Your call?

[NickRW]

You hold something like:

 

S Q964

H Q94

D Q8

C AQ73

 

Partner deals and opens 2♥ weak at r/r, pass from righty. What do you do? Why? I'll say why I'm asking after I get a few answers.

 

Nick

 

Oh - I should add, MPs, reasonable field, poor opps - you're standing in for a pair that went home in disgust at how badly they were doing in a Swiss pairs.

[hotShot]

The form of scoring and the kind of event would have an influence.

 

At MP I would often bid 3♥ to extend the preempt, at IMPs I'm more likely to pass.

[ggwhiz]

Might bounce to 3♥ to inhibit a balamce but NOT with those spades, not at these colours and not against weakish opponents.

 

I pass

[NickRW]

Well, the 2 replies I've got sort of sum it up. I decided at the table to try 3♥ - passed out - partner duly brought home 9 tricks as I expected - which was a pretty darned poor result - most pairs sitting the other way got too high for -200 or more. Partner thought I was right to do as I did, but in hind sight I think I have a little too much and bidding inhibited the opps from competing.

[mikestar13]

Well, the 2 replies I've got sort of sum it up. I decided at the table to try 3♥ - passed out - partner duly brought home 9 tricks as I expected - which was a pretty darned poor result - most pairs sitting the other way got too high for -200 or more. Partner thought I was right to do as I did, but in hind sight I think I have a little too much and bidding inhibited the opps from competing.

 

The LOTT bid is 3♥, but I would pass with good defense and poor offense. I'd think opponents getting too high is likely on this hand.

[Zelandakh]

With a weak NT hand it is often right to pass over a weak 2, especially with 4 cards in the other major.

[gnasher]

Against most opponents, I think 3♥ is automatic at any form of scoring. If you want them to get too high, by far the best way to do that is to take away all their invtational sequences - people who have to guess tend to go high rather than low. Pass leaves them with Lebensohl, invitational raises of a 2♠ overcall, three-level overcalls in the minors, etc. Bidding 3♥ reduces them to just two bids at the three-level, with no invitational sequences at all.

 

Pass also makes any later competitve decisions harder for you and easier for them. If you pass and they get to 2♠ or 3♦, you will then have to guess whether to bid 3♥. If you do compete to 3♥, the opponents will know quite a lot about their combined assets, so if you're wrong they're quite likely to double you.

 

Havng said that, this argument might fall down when you're playing against very weak opponents - if they're so bad that they can't make use of the extra space and information, there's no harm in letting them have it.

[NickRW]

Havng said that, this argument might fall down when you're playing against very weak opponents.

 

Well, to be fair, I don't know the actual strength of the opps - I'd never met them before. It was a county organised swiss with a few well known names in the room - and the teams on the Sunday green pointed and won last year by some geezers called Robson, Mahmood and company - so the field must be presumed to be at least reasonable. However we were cut in on table 22 out of circa 30 or so for rounds 5/6/7 after responding to a call from an anxious organiser - so one has to presume that opps are weak compared to the field as a whole - but probably good by normal club standards.