Fielded misbid?

[Cyberyeti]

Suppose that you held ♠AQJ10xxx as South. Would you not want to bid 3♠, even if you suspected that the opponents had a few more high cards than your own side? If nothing else, a spade lead could be necessary to beat 3NT.

 

I'd bid 4♠ with that and let opps guess. Most often I'll get to play there probably doubled and come out OK.

 

And I'm not going to rise to Mr Ace's trolling of me.

 

Bidding 3♠ is the worst of all worlds on that type of hand most of the time as it will warn the opps off 3N when it isn't making, and partner won't bid 4 when 4♠ is making with a singleton trump.

 

I'm saying that for a number of pairs us included, we take the view that on frequency grounds the number of hands where you want to bid a natural 3♠ with 7 or 8 spades is dwarfed by the number with 5-6♠, 3♦ where you want to suggest a save if there's a double fit.

[aguahombre]

I'd bid 4♠ with that and let opps guess. Most often I'll get to play there probably doubled and come out OK.

 

And I'm not going to rise to Mr Ace's trolling of me.

 

Bidding 3♠ is the worst of all worlds on that type of hand most of the time as it will warn the opps off 3N when it isn't making, and partner won't bid 4 when 4♠ is making with a singleton trump.

 

I'm saying that for a number of pairs us included, we take the view that on frequency grounds the number of hands where you want to bid a natural 3♠ with 7 or 8 spades is dwarfed by the number with 5-6♠, 3♦ where you want to suggest a save if there's a double fit.

Are you trying to get this thread back on track? Good job...and totally relevant to whether North's 4D bid should or should not be ruled against.

[barmar]

Well, an announcement is a sort of alert, is it not?

 

Sort of, but there's an important distinction. Previously, when you alerted 2♣, opponents probably just assumed it was Stayman, since "everyone" plays that, so they didn't bother to ask. Now you announce Stayman, and alert everything else, so they know that they really should ask for an explanation.

 

The general idea is that it's counter-productive to alert a meaning that something like 90% of players use, because it becomes noise that players filter out. They should either be non-alertable (like ordinary takeout doubles, and Stayman in ACBL) or announced (like Jacoby transfers, and Stayman in EBU).