How aggressive are you?

[awm]

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

 

You're playing with a good partner, 2/1 with no special agreements. Opponents are passing and the auction so far is:

 

1♠ - 1NT (forcing)

3♠

 

Now what?

[Echognome]

El Paso, Texas

[Fluffy]

What matt said.

[rogerclee]

3NT with no real confidence. Pass is ok with me.

[cranebill]

Self sufficient suit, I think 4 spades has a reasonable chance

[kenrexford]

Effit 3N. Probably should be called Idiot 3N, but I'm an idiot at times.

[mikeh]

3n is an awful bid. If we are bidding game, and I think we must red at imps, this is a clear 4♠.

 

I would far rather hold 2 spades to bid 3N, preferably Qx or so, so that I can count 6 winners in the suit. As it is, most of the time his suit will not generate 6 winners in 3N: he'll have to lose a trick, and there will probably be at least one suit in which we have only 1 stopper...

 

We often opt for 3N, reciting the mantra that 9 tricks are easier than 10, but these auctions tell us that 5 losers are more likely than 3.

[Echognome]

3n is an awful bid. If we are bidding game, and I think we must red at imps, this is a clear 4♠.

I agree with the first half of your argument. For me it's between pass and 4♠. Give me x xxxx Axxx Axxx and I think it's a crystal clear 4♠. Give me x Jxxx Axxx Kxxx and I find it right there on the cusp, but would bid 4♠ because it's vulnerable at imps. But an aceless hand without support is a pass to me. I think it's close, but I also think the risk on these types of hands is not just going off 1. This is the type of hand where we can get doubled on bad breaks.

[Guest Jlall]

I would bid 4S playing with myself, 3N with a lot of beginners/intermediates, and pass with some aggressive 3S bidders. Naturally I think 4S is the right bid from a pure bridge stand point.

[pclayton]

Agree that 3N is ugly unless all of my suits are full of 9 and 8's. I'm passing, but its easy to see how 4♠ could make.

[Codo]

IF 3 NT is ugly, what hand do you have for a 3 NT bid here?

 

To me3 NT describes a hand with at most one spade and values in all suits, so if I bid, this is exactly what I have and pd is not forced to pass if he thinks that his hand is better for 4 Spade.

 

I would always bid if 3 Spade is from a sane partner and I would always bid 3 NT if I don't have the agreement that this should show a very different hand.

[skjaeran]

4♠

[firmit]

Somewhere I picked up a tip - when opener/partner jumps in his opening suit - he has maximum one looser opposite a singleton. A new suit by responder should then be cue and one should bid 4M rather than 3NT....

 

I believed him! Sure hope it has gotten some merits.... i'm bidding 4♠

[benlessard]

3Nt here. For me 3S in imps should be almost forcing. My hand has soft value and im happy to play the hand.

[Trinidad]

Somewhere I picked up a tip - when opener/partner jumps in his opening suit - he has maximum one looser opposite a singleton. A new suit by responder should then be cue and one should bid 4M rather than 3NT....

 

I believed him! Sure hope it has gotten some merits.... i'm bidding 4♠

This tip is not very useful. After all, what should opener bid with a random 17 count and a so so 6 card spade suit? Barring the use of special conventions (Gazilli or a forcing 2NT or limited openings in a strong club system), you can't have it all.

 

I think the tip is actually very nice, if you change it slightly: "when opener/partner jumps in his opening suit and a non jump rebid would be forcing - he has maximum one looser opposite a singleton." In this case, 2♠ wouldn't have been forcing, so the tip can't be used.

 

Rik

[andy_h]

Nice kings, that says 4S for me.

[rogerclee]

Somewhere I picked up a tip - when opener/partner jumps in his opening suit - he has maximum one looser opposite a singleton. A new suit by responder should then be cue and one should bid 4M rather than 3NT....

 

I believed him! Sure hope it has gotten some merits.... i'm bidding 4♠

This is true in a 2/1 sequence, not here.

[Rossoneri]

I voted pass.

 

I can see more reason for 4♠ than 3NT.

[mikeh]

Somewhere I picked up a tip - when opener/partner jumps in his opening suit - he has maximum one looser opposite a singleton. A new suit by responder should then be cue and one should bid 4M rather than 3NT....

 

I believed him! Sure hope it has gotten some merits.... i'm bidding 4♠

I would put this tip back where you found it B)

 

AK108xx Axx AJx x: 1♠ 1N ? This is a 3♠ bid for just about everyone not playing gadgets, and this suit may but often won't play for 1 loser opposite a stiff.

 

AKxxxx AJx AJx x.. this is still a 3♠ bid in standard methods, and this is 64.5% at least a 2-loser suit opposite a stiff x.

 

BTW, it is the likelihood of having a spade loser (or 2) that makes 4♠ the better bid. At the risk of sounding condescending, and at the risk of having a player better than I post '3N, wtp', this is the type of hand that I think most experts bid 4♠ on and most non-experts bid 3N.

[Guest Jlall]

At the risk of sounding condescending, and at the risk of having a player better than I post '3N, wtp', this is the type of hand that I think most experts bid 4♠ on and most non-experts bid 3N.

I really think this has a lot to do with non-experts playing with other non-experts who bid 3S with stuff like KQxxxx AKx Qx QJ routinely (or worse). Some of my partners do this very often because it is 16-18 and 6S so WTP, and with those people I think 3N is the right bid.

[Finch]

What do you think 1S - 1NT - 3NT means?

 

If you open 1NT on all 5332s in range, then 2NT is 18-19 balanced and 3NT is free. That means you can use it for a good 6322 / 7222 with running (ish) spades, and so partner can't have that hand.

[awm]

Here's the full hand:

 

[hv=d=n&v=b&n=skqt9xxhaxdqtxcaq&w=sxxhk9xxxdxxcjt9x&e=sajxxhqxda9xxcxxx&s=sxhjtxxdkjxxckxxx]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

 

At one table, south passed the 3♠ rebid. This made three (losing two spades, one diamond, one heart) when east did not find the diamond lead to score up partner's ruff. Making 4♠ requires misdefense (you need to pitch a heart on a club before the ♥A is knocked out, but if you try to do this before pulling trumps then your only hand entry is diamonds and opponents can probably score a diamond ruff).

 

At the other table, south bid 3NT. This contract doesn't have all that much going for it single-dummy but is strangely cold on the lie of the cards.

[Codo]

Maybe I asked it the wrong way, so I retry:

 

For all the convinced 4 Spade bidders:

 

What are the hands where you bid 3 NT with?

[ArtK78]

Maybe I asked it the wrong way, so I retry:

 

For all the convinced 4 Spade bidders:

 

What are the hands where you bid 3 NT with?

How about something like:

 

x

QJTx

QJTx

QJTx

 

or better.

 

In other words, a hand that offers little or no help in a spade contract but is likely to produce 9 tricks in notrump.

[mikeh]

I would have rebid 2N not 3♠. Yes, that 6th spade may never be shown, but I have a balanced hand (with a potential source of tricks) a stopper in every suit and this IS a hand on which, often, 9 tricks will be easier than 10.

 

3♠ stresses spades as the probable game, 2N stresses notrump. This North hand looks more like the latter than the former. BTW, just for any walruses out there, 2N is not an overbid.

 

I write this without caring whether, on the hand, 3N or 4♠ is the better contract.

 

As for the hand I would like, in order to bid 3N over 3♠:

 

1. I'd like a second spade, preferably an honour, if I were bidding on marginal values

 

2. I'd like a maximum if bidding on a misfit.... x QJ10x QJ10x KJ10x looks like 3N to me...ok, I'd do it on other soft maximums as well.