[Hanoi5]

Imp pairs, red vs white:

♠AQ9x
♥QT
♦A
♣KQJ9xx

(1♠)-2♥-(Pa)-3♣
(3♦)-4♥-(5♦)-???

Was there anything better to do the previous round?
Is 2♥ and then 4♥ better than 4♥ right away?

[Fluffy]

yes its a better hand, and a hand tat liked to hear clubs proably.

Based on partner's bidding I think we make grand slam. I would check for keycards if I could, since I cannot lets bid 5 spades

[whereagles]

Seems like pard has about

xx
AKxxxxx
xx
xx

and for some reason preferred to bid 2H instead of preempting. In any case we rate to lose 1 spade and 1 club, so I'm bidding a mere 5H.

[MrAce]

whereagles, on 2011-October-16, 13:11, said:

Seems like pard has about

xx
AKxxxxx
xx
xx

and for some reason preferred to bid 2H instead of preempting. In any case we rate to lose 1 spade and 1 club, so I'm bidding a mere 5H.

So he forgot to preempt, and he also bid 4♥ over 3♦ with this crap. Quite an imagination. The sad part is, you are not only making a bad bid by bidding 5♥, you are also assuming that pd is a very bad bidder too.

Imo 4♥ bid is sign of liking the 3♣ bid. He is more likely to have something like x AJ9xxxx x Axx rather than xx AKxxxxx xx xx

And if u really think pd bid 4♥ with xx AKxxxxx xx xx, then at least bid 6♣ and make. If you are not sure bid 5NT and give him a chance, he sees in his hand if he holds xx ♠.

[whereagles]

MrAce, your reasoning is all quite all and well, EXCEPT for one thing: with the hand you show, do you really think opener bid 3D on assorted junk such as

KJxxx
Kx
KQxxx
x

Opps are in a strong, possibly misfitted, auction and you're going to butt-in on that? I mean.. I may be calling pard a poor bidder, but this is just calling LHO nuts.

I really find it more likely pard devaluated his hand due to the 7222 shape and then, knowing that I have some cards, reconsidered and bid game. Besides, his shot at game is a WEAK bid - he deprived me of bidding space, so he doesn't want me to go any further. Not to mention bidding 4H on AJ 7th opposite what could be a singleton strikes me as fishy as well.

Anyway, regardless of what 4H was made on I can hardly believe we make a slam here. The warning signs are all there: wrong-sided spade tenace, chances of bad splits, uncertainty as to pard's hand, etc. If you think you can sort it all out, go ahead and make some sort of strong bid. I sure can't do it so I bid just 5H.

[MrAce]

whereagles, on 2011-October-17, 18:57, said:

MrAce, your reasoning is all quite all and well, EXCEPT for one thing: with the hand you show, do you really think opener bid 3D on assorted junk such as

KJxxx
Kx
KQxxx
x

......

What makes u think opener has only a 5-5 hand ? What makes you think bidding 3♦ necesarilly requires strength ? And what if, godforbid, pd indeed has his bids ?

If he has his bids, you can sit down and try to explain him why you thought he made 2 moronic bids which caused you to bid poorly. You can even try to tell him these opponents are maniac that they fooled you etc etc...The fact is, you maybe the only one at the table who is actually misbidding and u can bet that it will be bitter than the bad board for your pd to listen to your excuse. "Hey pd, sorry, i got us an awful result and the reason is i thought u were bidding poorly both times "


Nuno;

- It is unusual to bid 2♥ over 1♠ with xx AKxxxxx xx xx

- Even if someone bids 2♥, he doesnt bid 4♥ just because he has XX in pd's suit and no shortness on theirs.

- If LHO bid 4♦ over 3♣, i could give u some slack. But here pd could bid 3♥ which is still a freebid. Instead he jumped to 4.

- And after all this if he still tables xx AKxxxxx xx xx, you still have a great shot in 6♣, all u need is probably a non ♥ lead. But i doubt they will lead ♥.

-I am not saying you should think pd has AK♥+♣A which is not impossible by the way. But at least give him a hand that makes at least a little sense, at least a little upgrade after 3♣ bid such as

x AKJxxxx Qx Txx
x AJ9xxxx xx Axx
x AKJxxx Qx Txxx

- Most important part, it is one of the WORST things one can do at the table if he makes a bid thinking pd is misbidding his hand in order to opponents make sense, which i think it is quite possible they all may have their bids. There is no bad enough result from a board that can damage a partnership, but if you are making bids with the logic that pd is making bad bids, on row in same hand and regardless of he did or not, thats called neither a partnership nor a winning strategy imo.

[Free]

I'm happy with my bidding so far. Partner shows a good hand (much stronger than an immediate 4♥ preempt). I'd probably bid 5NT now, ♣ or NT may play better because it's rightsided against a ♠ lead.

[whereagles]

MrAce (what's your name btw?), even perfect partners are humans. They don't always have their bids. You have to consider what's more likely, i.e.: "is pard taking some sort of view or does he really have his bids and opps are nuts?"

Sure, here you can put LHO on some freak 66 or thereabouts and pard will indeed have ♥AK ♣A. But just how likely is that? Pard bid 4H because he has a lot of hearts. That's all you know and in those circumstances I think giving up on slam is the percentage action.

I'm not going to bet 10 imps on pard having what I myself would have for the same bidding. Winning bridge is taking winning actions, not respecting pard 100% of the time and later giving him the blame if he misbid.

For the record, I would probably replicate pard's auction on the 7222 and AK of hearts, due to bad shape.

[billw55]

In general, given a choice between assuming ops are barking mad or my partner is, I choose ops 100% of the time. Once I start basing my actions on the assumption that partner is misbidding, partnership trust goes down the drain; not to mention potential issues with fielding if it happens several times.

Here, I think everyone can have their bids, RHO taking a save on a distributional bust. No need for anyone to be barking mad, or any extra decks floating around.

As for what to actually bid, that is harder. Hearts look alot like 11 tricks or 13, depending if partner has the ♣A (a spade lead with K offside is highly likely). Maybe I should prefer 6♣, to rightside the lead.

[Free]

billw55, on 2011-October-18, 06:35, said:

In general, given a choice between assuming ops are barking mad or my partner is, I choose ops 100% of the time.

That's definitely percentage, since you have twice as many opps.

[MrAce]

whereagles, on 2011-October-18, 05:53, said:

MrAce (what's your name btw?),

Timo