The works

[pescetom]

MP

[hv=pc=n&n=shak9752daq8ckjt3&d=e&v=0&b=14&a=2s(weak)pp?]200|300[/hv]

 

Unknown opponents open 2♠, described as natural and weak.

It gets passed around to you, what is your call?

Please reply to the poll and add any thoughts or explanation of your call here.

[helene_t]

This is the ideal hand for double followed by 3♥.

 

Maybe I'm not so thrilled about the prospect that partner might pass. If opps can be trusted to be lawful, partner has 5+ spades so will pass it more often than not. I think that's ok. With no low honours in hearts I have a reasonably low O-D.

[pilowsky]

I'm going for 2NT.

I want my partner to know that I have 15+.

There seems to be a fashion these days to open a weak two on almost anything (the 'unknown opponents' line is a tease). GIB tends to preempt heavy. Players under 30 tend to preempt with nearly nothing. I don't know how to bid at all...

Even if East has say AK6542, then odds are that QJT98763 will divide fairly between W and S.

I have the other suits well stopped and if partner has ♠ stopped and something else to offer they can up the ante.

Looking forward to the next instalment.

 

Edit: And of course, everyone else is right and I'm wrong - this is the next hand that came up!

Not quite the same, but this post was ringing in my eyes - as it were.

I make -1.3 IMP's for 2NT+3

[hv=pc=n&s=sah5daqt763cakqt5&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=p2s2nppp]133|200[/hv]

Double gets people to 3NT or 6♦

[gszes]

enough defense to make 2sx a possible winner (at these colors) and x is far more flexible for slam bidding purposes if p has no interest in 2sx.

[johnu]

I'm going for 2NT.

GIB is the only partner who would understand 2NT. Well, maybe not understand, but not make a nasty comment about your bidding.

[helene_t]

I find 2NT weird.

 

Of course it might work - partner will probably bid 3NT and sometimes this will be better than 2♠X.

 

But it is extremely misdecriptive. And if partner has a good 6-card spades, he might think that we have forgotten that U2NT doesn't apply here, since he can see in his own hand that we can't have a real 2NT call.

[mikeh]

Double seems clear, even though I strain to avoid doubling With a void in their suit. It is often very important to lead a trump through declarer at least once, in order to minimize the end plays that a sound declarer will be attempting in the trump suit.

 

But here, while my hand isn’t perfect for defending, there really is no other plausible choice. The hand is too strong and too flexible for 3H, and the heart suit isn’t good enough for 4H which, btw, shows a GOOD hand, not a preempt. A good rule is that one does not preempt over an opponent’s preempt. Make my hand the same as it is, but move a club into the hearts, and that would be a 4H call for me (tho on the heavy side)

 

Here, I hope we’re playing lebensohl, which not everyone plays by a passed hand. I say this because if partner bids a constructive 3C (yes, I’m dreaming), I’m driving to slam and looking for grand. Otherwise, unless partner passes, I’m pulling 2N or 3D to 3H, showing a flexible hand too strong to overcall.

 

I’m also pulling 3N to 4H, sending the same message, allowing partner to perhaps evaluate for slam

 

In essence, I’ve simply agreed with Helene, albeit (as usual) at considerably more length😀

[pescetom]

Thanks all who replied so far.

Here is the complete diagram:

 

[hv=pc=n&n=shak9752daq8ckjt3&e=s9876532h6dj43ca5&s=sakjth843d752c764&w=sq4hqjtdkt96cq982&d=e&v=0&b=14&a=2s(weak)ppxppp]400|300[/hv]

 

 

This was the last board of a tournament that had not gone as well as hoped and the temptation to just declare 4♥ was strong. But I figured the hearts weren't quite enough and if partner had a strong black suit then I might be kicking myself, so better to get her involved in the decision. I doubled, partner passed and we collected 300 which was 35% at MP.

 

About half the scores were 420/450 for 48%/75%. That left me wondering if we had done the right thing, hence the post. Of course at many if not most tables North will get to open 1♥ here and at that point 4♥ is plain sailing unless they find the diamond lead.

[Cyberyeti]

The problem is not the auction, it's that you didn't extract the available 500 although it is tricky and in practice may demand a club lead. 4♥ is not great, but in practice will probably get help from the lead, if spades are never played and the defence go completely passive it will be a real problem to make.

[pescetom]

The problem is not the auction, it's that you didn't extract the available 500.

 

Correct too. Partner led hearts.

[Vampyr]

Correct too. Partner lead hearts.

 

Does it really matter what partner LED? Declarer is never getting to dummy to enjoy the third heart.

 

In any case I wouldn’t even mind getting a bad board against a pair who consider this a weak two. On balance I will gain against this style.

