[Foxx]

All problems are IMP scoring

(1) Dealer West, Both Vul

♠98xxx ♥Kxx ♦KQ ♣10xx

   W      N      E      S
   P     1D      P     1S
  3H     4C      P      ?

(2) Dealer South, E/W Vul

♠9x ♥Q108x ♦KJ109xxx ♣ ---

What do you open? If you pass, LHO will open 1♠, partner will double, and RHO will pass. What then?



(3) Dealer East, Both Vul

♠10 ♥AJ109xxx ♦10 ♣KJ10x

East opens a "nebulous" Precision 1♦ (2+, variety of hand types; limited to a bad 16 points). Your call.

[manudude03]

4D
I open 3D
4H

[dake50]

Agree manudude03.
4D. Let partner have his fun.
3D. Hate preempt with 4xM, but 4xH -
not 4xS (our H-fit won't outbid opponents Spades).
4H. What else with 1=7=1=4? This is rare shape. Bid it.

[655321]

On (2) I would open 4♦. Hate 3♦ a lot - Dealer, w/r, 74 shape, what do you want?

[MrAce]

1-4♦

2- i would open 4♦ but now i bid 2♠ over dbl.

3-4♥

[han]

Hand 1 is interesting. Why are people bidding 4D, we have a club fit and only maybe a diamond fit? We also have two quite useful cards, plus one card that might be useful. I´m thinking about bidding 5C.

[OleBerg]

1) 5♣. Again a class A non-problem. (With a real weak director, I might try 3♥, and then correct to 4NT, which partner is forced to pass.)

2)4♦. Can't really say what amazes me most; pass pr 3♦.If I pass and partner double 1♠ it's 5♦. The opponents has spades, it doesn't matter which red suit we play at the 5-level. (Yes I know that partner actually had a strong balanced or semi-balanced hand, but I'm still only in the advanced bracket, so resulting is not allowed for me at this forum.)

3)1♥. 4♥???? Partner isn't passed and all are red. It's important to have some accuracy here. If partner has something to say, he will have at least one chance, and maybe more, before they reach many spades. After a 4♥ bid, if opps. get to 4♠ in any way, I'll have to pass, but might miss an excellent save, or even a making 5♥.

[ahydra]

1) Agree with 4D - who says opener has 5 clubs? He might even have a good hand in support of spades (4C being a cue). Bid 4D and let partner tell you what he actually has (with 4S, 5C or 5D).

2) Hate the pre-empt in 1st with a 4cM. I'll pass for now. 1S - double - p - ... hmm, 2S seems practical because there's like a 90% chance we have a heart fit. 5D is also practical but a bit too unilateral.

3) 4H

ahydra

[Hanoi5]

4♦
Pass & 3♦
2♥

[Phil]

1. 5♣. I could be convinced a choice of games probe of 4♥ is better. I'm not stopping below game.

2. Agree with pass because (in no particular order):

- we have a doubleton spade (thus diminishing their chances of having spades)
- we have four pretty good hearts
- our diamonds are moderate

Now I will bid 3♦ and 4♥ over 3N.

3. 4♥, This hand has a lot of playing strength and I'd like to shut out their spades.

[whereagles]

1. Pard seems to have some strongish 55 and a heart short. I got some fillers, so I'll raise him to 5♣. This might go down if pard only has a singleton, but hey it's red at imps.

2. Of course I open. 3♦.

3. Precision nebulous 1♦ is a bit vulnerable to high level overcalls. 4♥

[Foxx]

All these hands are from the two-session, 6-rounder on Friday and Saturday. Our first opponents were another C team. We were kind of sloppy, and got a high-scoring narrow win. Our next two opponents were national-class A teams.

(1) This hand came up against the 'Enfield' team. I was South, and fleetingly considered passing 4♣. Ludicrous, to be sure, but it would have been best here. I tried 4♦, and partner raised to 5♦ with ♠ --- ♥AJ ♦J8xxxx ♣AQ7xx. RHO, looking at 3-1-4-5 distribution including ♦A109x and ♣KJ98x, unleashed the axe, and we went down 1100. At the other table, my teammate overcalled 2♣ over 1♦ with RHO's hand, playing it right there, and going down 400. LHO's hand, which had 5-7-1-0 distribution, passed the first round at both tables, electing not to risk burying the spade suit. These are the kind of hands, evidently, that separate the men from the boys.

