two hands from recent tourney

[LukeG]

Hi all,

 

Here are two hands from this last weekend's sectional swiss teams at Watertown MA.

 

1) At both red you have AJ10x, AKxxx, x, xxx

 

RHO opens 1C, you overcall 1H, LHO passes, partner bids 2D showing a three card limit raise or better, RHO bids 3C and you?

 

2) At favorable you have (void), xxx, xxxx, KQJxxx

 

RHO opens 1S, you bid 2C (you are playing intermediate jump overcalls), LHO bids 2H, partner bids 5C, RHO raises to 5H and you?

 

Suppose that you pass. LHO bids 6C, partner passes, RHO thinks a bit and bids 6H and you?

 

Suppose that you bid 7C. LHO passes, partner passes and RHO bids 7H. Do you double?

 

Cheers ... Luke

[luis]

1) Pass I really don't think I have another option. 3h is against the LAW. And 3s is a wild shot in the dark. My three little clubs are a bad signal.

 

2)

 

a) I'd have passed over 5h.

 

B) Over 6h I play a convention: negative slam doubles.

Pass shows 1 or 0 defensive tricks

then pd with 0 defensive tricks defends

with 2 defensive tricks passes

with 1 defensive trick he doubles and then I pass with 1 or defend with 0

double shows 2 defensive tricks so pd won't defend.

 

So I'd have passed showing 0/1 defensive tricks

 

c) Over 7h I double that's for sure I hope they can't bid and make 7NT :-)

[Codo]

Hi,

 

1) Pass

 

2) I would never bid 2 Club, never bid 6 Club and never bid 7 Club

But after sending them in 7 Heart, I should X for a spade lead..But maybe I will bring them to 7 Spade or 7 NT making. OTOH, if these contracts are making, 7 Heart will too without a spade lead. And how should pd found this lead without a lightner double?

So yes, I double...

 

Not many hands I can think about where this is wrong...

 

Kind Regards

 

Roland

[inquiry]

Hi all,

 

Here are two hands from this last weekend's sectional swiss teams at Watertown MA.

 

1) At both red you have AJ10x, AKxxx, x, xxx

 

RHO opens 1C, you overcall 1H, LHO passes, partner bids 2D showing a three card limit raise or better, RHO bids 3C and you?

 

2) At favorable you have (void), xxx, xxxx, KQJxxx

 

RHO opens 1S, you bid 2C (you are playing intermediate jump overcalls), LHO bids 2H, partner bids 5C, RHO raises to 5H and you?

 

Suppose that you pass. LHO bids 6C, partner passes, RHO thinks a bit and bids 6H and you?

 

Suppose that you bid 7C. LHO passes, partner passes and RHO bids 7H. Do you double?

 

Cheers ... Luke

 

On 1) Luis is right, the Law says to pass 3CLUBS, save in the knowledge that if partner is looking at 4HEARTS he will bid be back in the bidding with a 3HEART bid. At imps, however, vulnerable, you might consider a really different bid of 4H's. The reason being with a singleton opposite a limit raise, it is usually best to go ahead and bid the game, especially vul at imps. If you do pass, and partner does bid 3H, you should carry on to game.

 

On 2) the last question is the easist, if they bid 7H, I double. If they can make 7H or 7NT, ok, they run to 7NT and get an extra 10 points, but no imp difference. But a Spade lead will crush 7Hearts.

 

What would I bid over 5Hs at favorable vulnerability? How much do I trust the opponents? Does my partner push the envelope with wild jumps to 5Clubs? Should I bid 5S (for lead?), 6C, 7C? Do I really want to push them into slam? This is the problem with bidding 2C with this hand rather than an honest 3C (yes you play intermediate...maybe at favorable you shouldn't). If you had bid 3Clubs (weak) or maybe better 4C weak, partner would have known what to do for you. Now you have the last guess.

 

Ben

[Rado]

Hi Luke and all,

1) I suppose P bid 2C= limit raise or better not 2D but anyway:-)))))

Might propose following idea, applicable in many similar situations:

DBL= balanced Game try

3Di = any non-balanced Game Try

3He=Competitive

 

Note if our fit was Sp at same action then there would be place for both 3Di and 3He natural non-balanced game tries.

 

With actual hand my bid will be 3Di non-balanced game try and opposing Partner's:

Sp:Qxx He:QJx Di:Axxxx Cl:xx (and I'm not sure whether this will be everyone's choise for 2Cl limit or better or just calm 2He bid :-)))))

our side may produce even 11 tricks at He contract

 

2) Although I prefer 4Cl (since 3Cl was intermediate) direct at favourable and pass untill 7He then Lightner DBL, as the bids were presented, I think that immediate 6Cl over 5He worths enough (P has 4+CL with He shortage and our sacrifies seems reasonable). At 7He Lightner is compulsory (at least for me) :-))))))

 

Regards, Rado

[luis]

At imps, however, vulnerable, you might consider a really different bid of 4H's. The reason being with a singleton opposite a limit raise, it is usually best to go ahead and bid the game, especially vul at imps. If you do pass, and partner does bid 3H, you should carry on to game.