[Cyberyeti]

Does it really matter what partner LED? Declarer is never getting to dummy to enjoy the third heart.

 

In any case I wouldn’t even mind getting a bad board against a pair who consider this a weak two. On balance I will gain against this style.

 

Yes it does, he has a diamond entry by force (overtake the J with the K after playing small to the 9), and if partner leads a low diamond at trick 1, you have to win the Q and if declarer unblocks the J return the 8 to prevent it being useful at the right time.

[pescetom]

Does it really matter what partner LED?

It certainly does. It's fairly trivial for defence to take 8 tricks after a lead of A♠, impossible after a lead of hearts (and tricky after diamonds as cyberyeti says).

 

 

In any case I wouldn’t even mind getting a bad board against a pair who consider this a weak two. On balance I will gain against this style.

I wasn't impressed, although I have seen worse. The opening was announced as "weak" which in our RA is reserved for 6cards 6-10 HCP, so I had some ground to protest but decided against it.

[pilowsky]

Thanks all who replied so far.

Here is the complete diagram:

 

[hv=pc=n&n=shak9752daq8ckjt3&e=s9876532h6dj43ca5&s=sakjth843d752c764&w=sq4hqjtdkt96cq982&d=e&v=0&b=14&a=2s(weak)ppxppp]400|300[/hv]

 

 

This was the last board of a tournament that had not gone as well as hoped and the temptation to just declare 4♥ was strong. But I figured the hearts weren't quite enough and if partner had a strong black suit then I might be kicking myself, so better to get her involved in the decision. I doubled, partner passed and we collected 300 which was 35% at MP.

 

About half the scores were 420/450 for 48%/75%. That left me wondering if we had done the right thing, hence the post. Of course at many if not most tables North will get to open 1♥ here and at that point 4♥ is plain sailing unless they find the diamond lead.

 

So, what call did others make to achieve a better result?

[pilowsky]

It certainly does. It's fairly trivial for defence to take 8 tricks after a lead of A♠, impossible after a lead of hearts (and tricky after diamonds as cyberyeti says).

 

 

 

I wasn't impressed, although I have seen worse. The opening was announced as "weak" which in our RA is reserved for 6cards 6-10 HCP, so I had some ground to protest but decided against it.

 

Is the call a 'gross misstatement' of the hand? I suspect you didn't protest because you knew how far you would get!

[mikeh]

So, what call did others make to achieve a better result?

Why do you think that the result was driven by the call made by the big hand?

 

In any mp field, those who open 2S on that hand will be in the minority. Had dealer passed, the field breezes into game and will usually be allowed to make, specially since most easts would lead a spade. Thus scoring less than the value of a game will be a bad r3sult

 

 

FWIW, my lead against 2S x’d would be a top spade, since I want to see dummy. See8ng dummy, I cash all 4 trump, and partner will direct me to switch to a club. Careful defence thereafter easily nets 500

[pilowsky]

Why do you think that the result was driven by the call made by the big hand?

 

In any mp field, those who open 2S on that hand will be in the minority. Had dealer passed, the field breezes into game and will usually be allowed to make, specially since most easts would lead a spade. Thus scoring less than the value of a game will be a bad r3sult

 

 

FWIW, my lead against 2S x'd would be a top spade, since I want to see dummy. See8ng dummy, I cash all 4 trump, and partner will direct me to switch to a club. Careful defence thereafter easily nets 500

 

I have no idea. But someone else did a similar thing to me once. The Director was Australia's number 1 player. He was impressed by the call.

Why do you think it is unreasonable to know what the rest of the field did to inform your thinking about the result?

Don't you examine the traveller at the end of a tournament?

[mikeh]

 

Don't you examine the traveller at the end of a tournament?

No

[Vampyr]

It certainly does. It's fairly trivial for defence to take 8 tricks after a lead of A♠, impossible after a lead of hearts (and tricky after diamonds as cyberyeti says).

Yes, I was thinking about this earlier today and realised that the heart lead deprives North of an exit card.

I wasn't impressed, although I have seen worse. The opening was announced as "weak" which in our RA is reserved for 6cards 6-10 HCP, so I had some ground to protest but decided against it.

 

In that case they should definitely improve their disclosure. It would be a good bid if the honours were in ♠; I wish players were expected to disclose deviant preempt style.

[sfi]

I wasn't impressed, although I have seen worse. The opening was announced as "weak" which in our RA is reserved for 6cards 6-10 HCP, so I had some ground to protest but decided against it.

Is there really no latitude for judgement, where a player can decide an extra trump makes up for a missing stray jack? Or is it simply that you would want them to announce it slightly differently?

[nullve]

Why do you think that the result was driven by the call made by the big hand?

