Pass or 1NT

[jdonn]

Passing is really bad IMO. This hand is worth 6 anyway.

 

And what makes you think bidders are ignoring their potential losses?

Sorry Josh, I didn't realise you enjoy masochism. Imo bidding is really poor.

Is the implication that bidding has no potential gains or that passing has no potential losses? If either of those then I know what ridiculous claim I should dispute. If neither of those then I don't understand what you mean by masochism, other than perhaps my participation in this thread.

[bluecalm]

Passing is awful. LOL. It's bid from old books. "You need 6hcp" they say and then you go to play bridge and you see that all the winners are always bidding with such hands...

 

I bid even playing standard (but it sucks that partner may force to game with 17 or so but that the cost of playing standard). Playing some reasonable system (precision or std with gazilli or even polish club) bidding may only gain and there is basically nothing to lose.

 

I refuse to play any system or with any partner which makes me pass this non vul.

[the hog]

"I refuse to play any system or with any partner which makes me pass this non vul."

 

Well you are going to have trouble finding good partners.

[eyhung]

As the thread shows, he'll have no trouble finding good partners. What he'll have trouble with is finding partners who bid with your style.

[rogerclee]

I think most players would concede that there are regions of the world where this is a normal pass and there are regions of the world where this is a normal 1N. The_Hog, I don't know why you need to be so dogmatic about it.

[pooltuna]

I think most players would concede that there are regions of the world where this is a normal pass and there are regions of the world where this is a normal 1N. The_Hog, I don't know why you need to be so dogmatic about it.

Congratulations our your strong resistance. If I had written it I am sure I wouldn't have been able to resist and I would have said "I don't know why you need to be so hogmatic about it."

[ArtK78]

As I mentioned in a previous post, I think this is a pass. But I would not argue strongly against taking a call on the hand.

 

I played with a well known player in a North American Championship some years back (less than 10). It was a first time partnership, and we did reasonably well. One thing he told me was that he had a rule about responding on less than 6 HCP. The rule was don't. This was an absolute. I asked him about distributional hands. He said he did not want to discuss it, this was his rule and I had to live with it.

 

I have to admit that we had good results when we passed a one bid, and we had good results when we responded on minimum hands. So, while it is clear that many fine players do respond routinely on less than 6 HCP, it is not universal and there are fine players who will pass routinely when holding less than 6 HCP.

[hanp]

Of course there are many fine players who pass with hands such as this, nobody is disputing that. It does seem that the top players in the world championships are responding quite lightly, but there are certainly some that do not.

 

I am not sure that Roger is right when he says that

I think most players would concede that there are regions of the world where this is a normal pass

Which regions are those Roger?

[neilkaz]

"I refuse to play any system or with any partner which makes me pass this non vul."

 

Well you are going to have trouble finding good partners.

I think if you watch the team trials from the USA currently on Vugraph I think you'll see a clear majority of players bidding with this hand.

 

And, yes I am referring to those who play 2/1.

 

1NT for me. .. neilkaz ..

[rogerclee]

I am not sure that Roger is right when he says that

I think most players would concede that there are regions of the world where this is a normal pass

Which regions are those Roger?

Poland was the one I was thinking of, but it is in the context of a lower 1M upper range, so it's not an ideal example. I also thought it was normal in many Asian countries to pass with less than 6, but many of these pairs are playing strong club.

[junyi_zhu]

Holding [hv=d=n&v=n&s=sxxhkxxxdq10xxxcxx]133|100|Scoring: MP

Partner opens 1S.

Playing 2/1 and 1NT forcing do you pass or bid 1NT.

 

Thank you[/hv]

It's a systemic issue. If you don't have designs for responder to sign off easily after 2NT or reverse, you should pass most marginal hands with 5 HCP over partner's 1 level openings. Still, those sign offs may affect your accuracies in constructive bidding. I actually don't have much feelings either way. When you respond with 4 or 5 card major 4-5 HCPs over partner's opening, you may certainly hit goldmines if he has a super maximum. Still, very often, you may find yourself in an unmakable game or 3M, or 2NT.

[bluecalm]

Poland was the one I was thinking of

 

I confirm. I was taught to play that way and most very good players play that way here. They all learnt form the same books and are not changing. I changed my hard learned views after seeing how the elite plays. Passing those 5-6hcp or even 7hcp hands is one of the weaknesses of polish club. It's just too easy to for the opponents to play against but if you respond you don't have good mechanism to stop low.

Poland have very strange bridge culture, things which are popular here are not popular anywhere else. I think we are way behind the elite when it comes to bidding theory.

[the hog]

I think most players would concede that there are regions of the world where this is a normal pass and there are regions of the world where this is a normal 1N. The_Hog, I don't know why you need to be so dogmatic about it.

Roger, I agree with you. However if you read some of the other posts it is hardly I who am being dogmatic.