Which Approach

[eagles123]

MP Love all

 

1N = 15-17

 

No texas

 

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[neilkaz]

No Texas, ok no problem and we'll play 4♥ from my side which I will bid directly.

[ggwhiz]

We play super accepts with 3 or 4 hearts and are very aggressive about using them, control rich 15's with a 5-card side suit is often enough. So transfer and super accept or forget it for me and yes, we miss a few games. Combined with our (probably) over aggressive acceptance of invites it's safer for us but only a break evenish approach.

 

Red at imps or with a different partner I would transfer and invite, not blast game.

[steve2005]

You have 2 losers in all side sides. Partner is going to have to have very specific cards to make 4♥.

At MP I don't think inviting is worth it. Even opposite a super-accept you might have no play.

Give me a singleton or void and I will make a move at MP. MPs doesn't reward bidding pushy games.

[MrAce]

I don't think this is solvable intelligently. Pd can have

 

 

AKx

KQJx

Qxx

Qxx

 

a 17 hcp and no game, or can have

 

Ax

KQJxx

Axx

Kxx

 

another 17 which looks like 19 and 5 card support, all prime cards and game depends pretty much who has the ♣A (or add ♣ J and you will have to guess, if there is a guess)

 

Axx

xxx

AKQx

xxx

 

a flat 13 and only 3 card support where 4♥ has much more chance than any of the above

 

Axxx

Kxx

Ax

xxxxx

 

another flat 11 hcp ( even if you open a 10-12 hcp NT) 3 NT looks almost cold.

 

at MP I probably would bail out if no super accept.

[MrAce]

This topic actually gave me an idea about super accept.

 

When one holds a long suit such as we have in this topic, a 6 carder or longer, it is important for us to know what kind of 4 card super accept pd has.

For example Axxxxx vs xxxx is much more desirable than Axxxxx vs KQJx. OR Kxxxxx vs AQJ is less desirabe than vs Axx

 

So maybe we should play super accepts like this:

 

1 NT----2♦

2NT= super accept with 4 and not more than 1 honor in the 4 card support

3♥= same with congested ♥ values in the support (or vice versa)

2♠ or 3m = super accept with 3 cards all showing different holdings. You can even create a relay over 2♠ for further investigation if responder has a big hand. (I admit I am not a big fan of super accepts with 3 card)

[johnu]

IMO, not playing Texas is a mistake playing strong NT's. There's a several percent advantage to having the strong NT hand as declarer, and playing Texas lets you set trump for RKC, and use 4NT as quantitative after Jacoby.

 

That said, I wouldn't bid 4♥ natural or 4♦ Texas because game isn't 50%+

 

I would transfer to 2♥ and raise to 3♥. I'm a little worried about the opponents bidding spades but they are less likely to balance at the 3 level than the 2 level if I just transfer and pass.

[gordontd]

IMO, not playing Texas is a mistake playing strong NT's. There's a several percent advantage to having the strong NT hand as declarer, and playing Texas lets you set trump for RKC, and use 4NT as quantitative after Jacoby.

 

That said, I wouldn't bid 4♥ natural or 4♦ Texas because game isn't 50%+

 

I would transfer to 2♥ and raise to 3♥. I'm a little worried about the opponents bidding spades but they are less likely to balance at the 3 level than the 2 level if I just transfer and pass.

The question is less about whether game is odd-on to make and more about preventing the opponents from having an exchange of information. They could easily have game on or a part-score worth more than our deficit. They might even pull our non-making 4H to a non-making contract of their own. Remember the "theory" of always bidding 4S over 4H?

[gszes]

I chose other since I am a strong advocate of texas transfers and would easily bid 4d with this hand. There is no guarantee we will make game but taking up all the bidding space will make it very hard for the opps to compete. Since our side has at least 9 hearts that means the opps have at least 1 8+ card suit of their own and the power of the deck is evenly split. 4h does not have to make to be successful, all it has to do is go down less than whatever the opps can make. When p opened 1n they showed 15-17 and at least 2 hearts so they have all of the qualifications needed to try for game opposite a "weak two" heart if we had been the first to bid. Wellll we just happen to hold a 7th heart which makes up for our lack of extra HCP so we should view our hand as a maximum weak 2 bid and bid game.

[shyams]

Raise to 3NT and let partner declare :D

 

The deal instantly reminded me of this (click) although upon a further examination the only thing common between the two deals is MPs, all white, partner deals & opens!

[shyams]

Normal choice: I'd transfer, then go to game over a super-accept and invite game over a normal-accept.

 

Edit: BTW, I found it hard to understand the difference between choices 3 and 5; or choices 4 and 6.

[nige1]

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MP Love all

1N = 15-17

No texas[/hv]

I rank

1. 4♦ = TFR. (Sadly unavailable).
2. 3N = NAT. (Shyam's suggestion). Less scope for interference.
3. 2♦ = TFR. Suggests a lead against opponent's ♠ contract.

[johnu]

The question is less about whether game is odd-on to make and more about preventing the opponents from having an exchange of information. They could easily have game on or a part-score worth more than our deficit. They might even pull our non-making 4H to a non-making contract of their own. Remember the "theory" of always bidding 4S over 4H?

 

I did say that I considered competitive bidding. That being said, you have already gotten past RHO who has already passed 1NT, and LHO doesn't know that you aren't semi balanced and are preparing to bid 3NT after the transfer so that could keep them out of the 1st round of bidding. They also may not have a suitable hand to come into the auction. When you raise to 3♥, they still may not come into the auction since you normally would have a more balanced hand with more HCP.

 

No guarantees but your side has at least half the high card points and a good chance of having more than half.

[maartenxq]

I think you should bid game over superaccept and invite otherwise. The invite is also defensive, because you definitely do not like to hear a reopening dbl and opponents getting to some number of spades.

 

Maarten Baltussen