 

Hi Inquiry, I'd bid 4h without hesitation with a singleton club but the singleton diammond makes me doubt. We should run a simulation to get the real answer. Maybe my statistical senses are fooling me but I'm very inclined to pick up the green card from the box. Why? Because with 3 hearts and only 1 club my pd would probably bid differently having 5/4 in spades and diammonds or a six+ suit. So I'm guessing pd has a balanced hand with 2 or 3 clubs. I have two quick losers and probably three.

 

I'm almost sure I will be automatically down 1 after four rounds of clubs promoting the JTx of hearts on my left :-)

 

Now I want to introduce a question:

If we pass and pd reopens with a dbl. Now what?

[LukeG]

Here are the actual results, with a range from -15 IMPs to +25 IMPs. Score yourselves.

 

1) AJ10x, AKxxx, x, xxx

 

If you double 3C and lead your singleton, +800 for +5 IMPs

If you bid 3S, partner bids 3NT for +600 and 0 IMPs

If you double 3C and lead a heart honor, +500 for -3 IMPs

If you pass 3C and lead your singleton, +300 for -7 IMPs

If you pass 3C and lead a heart honor, +200 for -9 IMPs

If you bid 4H (or 3D as unbalanced game try), -500 for -15 IMPs

 

Partner has Kx, Qxx, AJ9xx, Q10x. Clubs are 7-0 and hearts are 5-0. He makes 3NT by picking up 4 spade tricks (Qxx onside) and then endplaying the opener bidder in diamonds for a lead into the Queen of clubs at the end.

 

When the opponents do this to you on the first board of a seven board swiss, do you panic and go crazy trying to recover? Or do you trust your teammates to cover for you and continue to play normally? We won this match because a pretty good player tried the former strategy and spoiled a very good set by his teammtes.

 

2) (void), xxx, xxxx, KQJxxx

 

If you push them to 7H and pass, +100 for +20 IMPs

If you let them play 6H, -1460 for +13 IMPs

If you push them to 7H and double, -2220 for 0 IMPs

 

Partner has Qxxxx, (void), J10x, 10xxxx.

 

Here is a question for all of you Lightner doublers? What is your track record for doubling a grand slam with a void, as in this case? How often do they escape successfully to 7NT? Suppose that you never heard of a Lightner double. Wouldn't you lead a spade and hope that partner could ruff?

 

My score was 0 on both boards, but we won the event anyway :-)

[Codo]

Hi Luke,

 

thanks for the solutions.

With hand 1, I had passed 3 Club, but maybe my pd had not. After all, he had a good maximum for his bid. His bidding in the apss out seat should depend on our style. If I am very old fashioned and do just bid with decent hands, he will bid on and at least invite me to game.

If he knew, that I sometimes have just KQJxxx for a bid, he surely will pass 3 Club too.

 

I really doubt, that 3 NT with the given hand is reached very often. Pds hand is balanced, but mine is not and I see no real way to find out that 3 NT is better then 4 Heart. ( Of course i can see some ways in theory, but not in practice.)

 

To double 3 Club is just possible in a regular partnership. Then pd MAY reopen with a double, which we can happily pass.

 

To reach 3 NT from his side after my 3 Spade bid is magic. Does 3 Spade really show spade AND Club values in your partnership? If so, I am impressed.

I would reach 4 Heart after a 3 Spade bid. No success. To reach 3 NT, I need a 3 Diamond bid from pd in the pass-out seat. Then we MAY play 3 NT.

 

In hand 2, I guess a double is still right.

If I don`t double, pd nearly always will lead a trump or a club. Most players tend to leads passiv against a grand slam.

To led from Qxxxx into dummy cannot be too good very often. Odds are on, that declarer is short in spades.

 

Okay, in this hand your Pd MAY lead a spade, after all a trump lead is impossible. But I could not know from my side of the table, that pd did not have a trump to lead and that 7 NT is making.

 

Kind Regards

 

Roland

[luis]

My statistical senses worked :-) Pd did have a balanced hand with 3 hearts and 3 clubs. Now it's easy to say that I would have passed a reopening double by pd but I do believe it is the best approach to that hand.

[junyi_zhu]

I agree with Rado's choice except that I might double 3C. I think double here should be a game try and partner can pass if he likes. The hand is

good for offence and defence. So 3D here is also a game try, but more offensive oriented.

 

Playing intermediate jump, people may have a tough time to bid that hand. Perhaps 2NT to show preempt in either minor is a cure. I don't really like traditional 2NT to show both minors. Perhaps a multi 2NT is

possible: either a preempt in minor or a strong minor suit two suiter.