Bid or Pass Minimum Hands in 3rd Seat?

[AAr]

I'm learning the tricks, but I have to figure this one out, as this is killing me.

 

You have a minimum third seat opener. You want to pass it out if you could. If you HAVE to play it, you want your side to declare, and hope to make a bid. You do NOT want to defend, and you have no safe action other than pass if the LHO opens in the fourth seat and it comes back to me. Should I:

 

A: Pass and hope that the hand does get passed out.

B: Bid, at least making it more likely that my side will declare when the hand does get played.

C: It depends on the TYPE of Robot tourney (Best hand, Robot Race, Bingo, etc.).

D: It can depend on other factors. (Please explain.)

E: The factors can be completely different in the three different types of tournaments listed above.

F: A combination of C, D, and E.

 

Making the wrong action in these situations have been KILLING me in these types of tourneys lately (Best Hand, Robot Race, AND Bingo), so I want to know what is the best here? Too many times, I've been passing out in the third seat hoping to pass out the hand, and the GIB opens in the fourth seat and I have to defend, usually making, while opening might have led to being able to bid and make a partscore my way. Other times, I do open, at least showing a mimimum opener and a suit to the GIB partner, and either the GIB opponents gets in (usually with a Tskeout Double: They seem to use thin takeout doubles.), or we get too high. Having to defend making partscores in these types of tourneys have been killing me (You lose about 140 points AND about one minute of time, both are huge in all three of these types of tourneys), and it's often after I either pass in the third seat when I should be bidding the minimum opener, or opening the minimum hand in third seat and have the opponents reopen with an overcall or a takeout double. I wonder if these is strategy I should be changing here.

 

 

Thanks!

[mgoetze]

AAr, it's bad style to post everything you want to post in two different threads.

[AAr]

AAr, it's bad style to post everything you want to post in two different threads.

 

I know, but I don't know how much the main thread gets read, and I want to know whether I should be bidding minimum openers in the third seat or not. Sorry about that.

[palabreur]

I know, but I don't know how much the main thread gets read, and I want to know whether I should be bidding minimum openers in the third seat or not. Sorry about that.

 

As someone with a 7k+ average in robot reward tournaments, I think it's definitely a good idea to pass with the sort of hands you're talking about. In third I'd tend to open 18 balanced if not vulnerable, 17 balanced if vulnerable. If I'm unbalanced, again it depends on vulnerability: I'll open not vulnerable with hands that would tend to make opposite single raises, and open a point or two lighter if red.

 

I wouldn't differ much from this 1st, 2nd, or 4th. 1st or 2nd, I'd open a point or so lighter vulnerable, and stick to the same opening ranges not vulnerable.

 

I've seen Leo's opening strategies, and I can't stand them for me. In robot reward tourneys, he's opening 13 point hands. Maybe that works okay for him, because he's a very fast, very good declarer; but as a very fast, moderately good declarer, that strategy doesn't work for me.

 

Bingo tournaments are a completely different beast, and require much more situational decisions, based on the bingo board. Sometimes it's correct to open an 11 count in any seat playing bingo, if you need low-level contracts.