(2) This hand came up against a team featuring Billy Milner. Partner faced this problem, passed the first time and in response to my double, jumped to 3♥. Yes, 3♥. Maybe he thought for a second it was matchpoints, or didn't want to contract for a game needing 11 tricks, or didn't want to risk my dummy coming down with poor diamond support, or wanted to throw off the opponents during the play. At any rate, RHO rebid 3♠, I raised to 4♥ with ♠Jx ♥AJx ♦AQ8x ♣AJxx, and LHO, Milner, drove on to 4♠ with ♠Qx ♥xxx ♦xx ♣Q98xxx. I doubled, and all passed.

I led the ♥A, after which there was no chance of setting 4♠, but my second choice, a trump, wouldn't have worked too well either: RHO would have drawn trumps and led the ♣K, and I would have had to find a duck without knowing anything about the side-suit distribution; then, when RHO put me in with the third club, I would have to guess which red suit to break, dangerously misguided by partner's bidding. It shouldn't have mattered, since 5♦ is cold our way. At the other table, our teammates were -150 (defending a partial in diamonds). While we would have swung 24 IMPs by making 5♦, we were blitzed with double-digit IMPs to spare, so this hand alone could only have gotten us a VP or two in the grand scheme of things.

(3) This hand also came up against the Enfield team. I chose to jump to 3♥. The good news is that we weren't overrun by enemy spade bids. The bad news is that I played it there, and dummy provided me ♠AJxxx ♥xx ♦K9xx ♣Qx. Ten tricks rolled in on the 2-2 trump break. They didn't get to game at the other table either, but in this match, too, we were blitzed with double-digit IMPs to spare, so this hand alone wouldn't have done anything for us.

In the weekend Swiss it felt like we were up against a far tougher field, plus my partner and one of our teammates were running on fumes, as they had played in the GNT in Dana Point the previous weekend, and had pulled out a grueling final match by 1 IMP. It did seem like my partner was playing through a letdown. We didn't finish in contention for any sort of award. Still, the experience playing against national-class competition can only help us going forward.

[han]

What was partner's reason for bidding 5D on the first hand? He felt he had a lot more than 4C suggested?

You have too much potential for 3H on the last hand, the only bids that you should consider with such playing strength are 1H and 4H.

[gnasher]

On the first one, I don't think passing 4♣ is ludicrous. It seems quite a reasonable action, actually - opposite Kx x AJ10xx AKQxx we're quite high enough, and partner needn't have as much as that. Of course, he might have less strength but more shape eg x x AJ10xxx AKQxx, which fits a lot better.

[cherdano]

gnasher, on 2011-April-27, 04:16, said:

On the first one, I don't think passing 4♣ is ludicrous. It seems quite a reasonable action, actually - opposite Kx x AJ10xx AKQxx we're quite high enough, and partner needn't have as much as that. Of course, he might have less strength but more shape eg x x AJ10xxx AKQxx, which fits a lot better.

If you make ♣K or ♣Q a small club in your second example, would you pass out 3♥?
I think passing 4♣ is just about right.

[gnasher]

cherdano, on 2011-April-27, 07:27, said:

If you make ♣K or ♣Q a small club in your second example, would you pass out 3♥?

I think you probably should, but I agree that I might not.

[Phil]

Foxx, on 2011-April-26, 18:59, said:

(2) This hand came up against a team featuring Billy Milner. Partner faced this problem, passed the first time and in response to my double, jumped to 3♥. Yes, 3♥. Maybe he thought for a second it was matchpoints, or didn't want to contract for a game needing 11 tricks, or didn't want to risk my dummy coming down with poor diamond support, or wanted to throw off the opponents during the play. At any rate, RHO rebid 3♠, I raised to 4♥ with ♠Jx ♥AJx ♦AQ8x ♣AJxx,

Agree that 3♥ is rather odd, but I think you have a perfect double of 3♠.