What do you bid here?

[dbsboy]

I have a few bidding questions and would like to seek your opinion.

We play 2/1.

 

First Q:

Both Vul.

You are N and your partner is the dealer who opened 1♥. What is your choice?

 

[hv=pc=n&n=sk93hq97dt43caj82&d=s&v=b&b=7&a=1h1s]133|200[/hv]

3♥is preemptive and 2♠ is invite+

 

 

Second Q:

W vs R, Your partner is the dealer and passes.

 

[hv=pc=n&s=skj9763h4dacj6542&d=n&v=e&b=9&a=pp]133|200[/hv]

What would you open?

 

 

Third Q:

Assume you opened 1♠ holding the last hand, and the bidding went like this.

 

[hv=d=n&v=e&b=9&a=pp1sdr3h]133|100[/hv]

What would you bid?

[akwoo]

For me, the answer to question 1 depends on your opening style.

 

If partner would usually open on something like the following or worse

 

♠ Q3

♥ KJ962

♦ QJ43

♣ Q5

 

then I bid 1N. If partner passes this in first seat I bid 2S.

[gwnn]

2♥, 3♠ and pass (I will pull any penalty double by partner but I'm secretly hoping for 3♥ to be passed out).

[Trinidad]

2♥, 3♠ and pass (I will pull any penalty double by partner but I'm secretly hoping for 3♥ to be passed out).

Same here.

 

Rik

[ahydra]

At those colours I was very tempted by 4S on the second one, but decided against it in the end. Voted for 1NT, 3S and pass (the last of which is exceptionally clear-cut given you opened a 9-count).

 

ahydra

[fromageGB]

Just to explain my "other" to Q1, I play transfers after the overcall, up to 2♥. So 2♦ is a good raise to 2♥. 2♥ would be weaker. You may have other methods for this, maybe X, but I don't think this hand good enough for a stronger bid.

[wyman]

2H / 4S* / Pass

 

* I would open 3S at pairs for sure, and I'd probably open 3S against a pair that plays double=penalty of 4S.

[JLOGIC]

Depending on your opening bid style 2S might be ok on the first one, it's 4333 but the SK is probably well placed and my honors seem good (I like AJ in my 4 card suit).

[dbsboy]

Thanks for all the votes and opinions.

 

On the 1st hand I was South and held ♠XX ♥ AJTXX ♦AJ ♣KQXX

Game was fairly good, my partner invited and we reached the game smoothly.

However I thought I would struggle between 2♥ and 2♠ and might have missed this game had we only bid 1♥-(1♠)-2♥

 

On the 2nd hand I thought about 1♠, 2♠, 3♠ and opened 1♠ at last, thinking that I might be able to show ♣ later. Retrospectively thinking 3♠ looked a lot better.

[rmnka447]

Q1 - Since you play 2/1, if the opponent had passed instead of bidding ♠, what would you have bid with hand 1? If you're not playing any special major raises, you probably would have bid a forcing NT and then jumped to 3 ♥ over partner's rebid - the invitational 2 1/2 ♥ raise. 4-3-3-3 isn't ideal, but as JLOGIC pointed out, your ♠ K gained some value positioned behind the ♠ overcaller. You'd like to have 4 ♠s for a limit raise, but you do have the right values to make one. So, 2 ♠ showing invitational values would seem right to me.

 

Q2 - I'd start out with 2 ♠ on this hand for a couple reasons. First, if the points are evenly distributed around the table, 2 ♠ makes it more difficult for the opponents to find their red suit fit -- they've got to do it at the 3 level. (And for this reason, I don't have any problem with those who might want to preempt it a bit more aggressively.) Second, partner is unlikely to make a competitive decision that expects more from my hand than I have (i.e. 1 1/2 QTs).

 

Q3 - Given the auction to this point, you have a clear pass. You've already aggressively bid your values and have no idea what partner's RDBL was based on. So give partner a chance to decide what to do and make a further call. Partner might support ♠s, or double to try to find a better place to play (after which you can bid ♣s), or might just sit for 3 ♥ with the right hand to defeat it.