Choice of Games

[Little Kid]

At IMPs you open 1NT and partner transfers to ♠ and bids 3NT, showing a 5332 shape. You hold a 4333 hand (3♠) and need to decide whether you will correct this to 4♠ or pass it out. Do you consider this to be a close decision? If you are more likely to correct, would you do so at MPs too?

[mike777]

9s?

 

 

If so easy 4s.

[hanp]

Usually pass.

[hotShot]

I need to have stopper everywhere, if I don't have them, I easily gain the required extra trick ruffing a card in partners 2 card suit.

[PhantomSac]

I pass every single time (in tempo).

[Hanoi5]

I easily gain the required extra trick ruffing a card in partners 2 card suit.

 

Don't you plan to win 5 spades anyway in NT? I think the issue is that if you have no stoppers in a suit and it happens to be partner's doubleton you're likely to lose 5 or 4 in NT instead of only 2 by playing in the Major. If I have all suits stopped I'd prefer to play NT, and I think this should be decided the moment partner transfers so that I don't stop over 3Nt and let them know I have a problem deciding whether to play in a trump or not with the 4333.

[PhantomSac]

I need to have stopper everywhere, if I don't have them, I easily gain the required extra trick ruffing a card in partners 2 card suit.

uhh lol. When you ruff in the long hand, you don't gain a trick?

[gnasher]

I think it's a matter of agreement.

 

Suppose that partner has a 5M-4m type that always wants to play a 5-3 fit if there's one available, but isn't interested in slam, five of the minor, or a 5-2 fit. What does he do?

 

If he normally shows his second suit anyway, I'd usually pass 3NT with a 4333 shape. If he normally bids 3NT, I'd usually bid four of the major.

[hanp]

Suppose that partner has a 5m-4m type that always wants to play a 5-3 fit if there's one available, but isn't interested in slam, five of the minor, or a 5-2 fit. What does he do?

With a 5-4 my partner's show a hand that want to play in a 5-3 fit. For us transfer followed by 3NT shows a 5332.

 

I play different methods with different partners but we all have two ways to show a choice of games.

[gnasher]

I play different methods with different partners but we all have two ways to show a choice of games.

That's clearly the best approach.

[bftboy]

At MPs, even with 4-3-3-3, I almost always accept the transfer because, at least according to what I've read, I am considerably more likely in the long run to make 10 or 11 tricks playing the major than I am to make 10 or 11 tricks playing NT, or to make exactly 9 tricks. P's doubleton prevents them from running a suit that they could run in NT.

 

At IMPs, I obviously want to bid the safest game, and if I judge that our combined hands will take 9 tricks more safely than taking 10 in the major, then it is ok to play 3NT. It's not so much than I'm exactly 4-3-3-3 opposite exactly 5-3-3-2, but that certainly is a reason to think that NT MIGHT be safer. :P

[helene_t]

Given the conditions of the OP that partner has shown 5332 I usually pass. I am used to playing a style in which partner just shows a 5-card major and no interest in a minor suit slam/game, which maybe "should" be the same (or a 5422 with very soft values), but we go for a Neanderthal 3NT with (51)(43) also. Call it lazzyness, incapability of judgement, or a deliberate effort to put the defenders in the dark.

 

Not sure if the scoring matters. Conventional wisdom says that one should play 3NT more often at matchpoints, but if the number of tricks in NT and suit have similar distributions except for a different median, you should at IMP go for the suit contract when the difference is at least one trick, while at MPs the threshold may be as little as half a trick, depending on the field. Now it seems plausible that the number of tricks have higher variance in NT than in a suit contract, but the difference would have to be substantial for 3NT to be more attractive than 4M at matchpoints than at IMPs.

[jdonn]

I pass less than most better players would tell me too, and honesty even when I do pass it still hasn't tended to work out that well. I really think it depends on the hand though.