BW Death Hand, sort of

[MickyB]

AKx AKQJxx xx xx

 

MP, 2/1. You open 1H and pard responds 1S. Pick-up partnership, but you can assume pard will interpret 3NT as a suggestion to play with a hand too good to bid 3H.

[glen]

Nothing is perfect/everything is awful. In a pick-up partnership at MPs I bid 3H, at IMPs 4H, and later discuss the merits of a system with a lower upper bound for 1H.

[aguahombre]

I Can't resist the opportunity to rebid 2NT, if forcing ---3NT if not ---with both unbid suits unstopped. I like my chances for 9 tricks, since I have eight.

[mike777]

3nt given OP

 

 

but you can foresee all of this and open 2c as a lesser of evils bid.

[glen]

I Can't resist the opportunity to rebid 2NT, if forcing ...

With a regular partner but not a sophisticated system I would do this, even if non-forcing as in standard, since if I get by this round I can get us to the right spot. Pick-up partners tend not understand.

[aguahombre]

Pick-up partners tend not understand.

Yes, reg pard would understand why we did it. If the pick-up doesn't, and gets uppity about it when they run five or more tricks, then we know how much we appreciate reg pard.

[CSGibson]

3♣. I prefer all my fake JS to be into clubs, and I'm not making a non-forcing bid, or committing to hearts just yet.

[rhm]

I Can't resist the opportunity to rebid 2NT, if forcing ---3NT if not ---with both unbid suits unstopped. I like my chances for 9 tricks, since I have eight.

I do not see the attraction of notrump bids compared to heart bids and I am one of those who regularly bid notrump when others prefer to bid or raise majors.

 

However, here it is greatly against the odds that you will have just 4 top losers in the minors in both notrump and hearts, yet that both minors are stopped when played from this side.

And if this unlikely case exists partner will almost always bid 3NT over 3♥.

After this start opponents are unlikely to miss their best opening lead.

It is possible, though still slightly odds against, that you may have as many tricks in notrump as in a major suit contract, not just nine.

But then partner will often bid 3NT over 3♥ right-siding the contract or putting it another way: If partner refuses to bid 3NT over 3♥, how likely is it that you would belong in 3NT?

Rebidding notrump now will likely only get you into notrump when you do not belong there, at least not from this side.

 

3♥ is an underbid, but only a slight one at MP. Vulnerable at IMPs 4♥ has merit.

 

Rainer Herrmann

[helene_t]

4♥. If the heart suit had been worse and we had a minor suit ace instead it would be a problem and I might try 2NT. As it is I feel quite happy abut my 4♥ bid.

[han]

A British player called Mike Bell taught us to bid 2D with this, showing 6+ hearts and either 11-13 or 16+ HCP. If partner bids 2H, we can bid 2S (NF) or 3S (forcing), both showing 3-6 in the majors.

[phil_20686]

A British player called Mike Bell taught us to bid 2D with this, showing 6+ hearts and either 11-13 or 16+ HCP. If partner bids 2H, we can bid 2S (NF) or 3S (forcing), both showing 3-6 in the majors.

 

Comedy.

[phil_20686]

I Can't resist the opportunity to rebid 2NT, if forcing

 

 

I do not see the attraction of notrump bids compared to heart bids and I am one of those who regularly bid notrump when others prefer to bid or raise majors.

 

But then partner will often bid 3NT over 3♥ right-siding the contract or putting it another way: If partner refuses to bid 3NT over 3♥, how likely is it that you would belong in 3NT?

Rebidding notrump now will likely only get you into notrump when you do not belong there, at least not from this side.

 

3♥ is an underbid, but only a slight one at MP. Vulnerable at IMPs 4♥ has merit.

 

Rainer Herrmann

 

I have been interpreting "2N forcing" to mean that waterboy plays 1h-1s-2N as an artificial GF, (which may be 18-19), and has artificial continuations to show the single suited hand. I think that is a pretty common way to show a hand too good to rebid 3H, in at least some regions of the world.

 

If the 2N rebid is natural, the 3N rebid should not be, and that would show this hand. In both cases, the final contract will be hearts, except in the occasional hand were partner passes - something like QJxx x QJxx QJxx would pass 3N for example.

[aguahombre]

I have been interpreting "2N forcing" to mean that waterboy plays 1h-1s-2N as an artificial GF, (which may be 18-19), and has artificial continuations to show the single suited hand. I think that is a pretty common way to show a hand too good to rebid 3H, in at least some regions of the world.

Nope, nothing artificial about my 2NT rebid...I just chose to do it without a stopper in either of the two unbid suits. Our continuations are natural, as if I held some 5-3-3-2 19-count.

 

But thanks for the nostalgic "waterboy", a schoolyard taunt from the 1950's for me.

[JLOGIC]

I'd just bid 4H lol

[Vampyr]

A British player called Mike Bell taught us to bid 2D with this, showing 6+ hearts and either 11-13 or 16+ HCP. If partner bids 2H, we can bid 2S (NF) or 3S (forcing), both showing 3-6 in the majors.

 

Do you think that he has discussed this with his pickup partner?

[Zelandakh]

A British player called Mike Bell taught us to bid 2D with this, showing 6+ hearts and either 11-13 or 16+ HCP. If partner bids 2H, we can bid 2S (NF) or 3S (forcing), both showing 3-6 in the majors.

There's nothing wrong with transfer rebids in an established partnership - perhaps not ideal for a pick-up pair though. Perhaps you should go back to Acol, Micky - 8 tricks = a 2♥opening, no? ;)

[MickyB]

I was given this hand and said 4H > 3C > 3H > 3N, but thought it interesting. The player who held it rebid 3H and got a raise to 4H from Q9xxx xx AJxx Ax or similar. Spades were 4-1 which meant that 4H+2 scored 12/14 mp, not because people were going off in grand, but because 3N and 4S only made 11 tricks.

[aguahombre]

Well done, to all those who got to hearts instead of NT. The actual hand has certainly been a lesson to me.