Pre-empts work...

[Hanoi5]

[hv=pc=n&w=saq432haq3dca9876&e=skt7hk97djt52c432&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=3dpp?]266|200[/hv]

 

MP's. Some wests doubled, some bid 3♠. No leaping michael's (is that the solution to this one?). Double is better than 3♠ if East action is pass to both, but should he always pass?

[HighLow21]

Don't tell me you ended up in 3NT. I can't see anything other than double.

[MrAce]

DBL- all pass for me.

[Lord Molyb]

DBL- all pass for me.

This, looks like we might set it 2 or 3 which is a good result

[P_Marlowe]

If you have Leaping Michaels av., this is the hand for you.

Double will work out badly, if partner happens to hold 4 hearts, you will fairly quickly

end up in a stupid contract.

On the other hand, the hand is quite heavy for a 3S overcall, and it is kind of 3-suited,

so I dont think X is bad, if you dont have Leaping Michaels av.

If 3S is bid by West, East will pass, if West doubles, ..., I guess I am bidding 3NT.

Depending how you play X follwed by bidding a suit, West has the option to bid 4S over 3NT.

 

With kind regards

Marlowe

[aguahombre]

may we assume you mean non-leaping Michaels?

[Jinksy]

If I don't play non-leaping Michaels, 4D here is usually two-suiter. W would plan to pull 4H to 4S, suggesting Ss and Cs.

[helene_t]

Yes, we will be defending 3♦X on this board.

 

Even if playing nonleaping michaels I wouldn't use it with this hand. I am happy for p to pass my double or to bid hearts. So double is more flexible.

 

NLM is for hands with better or longer black suits (5-5 is fine but they need to have more lower honours and/or intermediates), or hand with less hearts support.

[gszes]

PREEMPTS work that's why we keep using them. The first thing we try to do is

 

visualize what a po seat x would look like as a minimum and then decide if passing

 

for penalty is a good idea or not. Lets give p something like QJxx AQxx x KQxx

 

this looks like a fairly reasonable minimum TOX. Do we wish to defend opposite that

 

hand??? Worst case scenario would seem to be 1s 1h 1c 1d but that should not happen

 

with any great frequency (probably around 15%) so 3d should go down at least 1

 

opposite the proposed hand while we will be hard pressed to make anything at the 3 level

 

making 3d x a pretty darn good MP score (probably close to 75%).

 

If p is just a tad more distributional with say QJxxx AQx x KQxx the scale starts to tip a bit

 

more in favor of bidding since we now have a very reasonable chance at making 3s and that

 

down 1(hopefully) x isn't looking quite so spiffy. If p is just a tad stronger game would seem to

 

be easily within reach and we would be hard pressed to expect more than down 2 x (opps scoring

 

6d and ONE side suit trick). Now that pass is looking even scarier. If we have a slam the x may work

 

far better than it deserves since it may not be that easy to get to slam after the 3d opener and we can

 

easily expect to beat 3d 3 tricks under these conditions but it is still no guarantee for success since

 

a great deal will depend on where the slam is and what bids your side has available after 3d.

 

 

 

 

The overall point is that this hand is really much more offensive oriented than defensive under these

 

circumstances. The one sure trump trick does not seem to be enough to offset the liabilities of defending.

 

 

 

 

3h = 10 pass = 7 3n =3 If your partnership prefers to be pessimistic (ie p will always have minimum) than

 

by all means pass since you should both be happy with the decision. If this were IMPS pass=4 too much risk.