18-19 balanced

[MickyB]

You open 1m, playing 2/1, on an 18-19 balanced hand.

 

The auction continues, 3♥ on your left, pass pass back to you. Would you ever pass this out, or do you just bid 3NT and pray whenever you have a stop?

 

What about, instead, if the auction continues 2♥ pass 3♥ back to you?

 

What about if LHO overcalls 1♥, partner passes, and this is raised preemptive to 3♥?

[Gerben42]

I would pass with 4♥ always, 3♥ maybe, 2♥ never.

[jdonn]

I learned from Hamman not long ago to balance with 3NT with 18-19 there if you have to wrong shape for double, that you just have to take the chance. It seemed risky to me but I thought I'd try it. So it actually came up recently and I tried 3NT. Partner was right there with his balanced 10! count that had no good action over the preempt. So the huge sample size has convinced me to stick with it.

[ArtK78]

I learned from Hamman not long ago to balance with 3NT with 18-19 there if you have to wrong shape for double, that you just have to take the chance. It seemed risky to me but I thought I'd try it. So it actually came up recently and I tried 3NT. Partner was right there with his balanced 10! count that had no good action over the preempt. So the huge sample size has convinced me to stick with it.

How dare you refer to Hamman as a "huge sample size?"

[JLOL]

I learned from Hamman not long ago to balance with 3NT with 18-19 there if you have to wrong shape for double, that you just have to take the chance. It seemed risky to me but I thought I'd try it. So it actually came up recently and I tried 3NT. Partner was right there with his balanced 10! count that had no good action over the preempt. So the huge sample size has convinced me to stick with it.

haha.

 

Obviously you bid when they overcall 3H, what kind of question is that? Play partner for some values when they preempt, he can still have a pretty good hand to pass 3H and playing him for about 6 points is not a stretch. Also he may have some heart help, RHO hasn't raised and LHO usually has 7 so we can often either double stop hearts or shut LHO out etc etc.

 

If we were w/r I would consider passing sometimes I guess, but w/r is really its own game when it comes to stuff like this.

 

Likewise, almost always pass (or double with a doubleton heart depending on hand) when it goes 1H p 3H. LHO can have a good hand now, and partner's max point count is quite low, especially when he has short hearts (which we know he does if we have 3 hearts). Playing him to average 6 points when he has a stiff heart and passed 1H is silly since he would have bid unless specifically 3163 or something... he is probably closer to 3 points, and we have no chance of shutting the opps our (5-4 fit). Bidding 3N here is suicide.

 

Obviously if you have a good source of tricks and a double stopper you can make an exception but it would be quite rare.

 

2H p 3H is the only one where I would use some judgement based on the quality of my hand and especially my heart stopper (for instance with Axx of hearts I would always bid 3N). I would bid much more often than I would pass though for sure, partner can pass 2H with a pretty reasonable hand and LHO has advertised a weak hand.

 

Edit: I also consider it completely standard to pass with 18-19 balanced on the auction 1C (1H) p (2H) ?

 

lol at bidding after 1C (1H) p (3H)

[jdonn]

I learned from Hamman not long ago to balance with 3NT with 18-19 there if you have to wrong shape for double, that you just have to take the chance. It seemed risky to me but I thought I'd try it. So it actually came up recently and I tried 3NT. Partner was right there with his balanced 10! count that had no good action over the preempt. So the huge sample size has convinced me to stick with it.

haha.

 

Obviously you bid when they overcall 3H

That's the only one I thought I was answering btw. Actually when I did it I had Jxx but partner came through with AQx lol (I would have bid 3NT on his hand the first time...)

[pooltuna]

I learned from Hamman not long ago to balance with 3NT with 18-19 there if you have to wrong shape for double, that you just have to take the chance. It seemed risky to me but I thought I'd try it. So it actually came up recently and I tried 3NT. Partner was right there with his balanced 10! count that had no good action over the preempt. So the huge sample size has convinced me to stick with it.

sorry but I cannot resist...."Hamman eggs in one basket" B)

[jdonn]

You need to learn to resist.

[MickyB]

Yup sorry, two of the three questions were pretty silly I know - I had just heard differing opinions and wanted to check I wasn't the one who was off-centre.

 

Thanks

[y66]

For me - intermediate - the 3 different scenarios made this a much more interesting thread.