No way out

[AyunuS]

http://tinyurl.com/d4bz6oa

 

Isn't it so annoying when there's no bid that meets any of the available descriptions, and whatever you bid seems like is going to make something bad happen? On this table, GIB did not bid hearts or spades, which it could have, but instead uses 1NT. South's hand does not have enough length to bid anything but ♠, and it's far too weak to reverse. Anyone that passed 1NT ended up down 1. Anyone that bid 2♣ saw GIB rebid 3♥, and either passed or raised to 4♥, but in either case, they only won 8 tricks. Anyone that rebid 2♥ got a 4♥ response and ended up down 2. Anyone that rebid 2♠ got a 4♠ response by GIB and ended up down 2. I.e. Every single table went down. Yes I know 1NT was supposed to be forcing but all paths fail. I thought 1NT denied having 5♠ and if it doesn't then it should. Spades is only suit south can have and not be able to be as a response to 1NT with a hand too weak to reverse. I thought north wouldn't have majors to be bidding 1NT, so I thought we'd have relatively balanced hands with no fit, and since it had a passed hand, we didn't have a game, so I thought it was better to take the partscore.

[Stephen Tu]

Can we get GIB to play reverse drury? Only way to go plus on this board in theory. A bit odd for GIB to be playing all these fancy gadgets but not using drury. Maybe a bit low on the priority list.

 

Also, GIB's priorities regarding bidding 1s or raising hearts / going through 1nt has always been a bit weird, as discussed in:

 

http://www.bridgebas...post__p__628593

[nathan2008]

Can we get GIB to play reverse drury? Only way to go plus on this board in theory. A bit odd for GIB to be playing all these fancy gadgets but not using drury. Maybe a bit low on the priority list.

 

http://www.bridgebas...post__p__628593

 

Reverse drury is not that popular... maybe one day we can choose conventions with GIB lol. what i think all tables have the same GIB, so if u have trouble in bidding this hand, others will also have i think. But if u can choose different conventions with GIB, maybe someone will have trouble, someone won't ,hehe

[AyunuS]

Hmm, by looking at that other topic, I would say the priorities should be changed so that a 5-card major is considered higher priority than the 1NT followed by a limit raise, since it'd help avoid situations like this and I don't like the idea of hiding 5-card majors in the first place. It rarely comes up so maybe it's not super important to get it fixed but wow, this really tricked me when there's no way I thought it'd have 5 spades. Btw, can anyone tell me what am I supposed to bid as a response to 1NT in this case?

[Bbradley62]

Here are the relevant responses, in order of priority (highest to lowest):

 

1NT with 3-card limit raise

1♠ with 5+ ♠

2♥ with single raise, 3♥ with 4+ limit raise

1♠ with 4 ♠

 

Simulations aren't allowed to override these rules.

Some of this does seem illogical, though. It will bypass 5+ ♠ to show a 3-card limit raise, but not a 4-card limit raise. And the suit quality is ignored.

 

I'll ask Fred whether he thinks it's important to rearrange the priorities.

What did Fred say?

[Stephen Tu]

Reverse drury is not that popular...

 

Maybe not where you are, but among 2/1 club & tournament players in North America it's well over 90% in my experience that some form of Drury is being played. It's part of Bridge World Standard where it got 89% of the poll to be on there.

 

 

Hmm, by looking at that other topic, I would say the priorities should be changed so that a 5-card major is considered higher priority than the 1NT followed by a limit raise, since it'd help avoid situations like this and I don't like the idea of hiding 5-card majors in the first place. It rarely comes up so maybe it's not super important to get it fixed but wow, this really tricked me when there's no way I thought it'd have 5 spades. Btw, can anyone tell me what am I supposed to bid as a response to 1NT in this case?

 

It's totally normal to bid 2c in response to a forcing NT with this shape. Partner isn't really supposed to pass that often, and will frequently have 5 (or more) clubs if he does (and stiff/void heart). The nightmare scenario is partner has 3-1-5-4, weak, and you play a 4-2 fit. But with the singleton heart you may be able to get several ruffs in if the opps forget to lead trumps. Also, in my experience GIB bids 2d on that shape way more often on worse suits than theoretically should be, instead of just passing 2c.