a search where opener had seven+ clubs headed by AKQ or better, and 9 (obviously only AKQ clubs) to 12 hcp. The results were still not good. -1.33 imps, 47.9%

[the hog]

Agree with you Richard. I played the gambling 3NT for years and its still in the system. It rarely comes up and doesn't work very well.

 

There are probably better uses for 3NT - solid Major perhaps? Klinger plays 3NT as an Ace ask btw.

[Cascade]

Klinger plays 3NT as an Ace ask btw.

Me too!!!

[whereagles]

Well, I have good experiences with gambling 3NT. But I agree the bid could perhaps be better used elsewhere.

[helene_t]

Interesting, Ben. The disciplined 3Ns worked worse than the undisciplined ones. Maybe I should change my view on this. I used to think that although there are better uses for 3N, the gambling 3N is a useful convention.

[Gerben42]

the gambling 3N is a useful convention.

 

Err... Disagree. If you want useful, play 3NT as "a good game-level preempt", i.e. a hand that has too many tricks to open 4M or 5m.

As this is a bit complicated, I usually stick to Namyats and 3NT as "broken 8-card minor".