 

In any mp field, those who open 2S on that hand will be in the minority.

Probably true, but not opening 2♠ is not the same as passing. I'm pretty sure the overwhelming majority of tournament players in Norway would find some kind of opening (2♦(Multi), 2♠, 3♠) on this hand.

 

Had dealer passed, the field breezes into game

[hv=pc=n&e=s9876532h6dj43ca5&d=e&v=0&b=14&a=ppp1h?]133|200[/hv]

[hv=pc=n&s=sakjth843d752c764&d=e&v=0&b=14&a=ppp1h2s?]133|200[/hv]

[hv=pc=n&n=shak9752daq8ckjt3&d=e&v=0&b=14&a=ppp1h2spp?]133|200[/hv]

[hv=pc=n&s=sakjth843d752c764&d=e&v=0&b=14&a=ppp1h2sppdp?]133|200[/hv]

[pescetom]

Is the call a 'gross misstatement' of the hand? I suspect you didn't protest because you knew how far you would get!

It is clearly not a psyche. But if the actual agreement was not 6-10 etc then it may be considered an infraction of RA rules as well as misexplanation. I had many reasons not to protest, including doubt that we were actually damaged and sympathy for a colleague who at that point just wanted to wrap the tournament up and send everyone home.

 

 

In that case they should definitely improve their disclosure. It would be a good bid if the honours were in ♠; I wish players were expected to disclose deviant preempt style.

I agree.

 

Is there really no latitude for judgement, where a player can decide an extra trump makes up for a missing stray jack? Or is it simply that you would want them to announce it slightly differently?

They can have almost any agreement they like for a 2M opening so long as they alert and disclose correctly. But the only announcement allowed is "weak" and it can only be used with the specified range 6-10 etc, any different agreement must be alerted.

It's a moot point whether a pair who have made the "weak" announcement can still deviate from the standard agreement or whether violating the specified point range is an infraction of the rule. The rule (which is new) does not say either way and my own interpretation would be that Law 40C applies, but no tolerance is allowed on some other minimum points specified in the rules.

[pilowsky]

No

 

I just played in an ACBL online challenge format tournament. One of the other players was ranked in the top ten of online players.

I used the traveller with a side by side trick by trick comparison with two tabs open on my browser to compare my bidding and play.

I also look to see how others do.

I use as many available tools that I can find.

The best lessons I get are from the travellers.

Then comes the helpful comments on the Forum...

[thepossum]

I didnt have my regular GiB crib sheet for bid explanations, and I purpsoefully didn't check any Bridge teaching sites, and I am out of my depth venturing here out of Novice and Beginner but I was trying to decide between 3H and 4H. I ended up going for 3H. I'm feeling a bit lonely, not having doubled etc

 

What I was looking for was the equivalent of a game force followed by hearts as my longest suit, so I don't know if 3H risks being passed. Just checking a few pages on overcalls of weak 2s, maybe the jump overcall to 4H was the best. I was understating my hand. Actually reading down the page double followed by eharts is stronger :) I sometimes revert to my simpler bridge upbringing when I had never even heard of takeout doubles. They were reserved for penalties

 

However thinking about it more given that you are opposite a passed hand there are fewer possible outcomes, but surely a slam is still possible

 

Thinking back to my simpler times I may have done the jump overcall, however I had a traumatic experience explaining a jump overcall bid once so I always get confused about which is strong or weak

 

But seriously I would not be inclined to risk missing 4H, so why waste time

 

EDIT In order to find what my regular partner GiB would have expected in such a situation it would have been 3 or 4 hearts. Given the strength of my hand I would have bid 4H with GiB. It didn't take me long and much frustration trying to code it up in Dealer but eventually I managed an auction like that :) The reason for choosing 4H rather than 3H is that I would not want to be passed so why mess about and take the risk. Thats with my regular partner. However you run the risk of being raised immediately to 6 or 7

 

EDIT 2 I know my partner too well. I was raised to 6H immediately with 10 points, 2 hearts and no keycards with as far as I could see so more than 11 tricks, so my original 3H bid stands :) I am also quite confident that 3H would be passed many times and potentially even a double passed. So thats the fun of GiB. To be fair the hand did have two heart honours, but sadly a few too many losers elsewhere between us :)

 

EDIT 3 A simple sim gave average tricks in hearts 10.75, chance of game 81%, chance of 6H 30% etc

[Douglas43]

No perfect bid on this hand but doubling is the least worst option. Partner has an obvious top spade lead, and your discard should ask for a club. +500 and happy days.

 

I do bid weak twos on mediocre 7 card suits, particularly when vulnerable. Not keen on this one though, as too likely to draw a lousy opening lead from partner.