Assign the blame

[rd6789]

Well as east I am always bidding 3S -we have a 9-card fit so I want to play at the 3-level

If your minimum for 3♠ is 4 or fewer HCP then you have 3♠ and 4♠ (and 4♥) I suppose to cover all ranges.

 

I think this will cause inefficiencies.

Yes I agree. That's why opps bid :)

 

Now I'll bid 4S on a lot of hands where before I'd have bid a bergen. But my priority in competeive bidding is to show the fit

 

With a good raise to 4S I bid 4H

[skjaeran]

I don't like east's pass over 3♥ at all, strongly prefer to stretch a little and bid 3♠ here.

 

4♠ would be preemptive raise for me, 4♥ a high card raise.

[Jlall]

east and west both made ridiculous passes to me.

[marcD]

I actually think it is much easier to bid 3♠ as East (does not promise much) than 4♠ from West : The 4♥ raise could be sort of a blackmail hoping to induce a costly defence at these vulnerabilities

[bid_em_up]

east and west both made ridiculous passes to me.

Sure, but East made two of them, and West only made one.

 

67% East

33% West

 

:)

[Cascade]

Given that 3♥ is likely to be a good hand at these colours there is a good case for 4♠ to be weak. I am not sure that many make that distinction though.

[cnszsun]

If you think east should not pass, which way do you prefer, bid 3♠ directly or pass then 4♠ if they bid 4♥?

[Double !]

There's a sort of guiding principle that I've heard from time to time that goes: "If I couldn't make the bid at the first opportunity I had, how can it be right to now make the bid second time around, especially after the opps have exchanged some more information?"

 

DHL

[gnasher]

There's a sort of guiding principle that I've heard from time to time that goes:  "If I couldn't make the bid at the first opportunity I had, how can it be right to now make the bid second time around, especially after the opps have exchanged some more information?"

In general (but probably not on this sequence), it might be right for one of two reasons:

 

- When opponents exchange information, they also share the information with everyone else at the table. The extra information might make it right to reevaluate and bid something that you weren't worth before.

 

- By bidding game they've changed the stakes. Sometimes I might be sure that we can't make anything, that they can make game, that our save over that will be fairly cheap, and that an immediate advance sacrifice has little chance of pushing them overboard. In those circumstances it's right to pass in the hope that they'll stop in a partscore, then save when they bid game.

 

Edit: Answering the original question, with that East hand you should really want to bid over 3♥. If your methods force you to pass throughout, you should change them.

Edited August 25, 2009 by gnasher

[jmcw]

Feels right to bid over 3♥. It's a toss up for me, but 4♠ seems the least of evils and who knows it might make.