[SimonFa]

I haven't been playing at this club long and only play there 1-2 times per month. We came second last week but this week the bridge gods were exacting their revenge and we were having a miserable time, on the odd occasional we got to buy a contract all breaks were wrong and finesses failed. I had also dozed off and missed setting a game and as my one chance as declarer miscounted trumps to go off in a doubled contract I should have made, possibly with an over trick.

After about 18/24 boards it was obvious we weren't doing very well and had nothing to lose. I had already tagged LHO as a perfect example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect whose real skill level was little above novice and a little bit of a bully to go along with it. RHO was the quiet type who never argued with partner but is probably a better player. So when this hand came up I thought I would give one of Kit Woolsey's nuisance bids described in Matchplay a go.

MPs, R v W

xx
AQx
KJTxx
xxx

I gave the background on ops because under normal circumstances I wouldn't dream about bidding on this hand but in these conditions why not

Ops playing 5-card majors.

(1H) 2D (2S) P
(3H) P* (4H) All pass

*With a huge sigh of relief

I knew my bid had worked when I saw dummy and couldn't suppress a slight smile, which I hoped nobody saw:

Axxxx
x
xx
AJxxx

I hadn't had the guts to double but it didn't matter as the other tables got to play quietly in 2H.

I'm sure my bid is more flawed than I acknowledge, wrong vulnerability and about a Queen, at least, light so please feel free to rip it apart.

Regards,

Simon

EDIT Corrected my hand

[cloa513]

SimonFa, on 2012-March-13, 02:57, said:

I haven't been playing at this club long and only play there 1-2 times per month. We came second last week but this week the bridge gods were exacting their revenge and we were having a miserable time, on the odd occasional we got to buy a contract all breaks were wrong and finesses failed. I had also dozed off and missed setting a game and as my one chance as declarer miscounted trumps to go off in a doubled contract I should have made, possibly with an over trick.

After about 18/24 boards it was obvious we weren't doing very well and had nothing to lose. I had already tagged LHO as a perfect example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect whose real skill level was little above novice and a little bit of a bully to go along with it. RHO was the quiet type who never argued with partner but is probably a better player. So when this hand came up I thought I would give one of Kit Woolsey's nuisance bids described in Matchplay a go.

MPs, R v W

xx
AQx
KJTxx
xxx

Without declarer's hand its pointless to comment, if opponents had all the HCP and declarer had long hearts how did he not make 4H.

I gave the background on ops because under normal circumstances I wouldn't dream about bidding on this hand but in these conditions why not

Ops playing 5-card majors.

(1H) 2D (2S) P
(3H) P* (4H) All pass

*With a huge sigh of relief

I knew my bid had worked when I saw dummy and couldn't suppress a slight smile, which I hoped nobody saw:

Axxxx
x
xx
AJxxx

I hadn't had the guts to double but it didn't matter as the other tables got to play quietly in 2H.

I'm sure my bid is more flawed than I acknowledge, wrong vulnerability and about a Queen, at least, light so please feel free to rip it apart.

Regards,

Simon

EDIT Corrected my hand

[BunnyGo]

I think this exactly what Woolsey was advocating as a good matchpoint bid.

[mikeh]

I haven't read woolsey for many years, but I shudder to think that he might have advocated this red v white overcall.

I'm not saying he didn't

But doing it red v white on an indifferent 5 card suit with sterile shape and a non-opener strikes me as the action of a player who has lost focus and is just fooling around, presumably as a response to the way the game has gone so far.

If you are going to do this, then doing it at mps makes far more sense than at imps, of course, but it is (I firmly believe) losing bridge.

There is WAY too much likelihood of this going wrong. It's not so much the occasional 1400 against 430 that worries me....that's the biggest imp risk. It's the 100's that we lose when we slide off 2 or 3, with or without a raise. Another factor, often overlooked by those who like to make these kinds of calls is that partner will start to learn to not trust us to have our values. That leads to losses on other boards: losses that few players recognize....partner learns to be cautious when we overcall, and sometimes we will lose when he fails to compete or undercompetes or fails to double....and we'll criticize partner for being too conservative without recognizing that we have conditioned him to act that way.

Yes, we get to take away some bidding space and we will sometimes get a good board, especially against bad players....fwiw, I wouldn't dream of bidding 2♠ as LHO....I'd double.....I might stretch to 2♠ if I were 5=2=1=5, but never with 5=1=2=5. I don't know whether my double works out well...I might still be heading for a bad board due to your overcall.

Give me a 6th diamond, and the cost-benefit analysis changes significantly...our hand is far better offensively. I'd overcall even red v white, since I expect a heart lead.

[nigel_k]

I also am skeptical that Woolsey would recommend this vulnerable. There is no doubt it sometimes works, but is a loser on balance because they nail you or partner believes you and bids too much. So please don't draw any firm conclusions from the fact you did it once and it worked.

Also, at matchpoints, it's not good to choose deliberately swingy actions when you are doing badly. You are randomizing the results for other pairs, who may be in contention to win, when your result is basically already decided. The time to do this sort of thing is when you are in contention to win, but maybe need a couple of good scores to get in front.

[SimonFa]

Thanks Mike and Nigel,

Just the sort of response I wanted. I have no intention of making a habit of that sort of bid as I appreciate that what works once isn't necessarily right (looking at results in GIB tourneys convinces me of that point) but your feedback is really helpful in trying to work out the margins.

As it happens I am trying to convince one partner that a 2 level over-call at that vulnerability should be a 6 card suit as ops have started exchanging information.

Regards,

Simon